The High Line Will Never Be the Same: Strolling the Wilds of Chelsea One Last...
It is an unusual and yet utterly New York paradox that to glimpse the natural world in Manhattan you must visit an unnatural place. That is part of the appeal of the weirdly beautiful High Line. Not...
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The SPURA Has Landed: City Council Approves 47-Year-Old Urban Renewal Project
Goodbye desolation, hello development. (Flickr) Yesterday, in a unanimous vote 47 years in the making, the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area has finally been approved by the City Council. SPURA, that...
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Michael Kimmelman Calls Madison Square Garden ‘the Worst Arena in Town’...
Mr. Dolan, tear down this arena. (MAS/Twitter) The MAS Summit has been going on for the past two days, and it has been a cornucopia of delights for the city-obsessed, full of zany proposals for...
View ArticleDan Doctoroff Still Has Big Plans―Like Moving the Javits to Sunnyside Yards
It has been five years since Dan Doctoroff reported to City Hall for work, but the former deputy mayor and current CEO of Bloomberg LP still finds time to think up interesting, even outrageous visions...
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Islanders Move to Brooklyn Will Not Make It Any Easier for You to Move to...
Those towers? Still on except for one. (SHoP Architects) Some good news for Bruce Ratner today, but probably not for the neighborhood or the folks who want to move into the developer's promised...
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Pulling Our Heads Out of Sandy: Katrina Recovery Czar Says It’s Time to Learn...
Deja vu: NOLA and NYC. (Getty) How many more lives will be lost and how much damage will it take for us to realize that Sandy was part of a continuing menacing pattern of extreme weather events that...
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Coney Baloney: The Plot to Turn City’s Iconic Wonderland Into a Chain-Store...
Illo by Ed Johnson Peer under the tent flap of our splendid new civic order, and you’re guaranteed to see a disturbing sight: all the same failed policies of the past, lovingly preserved in...
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Zone A Zoning: Independent Budget Office Critical of Bloomberg’s Two-Faced...
Battered and broken. (Mayor's Office/Flickr) While the Bloomberg administration has largely come in for praise for its Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts, questions remain over whether City Hall made...
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Demolition Begins on 1780 Broadway, Final Piece of Barnett’s 1,550-Foot 57th...
Going up to come down. (Matt Chaban) The facade of 1780 Broadway will be retained, but that's it. (Matt Chaban) No sooner did Extell Development file permits for a new 1,550-foot residential tower on...
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Dumbo Apartments Set Sail: Brooklyn Bridge Park Seeking Developers for Latest...
Waterfront wonder. (Bing Maps) The future design for this corner of the park. (BBP) How would you like to wake up to views of the Manhattan Bridge and Lower Manhattan beyond, a lavish waterfront park...
View ArticleWith Another Luxury Tower, 57th Street Becoming Manhattan’s New Gold Coast
Back in September, The Observer wondered just how many luxury towers could possibly pop up on 57th Street, following the announcement of 107 West 57th Street. This was in addition to Gary Barnett's...
View ArticleManhattan West on the Rise: Brookfield Breaks Ground on 60-Story Twin Towers
For the second time in as many months, Mayor Michael Bloomberg trekked out the Far West Side for a groundbreaking on a major new development built over a set of railroad tracks. While Brookfield's...
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Midtown East and Manhattan West: Bloomberg, Zucotti Defend Rezoning at...
If you build it, they will come. Promise. (Edward Reed/Flickr) One of the big debates that has been raging around the rezoning of Midtown East is how it might impact development already underway around...
View ArticleWould You Live in One of Mayor Bloomberg’s 300-Square-Foot Micro-Apartments?
New York apartments are notorious for being about as big as a shoe box, but those were typically 19th century tenements. Today, the Bloomberg administration brought tiny apartments into the 21 century...
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Even Williamsburg’s Condo-Dwellers Hate All the New Condos
New condo towers mean construction racket. Poor Williamsburg. It's now suffering a terrible fate known to but a handful of pert prom queens and high school football hunks—it is not only possible to be...
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Landmarks West Gets Into It with New York Historian Extraordinaire Kenneth T....
The site of the skirmish. Do you hear that? It's the sound of dozens of uptown preservationists dumping their carefully annotated copies of The Encyclopedia of New York City into their recycling bins....
View ArticleAtlantic Yards Critics Were Rather Quiet on de Blasio Today
Advocates trying to speed up the construction of affordable housing that was promised as part of the controversial Atlantic Yards project are letting bygones be bygones when it comes to Mayor-elect...
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Sounds of Silence: NYC’s Historic Music Venues Are Becoming History
The Roseland Ballroom, in its original spot at 51st Street and Broadway, in the 1940s. (Photo via Getty) Standing outside the Roseland Ballroom, a squat, three-story music venue on West 52nd Street...
View ArticleEditorial: Zeckendorf Towers, Still
Today’s New York, the thriving, safe city that attracts the best and brightest from all over the world, is a far cry from the New York of the early 1980s, when William Zeckendorf had the audacity to...
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Of Golden Geese and Leaden Critics
Some critics question the civic value of constructing super-luxury buildings, especially tall ones with views of Central Park... Some suggest that we saddle purchasers of such apartments with extra...
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