Features

101 Murray Bites the Dust and 111 Murray Street Rises Skyward in Ever-Changing West Tribeca

4:00 pm on June 10, 2016 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

As befitting one of the planet’s key engines of economic and cultural motion, New York City exists in a state of constant change. This is particularly true for the city’s older, centrally located neighborhoods, such as TriBeCa. Over the past two centuries, its western portion along West Street has been repeatedly transformed beyond recognition, particularly by the 1960s urban renewal program that completely cleared dozens of formerly-vibrant blocks. But even there, a 32-year building life span is short by any measure.

Watch Time-Lapse of World Trade Center Transportation Hub’s Construction

4:00 pm on May 27, 2016 By Evan Bindelglass

It took over a decade and nearly $4 billion, but the main concourse of the Santiago Calatrava-designed World Trade Center Transportation Hub, known as the Oculus, opened in early March. It’s located along Greenwich Street, in between the nearly topped out 3 World Trade Center and the site of what will be 2 World Trade Center. We now have a new look at its construction, via a time-lapse produced by EarthCam.

FDNY Investigation Underway at Burnt Shell of Landmark Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava, 15 West 25th Street, Flatiron

3:35 pm on May 27, 2016 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

As this month got underway, we brought you the unfortunate news regarding the landmark Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava at 15 West 25th Street, designed by Richard Upjohn, the architect of the Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan. The 1855 building, which was the city’s only house of prayer servicing the Serbian Orthodox community, was reduced to a charred stone shell on the evening of May 1, just hours after the Orthodox Easter celebration. While the church is collecting donations for reconstruction, the authorities are investigating the fenced-off site for the cause of the conflagration, while engineers keep an eye on the ruined building’s stability. The building is a New York City landmark and is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Although the city’s laws protect the building from further demolition, the stone shell may be torn down if ultimately deemed dangerously unstable. Fortunately, the walls appear to be structurally sound for the time being, though serious reinforcement work would be permitted only after the investigations are complete.

Major Streetscape Improvements Proposed for Long Island City

7:00 am on May 11, 2016 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

The ongoing transformation of Long Island City is astounding. In the decade between 2006 and 2015, more than 8,600 housing units have been completed in the area, with well over 22,000 more on the way. Between 2012 and 2015, prices for prime development sites have jumped by 269 percent. As the neighborhood rapidly transitions from commercial/industrial to high-density residential, the local street grid, characterized by odd angles, must undergo a significant transformation. The city government began to address this need in 2010, when Jackson Avenue, the area’s principal thoroughfare, was upgraded with a green median, while a small triangular park was created at the intersection of 27th Street, Hunter Street, and 43rd Avenue.

Workers replace track on the L line in April 2015. Photo by Patrick Cashin via the MTA Flickr

MTA Lays Out L Train Shutdown Options at Williamsburg Public Meeting

4:00 pm on May 6, 2016 By Rebecca Baird-Remba

The MTA held the first of two major public meetings on the looming L train shutdown at the Marcy Avenue Armory in South Williamsburg last night. Top MTA brass presented the details for the two possible L trainocalypse options—a partial three year shutdown or a full eighteen month shutdown.

Mourning the Landmark Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava, 15 West 25th Street, Gutted by Four-Alarm Blaze on Easter Day

8:00 am on May 3, 2016 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

The May 1 celebration of Eastern Orthodox Easter was marred by the tragic fire at the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava at 15 West 25th Street, which reduced the landmark building to a charred stone shell. Aside from minor smoke inhalation by the church caretaker, no one was injured in the four-alarm blaze. The same cannot be said for the church building itself, which was reduced to a charred ruin.

Bayonne Bridge Reconstruction: Raising the Road on America’s Largest Suspended Arch Bridge

5:17 pm on April 22, 2016 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

In general, new construction reflects local real estate demand and community needs. But given New York’s position as a global economic hub, it is not surprising that one of the city’s largest engineering efforts is a direct response to a megaproject 2,200 miles away. The suspended roadbed of the 84-year-old Bayonne Bridge, which spans the Kill Van Kull strait between Staten Island and Bayonne, N.J., is too low for passage of the latest, giant container ships built to traverse the expanded Panama Canal locks. If the Port of New York and New Jersey fails to accommodate such vessels, the nation’s largest metro area would suffer considerable economic damage. To keep up with the canal’s expansion, slated to open later this year, the Port Authority is raising the bridge roadbed from 151 to 215 feet above the mean water level. The Navigational Clearance Project is expected to cost $1.3 billion.

Bronx General Post Office. All photographs by the author

Inside the Transformation of the Bronx General Post Office, 558 Grand Concourse

8:00 am on April 18, 2016 By Evan Bindelglass

Sometime next spring, the landmarked Bronx General Post Office, located in the borough’s Concourse Village neighborhood, will start a new life as retail, office space, and a restaurant. Interior demolition work is underway and we got a peak inside last week, with Brendan Murray, vice president at Hollister Construction Services, and he pointed out an incredibly creepy aspect of the building’s history.

The eight new landmarks designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission

Landmarks Backlog Moves Forward with Eight Designations

8:00 am on April 13, 2016 By Evan Bindelglass

The Landmarks Preservation Commission’s backlog, which had been reduced from 95 items to 30 items in February, has taken another big step towards being cleared. On Tuesday, the LPC designated eight new city individual landmarks, and they span all five boroughs.

425 Park Avenue, Pioneer of Modernism, Loses Half Its Height to Make Way for 893-Foot-Tall 21st Century Beacon

4:30 pm on April 8, 2016 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

Park Avenue is about to get its first new office tower in decades as the 1957 office tower at 425 Park Avenue (catty corner to Rafael Viñoly’s 1,396-foot-tall 432 Park Avenue), once the pinnacle of modernity, is being reinvented for the 21st century via a partial demolition and a dramatic, 893-foot-tall restructuring by developer L&L Holdings and architects at Foster + Partners.

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