How Many Trees Is Union Square Losing?

The team behind the world-famous Union Square Greenmarket, GrowNYC, just launched Project Farmhouse, an event space and sustainability center that hosts workshops, galas, speakers, community meetings and interactive exhibits. The new space is located on 13th Street, on the ground floor of the Hyatt Union Square.

NYU has decided not to build a fourth soaring tower adjacent to the three Silver Towers that already loom over Bleecker and Houston Streets. Instead, they’ll build a squatter and bulkier version on the location of the current Morton Williams supermarket. Why the change? Because the community–and IM Pei–didn’t like it.

In case you haven’t seen the renderings for 15 Union Square West, here they are. And here’s one $4,100,000 listing. The interesting thing about this development is that it retains the original cast-iron window frames from the 19th-century while wrapping the whole thing in 21st-century glass. Take a close look when you walk by. And here’s the history of the building.  And a recent New York Times peek inside the model apartment.

Cafe Spice will become Jackson Diner, an Indian import from Queens.

This hand-drawn map from 1926 identifies our building as a 5 and 10-cent store, which, of course, as Woolworths, it was, all the way until 2003.

From The Daily News:

Skip the holiday gifting anxiety attacks this year and head to the Union Square Holiday Market, now in it’s 13th year. There’s plenty of hand-made jewelry, clothes and other items as well as organic and free-trade finery. Saturday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m; free admission. Union Square Park, E. 14th St. and Broadway. For more information, go to: www.nycgovparks.org.