The constant pounding of pile driving is enough to drive even the most tolerant neighbor mad, and residents living near Extell's two-tower project at 250 South Street are at the end of their ropes. They complain of "earthquake-style rumbling" and cracks in their walls and ceilings, but they'll have to endure a lot more, as the buildings don't even have foundations yet. The neighbor-hated project will have a 68-story market rate tower, and a 13-story affordable building, which has already been dubbed with "poor door" status. [Bowery Boogie; previously]
Orchard Street's Hell Buildingwill continue to give us hell until the fall of this year, when the long-awaited Hotel Indigo opens ("on or after September 20") after yet another delay. In limbo for about a decade, the 23-storybuilding topped out last year, but construction still isn't complete. There are renderings of rooms, the lobby, and more taped up in a bare concrete commercial space on the ground floor, so... get excited? [BB; previously]Inside the Community Murals of the 1980s Lower East Side
In the early 1980s, PBS produced a short documentary about the Lower East Side's thriving street art scene, specifically focused on the many murals organized and spearheaded by various community groups and nonprofits such as CITYArts. The short interviews a number of downtown figures directly involved in the projects, including Philip Pocock (who posted the video), activist Tomie Arai, artists Peter Tirado Vidal, Eva Cockcroft, and Mike Alewitz, and others. The result is a fascinating glimpse at a unique, politically-charged art scene that flourished in the face of what Pocock calls "an urban policy of neglect."
"One of the most important points I feel is that mural painting is an environment art," he goes on to say. "It's site-specific, unlike painting which is commodity-based. Murals are not commercial products, you can't sell them. They're just there for everyone's enjoyment. They're public, as opposed to private."
Clearly, there's a sharp difference between the neighborhood depicted in this video and the one currently infested with drunk, belligerent fratboys.
· You Know... The Struggle [YouTube via Flaming Pablum]
· You Know... The Struggle [YouTube via Flaming Pablum]
The Lower East Side's cantilevering chandelier of a condo building, 100 Norfolk, just scored a buyer for its most expensive unit. Emma Hsieh, described by the Post as a "Taiwanese-born real estate investor and the owner of Lower East Side bars 151 and Nitecap," is reportedly in contract to buy First Look Inside the Lower East Side Condos That Ate WD-50
Hey, Lower East Siders. This morning, reality TV's high-kicking brokerFredrik Eklund posted the first interior glimpses of 50 Clinton Streeton Instagram. While the Issac & Stern-designed building, slated to house 37 apartments over seven stories, is moderately attractive, its journey to eventual completion has been marred by one fact: that it is replacing a cluster of one-story buildings where Wylie Dufresne's experimental restaurant WD-50 once lived. In any case, now 50 Clinton's teaser site is live, and the world knows exactly what a master bedroom and master bathroom inside the building-to-be will look like. Eklund also reiterated amenities: a doorman; gym; and "lush gardens and rooftops terraces." One-bedrooms will start at $975,000, two-bedrooms at $1.75M, and "penthouses in glass and with amazing city views at $3M."
Chronicling the Dark, Seedy Underbelly of 1980s New York
[All images copyright Ken Schles/courtesy Howard Greenberg Gallery.]
Brooklyn-born photographer Ken Schles moved to Alphabet City in 1983, and his apartment was pretty dark—literally. His landlord insisted on boarded-up windows because "junkies could steal the gates with a crowbar." So Schler did what any shutterbug would do: set up a darkroom in the light-starved space. The, er, atmospheric environment also included a heroin addict who lived downstairs and welcomed dealers and users to shoot up on the premises, and the carbon monoxide-spewing boiler that the city had to shut down. With such gripping, gritty scenes literally in his backyard, Schles had no choice but to capture them. Burning tenements; nighttime revelry and debauchery; vacant lots.
His work was originally published in a 1988 collection called Invisible City, and more emerged in a companion piece, Night Walk, which came out just last year. "I don't pine for the days when I'd drive down the Bowery and have to lock the doors, or having to step over the junkies or finding the door bashed in because heroin dealers decided they wanted to set up a shooting gallery," he told the Times. "A lot of dysfunction has been romanticized." Right now, 40 of his prints are on view at the Howard Greenberg Gallery in Midtown. Take a peek.
Gordon Lau Buys Four Lower East Side Buildings for $50M
[The property at 149 Bowery]
Developer Gordon Lau of Lau Management has just purchased four buildings on the Lower East Side for $50 million, The Real Dealreports. According to records filed with the city on Friday, two of the four properties are located at 116 Elizabeth Street, and 132, 145 and 149 Bowery. Sold by Carl Herman Realty Corp. for $25 million, 116 Elizabeth and 132 Bowery are five- and three-story commercial properties located adjacent to each other at the rear. While 145 and 149 Bowery are both neighboring, five-story, mixed-use properties, sold by Fuss and Lieberman Realty Corp. for $25 million.
Gordon Lau is probably best remembered for evicting the artist group, Collective Hardware, from his property at 169 Bowery and subsequently adding a giant "rooftop tumor" to the structure. No word yet on what he plans to do with his new holdings.
· Gordon Lau picks up LES buildings for $50M [TRD]
· Gordon Lau picks up LES buildings for $50M [TRD]
Another Bowery Building Will Be Converted Into Luxury Condos
The Bowery's transformation continues with No. 210, a 1930's era flophouse that will be gutted and expanded into an eight-story building with seven floor-through condos and ground floor retail (h/t Bowery Boogie). According to the Schedule A, condo amenities in the Dan Ionescu Architects-designed building will include a roof deck, basement storage, and bike parking. The building that most recently served as home to restaurant supplier Soho Sammy was purchased by Acadia Realty Trust in 2013 for $7.5 million.
HFZ's Midtown Development 80% Sold; L+M Makes Big LES Buy
MIDTOWN EAST—HFZ Capital's Midtown East development, Halcyon, at 305 East 51st Street is now 80-percent sold. The 123-apartmentbuilding which went on sale around the beginning of 2014 is notable for its ritzy amenities and troubled past. The building's sales update comes with word that a contract has been inked for Penthouse B, which was listed for $11.75 million. Remaining apartments in the building range in ask from $1.2 million to $12 million. [CurbedWire inbox; previously]
LOWER EAST SIDE—L+M Development Partners and Nelson Management Group have snatched up 257-271 South Street, a 19-story residential building between Clinton and Jefferson streets off of FDR Drive. The building currently houses 256 apartments which, under L+M, will serve as mixed-income housing. [CurbedWire inbox; previously]
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Katz's Air Rights Made This Orchard Street Building Possible
[Rendering by Ismael Leyva]
Ben Shaoul, noted horrible landlord and terrible son, filed plans in November for his latest development on the Lower East Side at 196 Orchard Street, and good news! It won't be horribly ugly. New York YIMBY shared the first rendering of the building, and it's a rather inoffensive 10-story structure designed by Ismael Leyva (waaaaybetter than this Shaoul-created thing). The building will replace a string of low-rise structures on the corner of Orchard and Houston streets, using air rights that Shaoul purchased from Katz's Deli, which is located on the same block. The new building will hold 83 units, likely condos, and retail at street level.
Redesigning Essex Crossing; Williams & Tsien Lecture at Pratt
LOWER EAST SIDE—Registration is still open for "Re-designing Essex Crossing," an 8-session course at the Abrons Art Center that begins on February 3. Students in the course will critically examine the redevelopment of SPURA and also design alternate proposals for the site. The course is being taught by an architect in the employ of Annabelle Selldorf's firm—that's some credential. [CurbedWire inbox; official]
CLINTON HILL—The designers of the now lost American Folk Art Museum Tod Williams and Billie Tsien will be giving a lecture at Pratt Institute on February 19 about resiliency in architecture. The husband and wife duo will take questions from the audience, but everyone do the architecture community a solid and stay tight-lipped about the still fresh sad loss, okay? [CurbedWire inbox; official]
Bowery Boogie has intel that the Provident Loan Society building at the corner of East Houston and Essex may not be long for this world. The 1912 building has never received landmark designation, and the word on the street is that the owners, Houston Essex Realty Corp., who recently purchased additional air rights from the building next door, plan to tear it down and construct a 10-story residential building. No permits have been filed yet. [Bowery Boogie]
Developer Bids $33 Million for Long-Stalled Allen Street Hotel
[Photo via Bowery Boogie]
One by one, over the years, the stalled hotel and condo projects that blight the Lower East have righted their ships, transforming slowly into into actual condos and actual hotels. But still, the partially constructed shell of Allen Street Hotel remains at 139 Orchard Street, zombifying up the street. The development's saga has been long and fraught, including failed sale attempts, death threats, and, finally, a bankruptcy auction that may finally lead to its completion. The Daily News reports that Park Avenue-based investment company Arcade Capital has bid $33 million for the 98-room hotel shell. If the company is not outbid, it will have to finish to project quickly, as as impending Lower East Side rezoning could spell trouble.
· Developer agrees to pay $33M for stalled Lower East Side hotel site[NYDN]
· Park Avenue Developer Bids $33M for Long-Stalled Allen Street Hotel[Bowery Boogie]
· Allen Street Hotel coverage [Curbed]
· Developer agrees to pay $33M for stalled Lower East Side hotel site[NYDN]
· Park Avenue Developer Bids $33M for Long-Stalled Allen Street Hotel[Bowery Boogie]
· Allen Street Hotel coverage [Curbed]
SNL Takes on Bushwick; Former 'Rat Castle' Sells Out
BUSHWICK—We don't want to give anything away, since the vast majority of comedy videos are not improved when you read a summary of them first, but Saturday Night Live's "Bushwick" sketch from this weekend is funny. We've already said too much. [CurbedWire Inbox; previously]
LOWER EAST SIDE—A mere two months after launching sales, 179 Ludlow, formerly known as the Lower East Side Rat Castle, is sold out. All six of the floor-through units are in contract, The Real Deal reports, with the final one having found a buyer this week. [TRD; previously]
Plan to Protect Manhattan from Sandy 2.0 Moves Forward
[Map of the area to be protected. Credit: NYC Mayor's Office of Recovery and Resiliency.]
Last year, New York City nabbed a nice chunk of change to protect Lower Manhattan from future Hurricane Sandys, and now the city is ready to take these ideas from rendering to reality. The bulk of the funding, which was awarded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development through the Rebuild by Design competition, will go toward building the first phase of an integrated flood protection system, the framework for which was dubbed the BIG Uand designed by the Bjarke Ingels Group. Renderings showed an earthen berm that would essentially double as a giant park, and the first piece would stretch from East 23rd Street to Montgomery Street. Now the city is taking this framework and turning it into an official submission to HUD, which will start the process of, you know, actually getting this thing built. Surveying of the initial site has already begun.
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