By Hannah Reimann December 2021 brought us many surprising turns as we inched towards Christmas with a howl of uncertainty around the 17th of the month. Within a week, the number of people infected with COVID-19 tripled. Broadway and holiday shows opened and closed, shops and restaurants went from full to empty, then some closed
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LOCAL STREETSCAPES: 100 Vandam St. at Greenwich St.
100 Vandam St. at Greenwich St. Originally projected for completion in Summer of 2020, this daring redevelopment of a circa 1910 six-story brick powerhouse building on the corner of 527 Greenwich Street and 100 Vandam Street, combined with the adjacent 92 Vandam Street, is now called ‘100 Vandam Street.’ It sits just north of the
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LOCAL STREETSCAPES: 555 Greenwich St. at King St.
555 Greenwich St. at King St. This view of construction progress, from the northwest at King Street, shows the beginning of a 260,000-square-foot, 19-story building between King and Charleton Streets, with a matching overall height and aligned floor levels of its ‘sister’ neighbor, allowing for continuous office floors between the two buildings, except for the
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West Village Housing Settles Election Lawsuit
By Brian J Pape, AIA, LEED-AP We last reported on the transition of West Village Housing (WVH) from the income-restricted and subsidized Mitchel-Lama program started in the 1960’s, until that program expired, to its current market-based cooperative status. The issues facing the 420 shareholders in the 42 buildings of WVH revolve around the affordability and
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LOCAL STREETSCAPES
14th St. & 9th Ave. A major reconstruction development at the NE corner of 14th St and 9th Avenue is creating quite a bit of controversy, first for the initially proposed tower in the interior lot, and then for the announcement that the landmarked row houses that had served as restaurants and stores in recent
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Stephen B. Jacobs, FAIA, Creative Architect of NYC, Dies at 82
By Brian J. Pape, AIA Living in a Stephen B. Jacobs creation for the past 12 years has been an inspiration for me, but one doesn’t have to be an architect like me to appreciate the amazing attractive spaces he created, which received several awards. According to their website, Stephen B. Jacobs Group (SBJGroup), initially
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Village Diary: Now and Evermore
By Pago Habitans* The new year had barely begun when I spotted a familiar figure on a bench by the river. It was, of course, Brother Ben, who never seems fazed by winter weather. With a friendly wave he motioned for me to sit down. “I’m glad to have this opportunity to wish you every
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A Moment to Reflect and Look Ahead
Dear LHGV Family, This is a good time to pause and reflect. Since July 2014, we’ve been dedicated to serving the Greenwich Village community. What started as a grand vision soon became a reality. Today, LHGV is a dynamic and vital health care facility, powered by an incredible group of expert health care professionals. This
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Our Kids Need a Hospital
By George Capsis The new variation of the COVID virus has quintupled in the last three weeks amongst children here in New York and many of them will understandably need hospitalization. So if you have a child that displays the symptoms of the new Omicron variation you might want to take them to what is
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Affordable Housing Lottery—102 Charleton
102 Charleton Available on NYC Housing Connect NYC Housing Connect announced in December that the affordable housing lottery for 17 units has launched for 102 Charlton Street, a 21-story residential building in Hudson Square, Manhattan, but applications close on Jan. 4, 2022!. Located just 2 short blocks from the 1 train Houston station, 2 short
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TINSEL—A Global Holiday Festival
https://www.lortel.org/tinsel There’s something for everyone at the Lucille Lortel Theater this December and there are two more weeks of shows featured in the theater’s TINSEL: A GLOBAL HOLIDAY FESTIVAL. In these unpredictable times, everyone is doing his and her best to stay safe as we gather, to get together for valid and uplifting reasons and
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Invocation—A holiday summoning
Invocation A Holiday Summoning Brinda Guha and Ensemble Where: The Lucille Lortel Theatre in West Village Thursday, December 16, 2021 Time: 7:00PM ET Tickets: Event Link Trailer Here! “It’s hard to wake up to good news these days. It’s been stressful for me as an artist, as an empath, I tend to internalize everything. I
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Canciones de Navidad: Real-life musical stories by composer Jaime Lozano
Canciones de Navidad Real-life musical stories by composer Jaime Lozano makes its Lucille Lortel Theater debut this Wednesday, December 15, 2021 at 7pm One of 12 shows of TINSEL: A Global Holiday Festival Praise for Jaime Lozano “Songs by an Immigrant establishes Jaime as a force to be reckoned with in musical theater, in Latin
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Tap Dance Virtuoso, Jared Grimes
Christmas in the Lab at the Lucille Lortel Theater Saturday, December 11 at 7pm – one performance only! Lortel’s 12-show TINSEL, A Global Holiday Festival runs through December 29, 2021 https://www.lortel.org/tinsel “I took the time off when the world shut down to get back in the lab. I told myself, ‘This is not going
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Westbeth Winter Exhibit Defies Winter
By J. Taylor Basker Flanking the large sign that announces the Westbeth Winter Show are two huge yellow and orange laser-cut acrylic flowers sculpted by Rachel Urkowitz. These introduce the viewer to the artwork in an exhibit that will raise your metabolism and warm you with vibrant color, regardless of outdoor temperatures. Despite Jean Wolf’s
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West Village Artist Aliza Sternstein’s Debut Solo Exhibition
By Naomi Sternstein Recent paintings by West Village resident (and longtime WestView News reader) Aliza Sternstein will be on view beginning this month at Olympia Gallery on the Lower East Side as part of the artist’s first solo exhibition, entitled Don’t Move Stones. Sternstein’s paintings present a bold and dreamy play with layers and transparency,
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LOCAL STREETSCAPES: 540 Hudson
By Brian J. Pape, AIA Construction is proceeding rapidly in the Greenwich Village Historic District, for a mixed-use building at 540 Hudson Street, similar to what was brought before the New York City Landmark Preservation Commission (LPC) in July 2017 by Morris Adjmi Architects, for the William Gottlieb Real Estate development. 540 Hudson Street is
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Village Diary: Sometimes the Twain Do Meet
By Pago Habitans* I was standing on the east side of Seventh Avenue at Sheridan Square, waiting to cross west, when a couple of tourists got my attention. They were consulting cell phones, examining street signs, studying a map, and they looked perplexed—bewildered by the intersection of so many streets at such odd angles. When
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EYES ON THE PRIZES … in Abingdon Square
EYES ON THE PRIZES … in Abingdon Square. Photo by Maggie Berkvist.
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LOCAL STREETSCAPE: 111 Leroy
By Brian J. Pape, AIA The lights are back on! During the pandemic lockdowns, it seemed like no work was done on the partly completed development at the NE corner of Greenwich and Leroy Streets, an apartment block with five townhouses adjacent to it, built on a former parking lot. The property has had previous
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Sogno Toscano now carries an amazing wine selection from Bolgheri
Sogno Toscano now carries an amazing wine selection from Bolgheri (the hometown of the founders, Brian Persico and Pietro Brembilla) including award-winning Sassicaia ‘15 and ‘16, and the Guidalberto from the same creator of Sassicaia. The renowned Brunello di Montalcino and the intense Amarone della Valpolicella are amongst the choices. For bubbles lovers and those
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Armando F. Ienco
Armando F. Ienco, age 90, formerly of Brooklyn, New York passed away Thursday Nov 4, 2021 in NYC. He was a retired bricklayer and contractor with Local 1A. Born in 1931 in Calabria, Italy, Armando was one of 11 children. He started to learn his trade from his father Vincenzo as a teenager. Armando performed
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LOCAL STREETSCAPES: Gansevoort Street
By Brian J. Pape, AIA Gansevoort Street (formerly Great Kill Road, renamed 1837) along with riverside Fort Gansevoort (1812), were named for Revolutionary War Gen. Peter Gansevoort (who died in 1812). The fort had to make way in 1851 for infill and freight yards for the shipping piers, according to the designation report for the
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An Interview with Michael D. Minichiello, Author of West Village Originals
By William Repicci It was a little over 12 years ago when my better half, Michael D. Minichiello, came home saying he had met the quintessential Village character who published WestView News. His name was George Capsis, and he sounded like the crusty but benevolent publisher one would see come to life in films from
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Tiffany in the Village
Facade of Tiffany pop-up store located at Bank and 301 West 4th Street in Greenwich Village. The West Village pop-up is open now through January 8, 2022. The location was picked for its abundance of affluent buyers of Tiffany’s luxury jewelry. The store is comprised of dream-like salons with theatrical lighting, moon and star motifs,
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LOCAL STREETSCAPES
Cohen Mansion Located in the Greenwich Village Historic District at the NE corner of Washington and Perry Streets, this development includes the single-family 20,000 SF mansion at 145 Perry Street, home of hedge-funder Steven A. Cohen, and a six-story, five-unit, 10,000 SF familial condominium apartment building to the north (left in photo) at 711 Washington
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Inflection Point
By Joel Lobenthal Once again, the West Village must mobilize. NYC is being bulldozed out from under us, brutally upzoned by Mayors Bloomberg and de Blasio. Lame duck de Blasio’s latest valedictory proposal to upzone the landmarked districts of Soho, Noho, as well as part of Chinatown, may prove the most damaging to date.
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Welcome Back, West Village! Calendar
November & December 2021 Varied events around the West Village including: Tuesday, November 9th 7pm Arturo O’Farrill, 8-time Grammy-winning pianist playing a rare solo show Cornelia Street Cafè Renaissance with Robin Hirsch, Master of Ceremonies St. John’s in the Village Church 218 West 11th Street Friday, November 12 at 7pm Restaurant Sevilla Flamenco Night
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Eating & Drinking at Sogno Toscano
By Hannah Reimann with Caroline Benveniste The culinary experience at this lively “Espresso Bar—Market—Wine Bar” is fun, health-conscious and more complex than one would expect from an establishment that doesn’t have a kitchen on its premises. All the dishes are meticulously assembled from various Tuscan ingredients and the presentation is elegant. Don’t expect to be
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Dave Van Ronk: The Village Folk Scene’s Lost Uncle
By Bruce Poli Dave Van Ronk was a folk singer’s folk singer. In fact, he personified Greenwich Village, as the “local” who never left for fame and was always trusted—the very symbol of Washington Square Park in the 1960s. You know “House of the Rising Sun”? It’s on Bob Dylan’s first album… But guess what?
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Maintaining Greenwich Village as a Cultural Center
By Richard Eric Weigle Millions of people from around the world have heard about Greenwich Village. They have seen it in movies and tv shows, read about it in stories by O’Henry, Jack Kerouac, and Henry James, and in poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay, e.e. cummings, Allen Ginsberg, T.S. Eliot and many more. Some
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Village Diary: That’s Soil, Folks!
By Pago Habitans* I was sitting in the garden at St. Luke in the Fields and thinking about soil when Brother Ben appeared on the bench beside me. I’d been considering how relatively little soil is visible in Manhattan, and how we in the Village are lucky to see as much as we do. Ben
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Remembrances of the First Village Halloween Parade on Charles Street
By Anthony Paradiso The First Village Halloween Parade took place 47 years ago on Village streets that we walk today. One of those streets that the first parade walked down was Charles Street, where this newspaper’s publisher lives. The witches, goblins, and ghouls used to walk the little side streets, like Charles Street, for about
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Community Building to Rise from Ashes at 70 Mulberry Street
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP A cultural and community hub called the “Heart of Chinatown” was severely damaged by a fire on January 23, 2020, which reportedly started on the fifth floor. The building was home to five community and cultural organizations, all of which served essential needs of the community and would be
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Welcome Mayor Adams!
By Arthur Schwartz We have a new Mayor (or at least a Mayor–elect) by the time you read this. His name, if you missed it, is Eric Adams. Over the last few weeks, as the media resumes paying attention to local politics, writers have been trying to figure out who exactly Eric Adams is. The
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The Spooky Scary Hallowe’en Blackout Week of Hurricane Sandy
By Robert Heide Hurricane Sandy began its assault on the Eastern coast of the country on Monday, October 22 and ended November 2, 2012 with the full force of the storm hitting land near Atlantic City and New York at around 8:30 PM October 29; combined with a high tide and a full moon, one
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Someone, Someplace, Else: Paintings by Yolande Heijnen
Curated by Chantal Soong Lee Opening: October 5th, 6:00-8:00 p.m. Revelation Gallery 224 Waverly Place Exhibition will be from October 5th-28th, 2021 Monday-Thursday, 11:00 a.m.-to 3:00 p.m. The paintings in Yolande Heijnen’s solo exhibition, Someone, Someplace, Else span the years 2016-2021; depicting friends, strangers, and herself, Heijnen is, more specifically, painting the threshold of what
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Village Trip Festival
By Roger Paradiso It was the most humid day of the summer. It was September 18th and still late summer. The Village Trip Festival had taken over 8th Street in the heart of Greenwich Village. David Amram was playing there, just blocks from many of the clubs and theaters, he had played many years ago
