By Caroline Benveniste All too often, we report sad real estate stories—buildings being torn down and replaced with condos or offices, local shops closing because of steep rent increases, and other changes that make the Village less unique. Finally, we have a story that starts like all the others but ends happily. The Church of
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The Next Concert Could Be Yours
In my now 90 years, I found myself doing something I have never done before—sponsoring a classical music concert. It was easier than I thought. My kids don’t have to get all the money, and watching those rapt faces open to the familiar sound of great music in live performance was a reward I had
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Soccer with a View
By Barry Benepe In the September 2017 issue of WestView, we saw a lose-lose proposal to replace the current, income-earning parking garage at Pier 40 with a towering stadium (“The Happy Marriage of Pier 40 and Pier 55” by Michael Sorkin). This structure would block views of the park and the harbor and introduce loud,
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Barry Diller Asks Me to Print His Words
By George Capsis Below, I have included my (slightly revised) email exchanges with Valerie Combs—the Senior Vice President and Head of Communications at IAC—between October 25th and 27th. These emails conveyed my attempts to meet Barry Diller in person. Hi George, I run communications for IAC, and wanted to get this to you on
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Cage-Free in Washington Square Park
By Stanley Wlodyka The larger-than-life silver birdcage would block the path through the Washington Square Arch if not for the two refugees cut out from the frame. It’s no wonder that Chinese artist Ai Weiwei made the Washington Square Arch—an iconic symbol of New York City—a centerpiece of his Good Fences Make Good Neighbors installation
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A Stroll Around the Neighborhood: The Meatpacking District
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP On our last stroll, in the October 2017 issue of WestView, we ventured up to West 12th Street and 6th Avenue and over to the Hudson River. It’s pretty quiet between 6th Avenue and 8th Avenue, but once you cross into the Meatpacking District, things really heat up.
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Westbeth Gallery Hosts “Thinking Big”—Large-Scale Paintings by Blue Mountain Gallery Members
By Martica Sawin A show of large-scale paintings by members of the Blue Mountain Gallery, a leading artists’ cooperative, currently occupies a guest slot at the Westbeth Gallery (55 Bethune Street, near Washington Street) from November 2nd through the 25th. The New York tradition of artist-run galleries had its start not far from Westbeth, when
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A Conversation with the Mastermind Behind Christopher Street’s Colorful Trees
By Andrew Buemi If you’ve walked down Christopher Street in the last several months, you’ve likely come across the trees sheathed in festive bursts of yarn. Since making their debut early this year, Villagers remain intrigued about what the pieces symbolize and who created them. WestView recently caught up with the mastermind behind the project—Holly
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Federal-Era Homes in the West Village
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP When the New York State Commissioners’ Plan of 1811 adopted the rectangular grid plan of streets and lots, typically 25-feet by 100-feet each, for Manhattan streets between Houston Street and 155th Street, it was called “the single most important document in New York City’s development.” Most lots were used
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Diller Island is Dead
By George Capsis At 7:00 a.m. on September 22nd, I came out of the shower to a ringing phone and stood, still dripping, as Westview contributor Barbara Chacour announced with exhilaration, “Diller Island is Dead.” These were the very words printed on the front page of the New York Times article by Charles V. Bagli
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Diller Island: The City Club Perspective
Dear George, As President of the City Club of New York, one of the three plaintiffs in the Pier 55 (a.k.a. Diller Island) litigation, I’ve followed the history and collapse of this project very closely over the past two and a half years. The fantasy style of the island seems to have inspired a parallel
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A Common Perspective on Diller Island
Dear James, I wanted to thank you for the commentary you provided in your advertisement in the Op-Ed section of the New York Times on Wednesday, September 27th. Having lived on the west end of Bank Street for many decades, I hated the idea of Diller Island, not only for allowing Barry Diller’s blatant ego
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No Towers in Central Paris
By Barry Benepe Unlike New York City, Paris has insisted on strong limitations for building heights throughout its historic center. Following the array of boulevards laid out by Baron Haussmann in the late 19th century, Paris established specific height limits for building facades abutting boulevards; these limits changed only slightly in the 20th century and
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Can You Speak Louder? We Can’t Hear You. Community Board 2 answers your park requests.
By George Capsis “The community board is having a meeting tonight about what to do with Pier 40 and you have to go,” demanded Dusty. And so we walked to The Village Community School on 10th Street between Greenwich and Washington Streets on Thursday, September 28th, one of the last warm nights. We arrived a
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Robert Heide 25 Plays
By Robert Heide For 10 years now, I have been writing articles and theater reviews (possibly as many as several dozen) for Westview News on everything from Broadway musicals like Follies (starring Bernadette Peters) and Sunset Boulevard (starring Glenn Close) to the plays of Edward Albee, Terrence McNally, and Horton Foote. (Coincidental Note: Bernadette first
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A Stroll Around the Neighborhood:Construction and Development Sites: Continued
By Brian J. Pape, AIA In the August 2017 issue of Westview, we looked at developments from Hudson Street to West Street, between Clarkson Street and Perry Street. Even the change to the Gourmet Garage and New York Sports Club at 125 7th Avenue South was featured in that issue—an addition of two floors that
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Landmarks Preservation Commission Under Fire
By Martica Sawin Two recent lawsuits filed against the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) raise questions as to whether the LPC is doing its job as spelled out by the Landmarks Law. On August 23, 2017, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York (First Department) granted Save Gansevoort’s motion for
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Will We Get St. Veronica’s?
By George Capsis As I waited for a ham sandwich at an outside table at Eric’s Restaurant on Hudson Street, I became aware of a gray-haired (and as I confirmed later) Irish-American lady walking towards me, trying to figure out if I was indeed the ‘George of WestView’. “Are you George?” she asked, followed by,
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The Happy Marriage of Pier 40 and Pier 55
Michael Sorkin is My Doppelganger If I could have convinced myself to do the math, I might have become an architect and, if I had, I would now be Michael Sorkin. I mean, he does exactly what I find myself doing—telling NYU how to better expand its campus and badgering Barry Diller to make his
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Elizabeth Street Garden Debate Continues
Dear Editors: I want to respond to Alec Pruchnicki’s “analysis” of the demographics of those who use the Elizabeth Street Garden. I visited the garden on Saturday, August 5th, a gorgeous day full of sunshine, which made everything look magnificent. I didn’t see any zombies there. What I did see were families, children playing, international
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Kill the Zombie Park Already Part IV: Put the Garden on the Roof
By Alec Pruchnicki Yes, put it on the roof. This is a complicated but not impossible process if both sides work together. There are rooftop farms (e.g., Rosemary’s restaurant), rooftop gardens (e.g., P.S. 41), and extensive green roofs with potential public access proposed for Essex Crossing at Essex and Delancy Streets. These and many others
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GOTTLIEB ON CHARLES
The billion-dollar Gottlieb real estate empire, legally wrested by nephew Neil Bender, may see this seven-story condo block on Charles and Hudson Streets. In August, it was turned down by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. In the rendering above, the building is shown with the new Charles Street Block Association planters but not with the
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Pier 40 and Human-Powered Boating
By Sally Curtis The future of Pier 40 in Hudson River Park is once again on the table following the sale of its air rights to a developer for $100 million. The money will be used to replace the badly deteriorated piles, so the pier will no longer be in danger of collapsing into the
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London Terrace: A Brief but Storied History
By Alan Cohen Clement Clarke Moore acquired the land along 23rd and 24th Streets, between 9th and 10th Avenues, when his family estate—known as ‘Chelsea’—was divided among the separate clan members. By 1845, Moore built a row of Greek-style, individual town houses on the land. It was made to look like a single complex of
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Diller Island: The Continuing Saga
By Michael Gruen Opinions vary as to whether Pier 55 (a.k.a. Diller Island) is a desirable project. Does it benefit the public, and if so, do the benefits outweigh the harms? Many of us at The City Club of New York (City Club) have strong, negative feelings about the design and location of Pier 55.
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Down with the South! (Seventh Avenue South)
By Allyn Freeman Joyce Carol Oates once wrote, “She stayed in a loft on Vandam Street, below Houston; they’d met, for drinks, in a restaurant on Seventh Avenue.” Hoo-hah! No, they did not walk blocks uptown to find one of the few dining places north of West 14th Street on Seventh Avenue. Oates’ fictional character
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Calvert Vaux and Frank Lloyd Wright: Two Architects, One Vision
By Barry Benepe Art is a form of searching where artists sometimes independently reach a common form or truth. I found this to be the case with Calvert Vaux and Frank Lloyd Wright who were two generations apart. Vaux was brought over from England by his mentor, and later his partner, the horticulturist Andrew Jackson
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The Times Reads WestView
By George Capsis Oh wow! The day after WestView’s June issue came out with the front-page article (“The Ego Fight for Diller Island”) about the now years-long ego clash between Wall Street tough guy Steve Novogratz and staid developer Douglas Durst to control and shape the Hudson River Park, Charles Bagli of the Times released
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Diller Island Perspective
Dear Editors: I would like to respond to the article entitled “The Ego Fight for Diller Island,” published in the June issue of WestView News. The amendment to the Hudson River Park Act in June 2013 was not passed by Assemblymember Deborah Glick alone, but by the entire New York State Legislature by a vote
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Reflecting on Gardens and Housing
Dear Editors: In writing about and photographing the gardens at the Church of St. Luke in the Fields and Jane Street, Justin Matthews touches on two gardens where I have worked as a volunteer with great joy and love for over 40 years. (See his article “Parks and Gardens of the West Village” in the
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The City Club Speaks
By Michael Gruen Resistance to Diller Island (Pier 55) has come from some key figures in the famed City Club of New York (they helped to save Grand Central Station). Here, the President of the Club, Michael Gruen, returns to the original charter of the Hudson River Park, which calls for the assiduous preservation of
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Life on the Street in the Words of Writers
By Barry Benepe Walking is both the expression of freedom and an embrace of space. An automobile driver is imprisoned in a mobile metal box. Amos Hawley, a professor of sociology at the University of Michigan said in 1962, “If it is true that life is lived largely on foot, that the deep and enriching
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The Ego Fight for Diller Island
By George Capsis In a recent two-part article by Lincoln Anderson, the now years’ long ego tussle to control the development of the Hudson River Park was traced, culminating in the now locked-horns court battle to stop Pier 55, also known as Diller Island. As we go to press, an appeal by the U.S. Army
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11 Jane Street and Other Sorrows—What Are We Losing Here?
By Robert Widmann As parking garages go, this one was something of a sweetheart, like an old love you could count on—never overbearing, always sort-of cheery, not too gassy. When returning from places dark and distant, she welcomed the lonely sojourner looking to find home, with her low-rise crenelated fortress-top beset with eight diamond-shaped panels
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Parks and Gardens of the West Village: Exploring the Church of St. Luke in the Fields and Jane Street Gardens
By Justin Matthews The West Village contains a variety of parks and gardens, several of which, along with hosting native bird species, preserve or complement the abundant historical heritage of the area. Here, we’ll explore two in particular. The Gardens of the Church of St. Luke in the Fields The Anglican Church of St. Luke
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Cities Are for Walking
By Barry Benepe When I was but six years old, I accompanied my father on Saturday morning walks from Gramercy Park to Madison Square Park; his office was on the 12th floor of the Victoria Building at 230 5th Avenue. One warm spring morning, as we crossed Madison Avenue, we heard the screeching of brakes.
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Washington Square Park Designer Nabs Dual Role
By Geoffrey Croft The irony. George Vellonakis, the controversial NYC Department of Parks & Recreation (NYC Parks) landscape architect behind the much-vilified $30 million renovation of Washington Square Park, has recently been appointed to head the historic park. On May 15th, Vellonakis became the Washington Square Park Administrator, a City job, as well as the
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Praising George Vellonakis and Washington Square Park
By Barry Benepe With all due respect to Geoffrey Croft, I feel that we are fortunate to have George Vellonakis in charge of the design and maintenance of Washington Square Park, probably one of the most heavily utilized and historic parks in the City. Through careful and thoughtful research on the park’s original 1836 design,
