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.
The New York Times has a fascinating article about the deli across from the co-op on 13th St., reviewing its history as a Schraftt’s restaurant and talking about the importance of its now destroyed architectural details. But what’s really interesting is the revelation of the first details of what’s going to be built there: a ten-story building with one triplex, three duplexes, and ground floor retail. “As for the apartment house, which is being designed for an owner who bought the site this year, the architect says plans are still in flux but she will probably produce “a contemporary interpretation of the Fifth Avenue apartment houses in the neighborhood” — the same goal of harmony that Schrafft’s sought 70 years ago.”
A man allegedly went on a rampage in Union Square on September 4 and left a complete stranger dead in the process.
Police said that the attack may have been a hate crime.
Friends of Jeffrey Babbitt, 62, were shocked to hear about the random act of violence that left the gentle, retired train conductor in a coma, CBS 2′s Dave Carlin reported on Friday.
“I don’t believe that. I don’t know why that happened. He is very nice,” Igor Sapozhnikov said.
Babbitt was minding his own business as he walked through the crowd near the chess boards in Union Square when a man made a hateful announcement and began his rampage, witnesses said. “He said ‘the next white person who walks by I’m going to [expletive],’” one woman said. “His fist went in and the man’s head bobbed and he hit the ground and you could hear his skull hitting the ground.”
The man continued his rampage before demanding to see police officers.
Next week (September 26 to September 30), contractors will continue to excavate earth and rock, loading out material. Line drilling will continue as well in limited areas. Concrete foundation walls at the South East corner of the site and slab on grade work will continue. Interior core foundation work and underground electrical and plumbing will continue. Removal of the interior earth ramp will be completed. DOT approved street connections to underground utilities on Fifth Avenue will progress. The cherry picker crane on site will be removed upon installation of the Superstructure Contractors Crane which will be stationed inside the Fifth Avenue fence.
The following week (October 3 to October 7 ), we will continue with concrete foundation walls and slabs, line drilling, rock excavation, loading out, interior core foundation work, street utility connections and underground electrical and plumbing. Formwork for superstructure concrete construction will proceed.
DEP has completed the water main repair along 13th Street. As part of this work the DEP will be completing related road repairs.
This weekend in addition to the site being open on Saturday, September 24th for foundation related activities between the work hours of 9AM and 5PM as permitted by the City, there will also be a crane installation crew assembling a crawler crane for use by the concrete superstructure contractor.
Crane installation will involve a partial street closure on Fifth Avenue between E. 14th and E. 13th Streets, as well as a full closure of E. 13th Street between University Place and Fifth Ave. As permitted by the City this activity is to occur between the hours of 6 AM & 9 PM with Sunday, 9/25/11 as a backup date. We don’t plan on needing Sunday for the crane installation unless the weather effects us on Saturday or something else that’s unpredictable prevents the completion of assembly on Saturday. It is anticipated that this work should be completed by end of work day but it could extend until the time allowed.
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.
Now baking at 64 University Place is Papa d’Amour, the new bakery from celebrated pastry master Dominique Ansel. It’s gonna be fancy. Here’s New York magazine’s take:
On a recent afternoon inside the kitchen that will open as Papa d’Amour later this month, the pastry chef Dominique Ansel was holding a spoonful of tomato-tinted scrambled eggs for the consideration of his wife, Amy Ma. “White pepper,” she said after trying it. “That’s not a bad thing.” She explained that Ansel will add vermicelli to the eggs to soak up any excess moisture so the mixture can then be stuffed inside a soft, steamed bao bun, which — because this is from the same chef who invented the Cronut all those years ago — will be folded in the shape of a croissant.
A single pastry that manages to reference a dim-sum staple, French patisserie, and the tomato-egg stir-fry that Ma’s mother cooked for her at home in Taiwan is but one of the many complex, globally collaged items on the menu of Papa d’Amour, which is Ansel’s “exploration” of Asian bread culture, as he puts it. More than that, it is a manifestation of love for his two children (the enfants to his papa) where customers will be able to find loaves of shokupan and sandwiches made on that Japanese milk bread (plain or laminated); pretzel-salt-crusted Chinese custard tarts; and a banana bread Malay cake derived not from the humble American home-baking staple but of Malaysia’s more elegant, fluffy, steamed sponge cake.
The Papa is particularly excited about a scallion-basil “blossom,” which, you’d never guess unless he told you, is his take on a Taiwanese scallion pancake. “I wanted something I can pull apart,” he says. He’d seen the way the pancake’s dough is fluffed by hand to give it a flaky, almost shredded surface and a chewy middle and wanted to come up with something that mimics that interplay. He was trained in France, so his mind went to two kinds of brioche: a regular version to encase the scallion component in the middle and a laminated, layered crown to encourage ripping.
It’s hard to run a business in Manhattan. So hard, in fact, that even the beloved City Bakery couldn’t survive.