Thursday, December 11, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Zac Posen: Puttin' on the Glitz
Zac Posen: Puttin' on the Glitz
Renata Espinosa December 06th, 2008 @ 11:41 AM New York
As the pre-fall season in fashion got underway this week, the uncertainty about next year’s business still looms. But Zac Posen, who showed his collection in a charming bistro in Tribeca on Friday, Dec. 5, was determined to stay the course of his brand, “going back to the fundamentals” he said, focusing on tried-and-true glamour in clothes that both inspire and transport his customers to, one hopes, a happier place. “It’s about recycling glamour,” he told Fashion Wire Daily post-show, describing a collection that celebrated eclecticism and yes, luxury. There were rich jewel tones of amethyst and lapis and the ultra-feminine tailoring that is Posen’s signature - trumpet skirts abounded - and the kind of details that would justify a splurge - a laser cut dress-coat, for example, in copper; a delicate accordion pleated knit dress and some particularly fetching fringed dresses in emerald and aquamarine. Posen’s message of “recycling existing pieces in your wardrobe” might be directed towards his socialite and party girl clientele with a closet full of once-worn dresses - basically, he’s saying, there’s a way to reinvent your old things by adding one of the statement pieces he’s designed. The trench coats in the collection seemed like a good way to go for this, in exotic eel skin, leopard print or glitzy copper. The show’s setting at Cercle Rouge gave it an intimate, salon-like feel, while the styling - flirtatious curls that recalled Bianca Jagger circa her Studio 54 days - made the presentation feel like you were watching one of Yves Saint Laurent’s 1970s displays of Parisian glamour. While it appears that next spring will be a more austere, minimalist time for fashion, as people feel the need to pare down and cut back, moving into fall Posen will offer a way to spice things up again. ©2008 Fashion Wire Daily You can see the original article here:http://www.fashionwiredaily.com/first_word/fashion/article.weml?id=2308
Renata Espinosa December 06th, 2008 @ 11:41 AM New York
As the pre-fall season in fashion got underway this week, the uncertainty about next year’s business still looms. But Zac Posen, who showed his collection in a charming bistro in Tribeca on Friday, Dec. 5, was determined to stay the course of his brand, “going back to the fundamentals” he said, focusing on tried-and-true glamour in clothes that both inspire and transport his customers to, one hopes, a happier place. “It’s about recycling glamour,” he told Fashion Wire Daily post-show, describing a collection that celebrated eclecticism and yes, luxury. There were rich jewel tones of amethyst and lapis and the ultra-feminine tailoring that is Posen’s signature - trumpet skirts abounded - and the kind of details that would justify a splurge - a laser cut dress-coat, for example, in copper; a delicate accordion pleated knit dress and some particularly fetching fringed dresses in emerald and aquamarine. Posen’s message of “recycling existing pieces in your wardrobe” might be directed towards his socialite and party girl clientele with a closet full of once-worn dresses - basically, he’s saying, there’s a way to reinvent your old things by adding one of the statement pieces he’s designed. The trench coats in the collection seemed like a good way to go for this, in exotic eel skin, leopard print or glitzy copper. The show’s setting at Cercle Rouge gave it an intimate, salon-like feel, while the styling - flirtatious curls that recalled Bianca Jagger circa her Studio 54 days - made the presentation feel like you were watching one of Yves Saint Laurent’s 1970s displays of Parisian glamour. While it appears that next spring will be a more austere, minimalist time for fashion, as people feel the need to pare down and cut back, moving into fall Posen will offer a way to spice things up again. ©2008 Fashion Wire Daily You can see the original article here:http://www.fashionwiredaily.com/first_word/fashion/article.weml?id=2308
NYC Apartment Rents Fell in November, Vacancies Rose
NYC Apartment Rents Fell in November, Vacancies Rose (Update2)
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By Sharon L. Lynch
Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Manhattan apartment rents fell for a fourth consecutive month in November and vacancy rates reached 2 percent for the first time in almost two years as Wall Street’s financial turmoil took a toll on the housing market.
Rents dropped 2.2 percent to 4.9 percent across all sizes of apartments, with the biggest drop in the smallest flats. Studios rented for an average of $1,808, down from $1,901 in October, New York-based real estate broker Citi Habitats said today in a report.
Rents are declining as New York City is forecast to lose as many as 165,000 jobs, including 35,000 in the financial industry, as the impact of the credit crisis spreads throughout the economy. Wall Street firms including Merrill Lynch & Co. have produced mortgage-related losses and writedowns of more than $900 billion and are cutting staff as the economy weakens.
“There’s a lot of volatility out there. A lot of people are worried about their personal circumstances,” Citi Habitats President Gary Malin said in an interview. “Everyone is definitively conscious about price.”
SoHo Most Expensive
The city’s most expensive neighborhood remained the Soho/TriBeCa area, with studios renting for an average of $2,395, one bedrooms for $3,637, two bedrooms going for $5,300 and three bedrooms for $7,045.
A three bedroom in Soho/TriBeCa costs almost 20 percent more to rent than on the Upper West Side, the second most expensive neighborhood for that size apartment.
Excluding areas north of 96th Street, the cost of a studio apartment fell the most in West Midtown, with the average declining 10.6 percent to $1,832. One bedrooms dropped the most in Midtown East, where they fell 7.5 percent to $2,621.
Murray Hill had the biggest drop in two-bedroom apartment rents, falling 10.4 percent to $3,225.
The biggest drop in three-bedroom apartments was in the Wall Street/Battery Park City neighborhood, where the average cost dropped 6.1 percent to $5,304.
The least expensive neighborhood south of 96th Street for studio apartments, two- and three-bedroom apartments was the Lower East Side. Studio rents there fell 1 percent to $1,600 a month, two bedrooms declined 3.2 percent to an average of $2,917 and three-bedrooms were little changed at $4,081.
For one-bedroom units south of 96th Street, the least expensive area was the Upper East Side, where prices fell 2.6 percent to $2,228.
More Discounts
Rising vacancies are also prompting some landlords to offer incentives such as a free month’s rent, Malin said.
“If I’m a tenant, I’m certainly going to have more options of apartments to look at,” Malin said. “They are also going to have more options when it comes to pricing.”
Rents are falling in Manhattan as apartment sales also decline and the inventory of unsold properties rises.
Sales fell for the third consecutive quarter and inventory rose by a third even in the three months ended Sept. 30 even as prices continued to extend a five-year streak of gains, New York-based real estate appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and broker Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate said in a report on Oct. 3.
Transactions dropped 24 percent to 2,654 from a year earlier and the number of apartments on the market increased to 7,003. The median price of a condominium and co-op jumped 7.4 percent to $928,263, the second highest on record.
The third-quarter Manhattan property market results were the first to capture sales since Bear Stearns & Co. was forced to sell itself to rival JPMorgan Chase & Co. in March after customers and lenders fled on speculation the company was short of cash.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sharon L. Lynch in New York at sllynch@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: December 4, 2008 14:38 EST
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By Sharon L. Lynch
Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Manhattan apartment rents fell for a fourth consecutive month in November and vacancy rates reached 2 percent for the first time in almost two years as Wall Street’s financial turmoil took a toll on the housing market.
Rents dropped 2.2 percent to 4.9 percent across all sizes of apartments, with the biggest drop in the smallest flats. Studios rented for an average of $1,808, down from $1,901 in October, New York-based real estate broker Citi Habitats said today in a report.
Rents are declining as New York City is forecast to lose as many as 165,000 jobs, including 35,000 in the financial industry, as the impact of the credit crisis spreads throughout the economy. Wall Street firms including Merrill Lynch & Co. have produced mortgage-related losses and writedowns of more than $900 billion and are cutting staff as the economy weakens.
“There’s a lot of volatility out there. A lot of people are worried about their personal circumstances,” Citi Habitats President Gary Malin said in an interview. “Everyone is definitively conscious about price.”
SoHo Most Expensive
The city’s most expensive neighborhood remained the Soho/TriBeCa area, with studios renting for an average of $2,395, one bedrooms for $3,637, two bedrooms going for $5,300 and three bedrooms for $7,045.
A three bedroom in Soho/TriBeCa costs almost 20 percent more to rent than on the Upper West Side, the second most expensive neighborhood for that size apartment.
Excluding areas north of 96th Street, the cost of a studio apartment fell the most in West Midtown, with the average declining 10.6 percent to $1,832. One bedrooms dropped the most in Midtown East, where they fell 7.5 percent to $2,621.
Murray Hill had the biggest drop in two-bedroom apartment rents, falling 10.4 percent to $3,225.
The biggest drop in three-bedroom apartments was in the Wall Street/Battery Park City neighborhood, where the average cost dropped 6.1 percent to $5,304.
The least expensive neighborhood south of 96th Street for studio apartments, two- and three-bedroom apartments was the Lower East Side. Studio rents there fell 1 percent to $1,600 a month, two bedrooms declined 3.2 percent to an average of $2,917 and three-bedrooms were little changed at $4,081.
For one-bedroom units south of 96th Street, the least expensive area was the Upper East Side, where prices fell 2.6 percent to $2,228.
More Discounts
Rising vacancies are also prompting some landlords to offer incentives such as a free month’s rent, Malin said.
“If I’m a tenant, I’m certainly going to have more options of apartments to look at,” Malin said. “They are also going to have more options when it comes to pricing.”
Rents are falling in Manhattan as apartment sales also decline and the inventory of unsold properties rises.
Sales fell for the third consecutive quarter and inventory rose by a third even in the three months ended Sept. 30 even as prices continued to extend a five-year streak of gains, New York-based real estate appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and broker Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate said in a report on Oct. 3.
Transactions dropped 24 percent to 2,654 from a year earlier and the number of apartments on the market increased to 7,003. The median price of a condominium and co-op jumped 7.4 percent to $928,263, the second highest on record.
The third-quarter Manhattan property market results were the first to capture sales since Bear Stearns & Co. was forced to sell itself to rival JPMorgan Chase & Co. in March after customers and lenders fled on speculation the company was short of cash.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sharon L. Lynch in New York at sllynch@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: December 4, 2008 14:38 EST
Friday, April 11, 2008
Bruce Sinder, 55, a Tribeca pioneer, dies
By Julie Shapiro
Bruce Sinder, a developer and broker who brought artists and trendy stores to Soho and Tribeca, died of A.L.S. at his Franklin St. home Thurs., March 13. He was 55.
Sinvin Realty, Sinder’s firm, crafted landmark deals Downtown, like bringing Dean & DeLuca to the corner of Broadway and Prince St. in 1987. Sinvin also brought Balthazar, Marc Jacobs, Mad River Post and Adidas Downtown. “Bruce was one of the forefront creators of Tribeca and Soho,” said Carole DeSaram, who worked for Sinder for years. “You didn’t call them developers in those days. It wasn’t people who had all this money and ran around — it was just people buying buildings, and hoping.” Sinder also began buying properties in Soho and Tribeca 30 years ago when the neighborhoods were a far cry from what they are today.
“These were desolate areas — they were wastelands,” DeSaram said. “From the tip of Manhattan up into the Village, you’d have to go up to Bleecker St. before you saw lights. There was nobody out.” Sinder was one of the people who turned all of that around. He started off buying empty warehouses and converting them to artist lofts in the late 1970s, when he and Steve Levin founded Sinvin Realty. They created the company’s name by combining “Sinder” and “Levin.” “We saw these beautiful, vacant buildings,” Levin recalled. “We just bought them cheap, $6 to $7 a square foot — how could you not buy them?”
Some of the deals were unconventional, with Sinder and Levin writing the rules as they went. They leased large spaces to artists, who subleased to other tenants and lived free. They leased the top floor of one building to an eccentric who rollerskated around the perimeter.
When Levin spoke with his former colleagues in the real estate industry, who were still doing traditional deals, they didn’t understand. “They’d look at me and say, ‘You’ve got to be crazy,’” Levin said. “But we did find unorthodox guys who really loved these deals.”
“No one wanted to be out here except pioneers,” said Chris Owles, principal at Sinvin. “As the neighborhood evolved, [Sinder] and the business evolved as well…. The class of retailer changed, the customers changed, and Bruce and the company changed with them.” The key to Sinder’s success, Levin said, was that he knew how to negotiate a deal without pressing too hard.
“Bruce was the best,” Levin said. “He was honorable, honest, reliable and everybody liked him. He just got along well with everybody, unlike most real estate guys you knew.” Born Sept. 9, 1952 to Raymond and Marilyn Sinder, Bruce grew up in the Bronx and on Long Island. When he was 9, his mother suggested that he take guitar lessons, and Sinder immediately immersed himself in the instrument.
“He was in love with the guitar — literally in love with the guitar,” Marilyn Sinder said. The guitar slept on a white couch in the living room, a special couch that no one else was allowed to sit on. The first thing Sinder did when he woke up each morning was to pad downstairs, pick up the guitar and start strumming. Only after playing would he wash, get dressed and go to school.
Sinder graduated from SUNY-Buffalo in 1974 with a degree in psychology and a fervent desire to make music his career. But after graduating, he stumbled upon the passion that would ultimately become his career: real estate.
Sinder moved to what is now called Tribeca 33 years ago. He lived in Independence Plaza, and then bought a building on Franklin St., where his family continues to live. In 1983, Sinder and several partners opened Bon Temps Rouler, a popular Cajun Creole restaurant, on Reade St. The restaurant, run by Sinder’s brother, is now called Spaghetti Western.
About four years ago, Sinder started feeling numbness in his legs. Doctors confirmed what he had already suspected: He had A.L.S., also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, a progressive illness that paralyzes the body while the mind stays intact. As his body deteriorated, Sinder continued attending his son’s soccer games and going to work, long after he lost the ability to walk. He commuted on his motorized wheelchair along West St. and later rode a handicapped bus. By the time Sinder retired last Thanksgiving, he had difficulty speaking and communicated mainly through e-mail. “It was just another indication of the same kind of persistence and consistency he exhibited throughout his career,” Owles said. “Even if he couldn’t do the same things he once could, he would always try.” Ellen Gould, musical director at The New Shul, where Sinder attended services, remembered his lyrical guitar playing, and later, when he could no longer play the guitar, his strong singing voice.
“As he lost the ability to communicate with words, his tender-heartedness got louder, and it was palpable,” Gould said. Sinder is survived by his mother, Marilyn; brother Robert; wife Stacie; and children Jackson, 18, and Reuben, 15. The funeral and graveside service were held last Friday at the Beth Moses Cemetery in Farmingdale, Long Island. Though the community had only a day’s notice, close to 200 people turned out, including more than 50 of Sinder’s sons’ friends.
Julie@DowntownExpress.com
Bruce Sinder, a developer and broker who brought artists and trendy stores to Soho and Tribeca, died of A.L.S. at his Franklin St. home Thurs., March 13. He was 55.
Sinvin Realty, Sinder’s firm, crafted landmark deals Downtown, like bringing Dean & DeLuca to the corner of Broadway and Prince St. in 1987. Sinvin also brought Balthazar, Marc Jacobs, Mad River Post and Adidas Downtown. “Bruce was one of the forefront creators of Tribeca and Soho,” said Carole DeSaram, who worked for Sinder for years. “You didn’t call them developers in those days. It wasn’t people who had all this money and ran around — it was just people buying buildings, and hoping.” Sinder also began buying properties in Soho and Tribeca 30 years ago when the neighborhoods were a far cry from what they are today.
“These were desolate areas — they were wastelands,” DeSaram said. “From the tip of Manhattan up into the Village, you’d have to go up to Bleecker St. before you saw lights. There was nobody out.” Sinder was one of the people who turned all of that around. He started off buying empty warehouses and converting them to artist lofts in the late 1970s, when he and Steve Levin founded Sinvin Realty. They created the company’s name by combining “Sinder” and “Levin.” “We saw these beautiful, vacant buildings,” Levin recalled. “We just bought them cheap, $6 to $7 a square foot — how could you not buy them?”
Some of the deals were unconventional, with Sinder and Levin writing the rules as they went. They leased large spaces to artists, who subleased to other tenants and lived free. They leased the top floor of one building to an eccentric who rollerskated around the perimeter.
When Levin spoke with his former colleagues in the real estate industry, who were still doing traditional deals, they didn’t understand. “They’d look at me and say, ‘You’ve got to be crazy,’” Levin said. “But we did find unorthodox guys who really loved these deals.”
“No one wanted to be out here except pioneers,” said Chris Owles, principal at Sinvin. “As the neighborhood evolved, [Sinder] and the business evolved as well…. The class of retailer changed, the customers changed, and Bruce and the company changed with them.” The key to Sinder’s success, Levin said, was that he knew how to negotiate a deal without pressing too hard.
“Bruce was the best,” Levin said. “He was honorable, honest, reliable and everybody liked him. He just got along well with everybody, unlike most real estate guys you knew.” Born Sept. 9, 1952 to Raymond and Marilyn Sinder, Bruce grew up in the Bronx and on Long Island. When he was 9, his mother suggested that he take guitar lessons, and Sinder immediately immersed himself in the instrument.
“He was in love with the guitar — literally in love with the guitar,” Marilyn Sinder said. The guitar slept on a white couch in the living room, a special couch that no one else was allowed to sit on. The first thing Sinder did when he woke up each morning was to pad downstairs, pick up the guitar and start strumming. Only after playing would he wash, get dressed and go to school.
Sinder graduated from SUNY-Buffalo in 1974 with a degree in psychology and a fervent desire to make music his career. But after graduating, he stumbled upon the passion that would ultimately become his career: real estate.
Sinder moved to what is now called Tribeca 33 years ago. He lived in Independence Plaza, and then bought a building on Franklin St., where his family continues to live. In 1983, Sinder and several partners opened Bon Temps Rouler, a popular Cajun Creole restaurant, on Reade St. The restaurant, run by Sinder’s brother, is now called Spaghetti Western.
About four years ago, Sinder started feeling numbness in his legs. Doctors confirmed what he had already suspected: He had A.L.S., also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, a progressive illness that paralyzes the body while the mind stays intact. As his body deteriorated, Sinder continued attending his son’s soccer games and going to work, long after he lost the ability to walk. He commuted on his motorized wheelchair along West St. and later rode a handicapped bus. By the time Sinder retired last Thanksgiving, he had difficulty speaking and communicated mainly through e-mail. “It was just another indication of the same kind of persistence and consistency he exhibited throughout his career,” Owles said. “Even if he couldn’t do the same things he once could, he would always try.” Ellen Gould, musical director at The New Shul, where Sinder attended services, remembered his lyrical guitar playing, and later, when he could no longer play the guitar, his strong singing voice.
“As he lost the ability to communicate with words, his tender-heartedness got louder, and it was palpable,” Gould said. Sinder is survived by his mother, Marilyn; brother Robert; wife Stacie; and children Jackson, 18, and Reuben, 15. The funeral and graveside service were held last Friday at the Beth Moses Cemetery in Farmingdale, Long Island. Though the community had only a day’s notice, close to 200 people turned out, including more than 50 of Sinder’s sons’ friends.
Julie@DowntownExpress.com
Board looks to extend one of Tribeca’s historic districts
By Julie Shapiro
In northwestern Tribeca, the buildings span two centuries. Crumbling brick homes and corniced warehouses stand among more modern structures. Over time, developers replace the old with the new, a cycle Community Board 1 is hoping to stop. C.B. 1 is seeking to landmark the northwestern corner of Tribeca, which was left out when the rest of North Tribeca was landmarked in 1992. The V-shaped swatch, a roughly 10-block area, is bordered by Canal and West Sts. and extends south to Laight St. and east almost to the Holland Tunnel entrance.
“It’s long overdue,” said Roger Byrom, chairperson of the Landmarks Committee, in a phone interview. “This is completing unfinished business, really.” Carole DeSaram, chairperson of the C.B. 1 Tribeca Committee, helped lead the 10-year effort to get the North Tribeca Historic District in 1992. The inclusion of the rest of North Tribeca would unify the neighborhood, she said. “It’ll keep the texture together, the lines, the continuity,” DeSaram said in a phone interview. “You cannot have monstrous glass-fronted buildings next to buildings built prior to 1900. It just doesn’t look right — it just doesn’t work.” Basha Estroff, a Columbia University urban planning student who works for the board through the borough president’s fellowship program, put together a presentation on the landmarking. The idea received unanimous approval at the Landmarks Committee last week. Estroff’s presentation, based in part on DeSaram and board member Andy Neale’s research, will go to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which will make the final decision.
In her presentation to the Landmarks Committee, Estroff divided northwestern Tribeca’s development into four major periods, beginning with the early 19th century. The brick, utilitarian buildings from this period show “rational design with an emphasis on structural quality,” Estroff said. A three-story brick building at 437 Washington St., sandwiched between two taller buildings, fits this mold perfectly and also has an arched window, which is characteristic of the period.
In the late 19th century, the neighborhood saw many new warehouses for the paper and soap industries and for food processors. The white-stone, corniced structures, like the seven-story building at 459-463 Greenwich St., are characterized by cast-iron storefronts. The Greenwich St. building represents a “first-class commercial store,” in terms of the quality of design and construction, Estroff said. A building doesn’t have to be beautiful to be worth preserving, Estroff said. Some pictures she showed of buildings from the early to mid 20th century, like the truck and auto shop repair shop at 276-277 West St., elicited grimaces from the board.
“They’re not the prettiest,” Estroff acknowledged, but she said they represent an important shift, not just in Tribeca but also in the entire city: the emergence of the automobile.
As an example of a building from the mid-20th century, Estroff showed an unpalatable yellow warehouse at 278-280 West St., which was torn down so Jack Parker Corp. could build condos. Although the warehouse was “not as aesthetically pleasing as some of the store-and-loft buildings of the late 19th century, [it] was certainly representative of the neighborhood’s history,” Estroff said. Estroff estimates that 65 percent of the parcels in northwest Tribeca have historical buildings. The rest are either vacant or have modern or “noncontributing” buildings.
“That could be an issue — it was last time,” Estroff said, referring to the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s decision to exclude northwest Tribeca 16 years ago.
Since 1992, the district has lost both contributing and noncontributing buildings, said Michael Levine, director of land use and planning for C.B. 1. “It’s a miracle that many of the buildings are still intact,” Byrom said. In the area near Tribeca South, another historic district the board had hoped to extend, hardly any historic buildings remain unaltered, he said. “We want to not allow the same thing to happen in the north,” Byrom added.
Landmarks Committee members were so enthusiastic about the landmarking application that they asked Estroff to start working on applications for south, central and west Tribeca.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission might not go for the whole thing, but “something is better than nothing,” board member Rick Landman said. A possible obstacle to the landmarking is the number of “soft sites” in the neighborhood, lots that are either undeveloped or underdeveloped. But landmarking the district wouldn’t prevent new development, Levine said — it would just mean that all new buildings would have to come before the Landmarks Preservation Commission. “We’re pro-development, just appropriate development,” Byrom said. Estroff thinks there are enough historic buildings to make a good case for landmarking, and Levine agrees. The L.P.C. did not return a call for comment.
Julie@DowntownExpress.com
In northwestern Tribeca, the buildings span two centuries. Crumbling brick homes and corniced warehouses stand among more modern structures. Over time, developers replace the old with the new, a cycle Community Board 1 is hoping to stop. C.B. 1 is seeking to landmark the northwestern corner of Tribeca, which was left out when the rest of North Tribeca was landmarked in 1992. The V-shaped swatch, a roughly 10-block area, is bordered by Canal and West Sts. and extends south to Laight St. and east almost to the Holland Tunnel entrance.
“It’s long overdue,” said Roger Byrom, chairperson of the Landmarks Committee, in a phone interview. “This is completing unfinished business, really.” Carole DeSaram, chairperson of the C.B. 1 Tribeca Committee, helped lead the 10-year effort to get the North Tribeca Historic District in 1992. The inclusion of the rest of North Tribeca would unify the neighborhood, she said. “It’ll keep the texture together, the lines, the continuity,” DeSaram said in a phone interview. “You cannot have monstrous glass-fronted buildings next to buildings built prior to 1900. It just doesn’t look right — it just doesn’t work.” Basha Estroff, a Columbia University urban planning student who works for the board through the borough president’s fellowship program, put together a presentation on the landmarking. The idea received unanimous approval at the Landmarks Committee last week. Estroff’s presentation, based in part on DeSaram and board member Andy Neale’s research, will go to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which will make the final decision.
In her presentation to the Landmarks Committee, Estroff divided northwestern Tribeca’s development into four major periods, beginning with the early 19th century. The brick, utilitarian buildings from this period show “rational design with an emphasis on structural quality,” Estroff said. A three-story brick building at 437 Washington St., sandwiched between two taller buildings, fits this mold perfectly and also has an arched window, which is characteristic of the period.
In the late 19th century, the neighborhood saw many new warehouses for the paper and soap industries and for food processors. The white-stone, corniced structures, like the seven-story building at 459-463 Greenwich St., are characterized by cast-iron storefronts. The Greenwich St. building represents a “first-class commercial store,” in terms of the quality of design and construction, Estroff said. A building doesn’t have to be beautiful to be worth preserving, Estroff said. Some pictures she showed of buildings from the early to mid 20th century, like the truck and auto shop repair shop at 276-277 West St., elicited grimaces from the board.
“They’re not the prettiest,” Estroff acknowledged, but she said they represent an important shift, not just in Tribeca but also in the entire city: the emergence of the automobile.
As an example of a building from the mid-20th century, Estroff showed an unpalatable yellow warehouse at 278-280 West St., which was torn down so Jack Parker Corp. could build condos. Although the warehouse was “not as aesthetically pleasing as some of the store-and-loft buildings of the late 19th century, [it] was certainly representative of the neighborhood’s history,” Estroff said. Estroff estimates that 65 percent of the parcels in northwest Tribeca have historical buildings. The rest are either vacant or have modern or “noncontributing” buildings.
“That could be an issue — it was last time,” Estroff said, referring to the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s decision to exclude northwest Tribeca 16 years ago.
Since 1992, the district has lost both contributing and noncontributing buildings, said Michael Levine, director of land use and planning for C.B. 1. “It’s a miracle that many of the buildings are still intact,” Byrom said. In the area near Tribeca South, another historic district the board had hoped to extend, hardly any historic buildings remain unaltered, he said. “We want to not allow the same thing to happen in the north,” Byrom added.
Landmarks Committee members were so enthusiastic about the landmarking application that they asked Estroff to start working on applications for south, central and west Tribeca.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission might not go for the whole thing, but “something is better than nothing,” board member Rick Landman said. A possible obstacle to the landmarking is the number of “soft sites” in the neighborhood, lots that are either undeveloped or underdeveloped. But landmarking the district wouldn’t prevent new development, Levine said — it would just mean that all new buildings would have to come before the Landmarks Preservation Commission. “We’re pro-development, just appropriate development,” Byrom said. Estroff thinks there are enough historic buildings to make a good case for landmarking, and Levine agrees. The L.P.C. did not return a call for comment.
Julie@DowntownExpress.com
Study Quantifies the Frustrations of Parking
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
Published: March 15, 2008
It’s official: There really is nowhere to park in Lower Manhattan. Related: Maps of Parking in Lower Manhattan (pdf)Lower Manhattan Parking Survey (pdf)
A long-awaited city study has found that the area is so choked with vehicles using government-issued parking placards that there is little if any room for those without placards — in other words, most drivers — to park. In the financial district alone, the study found that on a typical workday, there were three times as many cars without placards trying to park as there were on-street spaces for them.
Over all in Lower Manhattan, the number of private vehicles exceeded the legal spaces by almost 30 percent, and many drivers, bypassing costly garages, were taking their chances by parking illegally. The study was released Friday by the city’s Transportation Department.
In the area it covered, largely the area south of Canal Street, there were only 1,105 metered parking spaces and 871 unregulated spaces available to the drivers without placards, for a total of 1,976 spaces — far fewer than the number of cars pouring into Lower Manhattan every day. In the financial district and the South Street Seaport area, there were only 138 parking spots for the general public. Battery Park City had 201, and TriBeCa had 326.
By contrast, there were about 11,000 spaces in Lower Manhattan available for drivers with placards, including spots designated for authorized vehicles, loading zones, no-parking zones, and all the metered and unregulated spaces open to the public. Many placards allow free parking in metered spaces. “It’s one of the worst neighborhoods you could park in,” said Mike Singh, 52, a contractor from Queens who parked his sport utility vehicle on Friday by a fire hydrant near Hudson and Harrison Streets in TriBeCa. “It’s beyond everything. You’re going all over, looking, and you see nothing.” Mr. Singh said he often parks illegally and pays someone to sit in his truck all day and to move it if a parking agent appears. Nearby, Guillermo Berra, 26, was double-parked on Harrison Street, waiting to pick up his wife from her job. “I go around in circles,” he said, describing the search for a spot.
While the study paints a dire picture of the fierce game of parking-space musical chairs downtown, officials said that a 20 percent reduction in government placards, ordered in January by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, would bring improvement. A separate survey of placards found that at least 142,000 were in circulation. City Hall said the reduction would be completed by September. “We can see from the study that a 20 percent reduction will have a big impact on the parking situation in Lower Manhattan,” said Bruce Schaller, deputy commissioner for planning and sustainability at the Transportation Department, which had paid a consultant $570,000 for the study released Friday. He said other steps would be taken, like increasing enforcement.
The study illustrated the lengths that drivers will go to when faced with an acute parking shortage. The study found that a quarter of all vehicles in Lower Manhattan were parked illegally: either blocking crosswalks, fire hydrants or bus stops, or parking in no-standing or no-stopping areas (neither private vehicles nor vehicles with official placards may park that way).
In Battery Park City, fully half of all vehicles were parked illegally during the 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. period covered by the survey. The biggest contributors to the parking crunch were vehicles with law enforcement placards, which made up 25 percent of all vehicles in the area. Additionally, they outnumbered the on-street spaces designated exclusively for law enforcement parking by more than two to one.
That means there is a significant spillover by these vehicles into metered and unmetered spots, which could otherwise be used by the public. Many drivers with law enforcement placards also park in loading zones, which causes trucks to double-park, further tangling traffic on the street.
Vehicles with law enforcement placards are also the most likely to park in an unsafe way, according to the study. Among the nearly 700 vehicles with placards that were spotted parked in crosswalks or at hydrants, double-parked or parked in other hazardous ways, more than half belonged to law enforcement. The study also found many fake placards. They accounted for 9 percent of all placard parking during the study period.
The data for the study was collected in fall 2006 and consisted of a census of all parked cars on the street from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Community groups in the area have long complained about excessive placard use and had been impatiently awaiting the study’s release.
Colin Moynihan contributed reporting.
Published: March 15, 2008
It’s official: There really is nowhere to park in Lower Manhattan. Related: Maps of Parking in Lower Manhattan (pdf)Lower Manhattan Parking Survey (pdf)
A long-awaited city study has found that the area is so choked with vehicles using government-issued parking placards that there is little if any room for those without placards — in other words, most drivers — to park. In the financial district alone, the study found that on a typical workday, there were three times as many cars without placards trying to park as there were on-street spaces for them.
Over all in Lower Manhattan, the number of private vehicles exceeded the legal spaces by almost 30 percent, and many drivers, bypassing costly garages, were taking their chances by parking illegally. The study was released Friday by the city’s Transportation Department.
In the area it covered, largely the area south of Canal Street, there were only 1,105 metered parking spaces and 871 unregulated spaces available to the drivers without placards, for a total of 1,976 spaces — far fewer than the number of cars pouring into Lower Manhattan every day. In the financial district and the South Street Seaport area, there were only 138 parking spots for the general public. Battery Park City had 201, and TriBeCa had 326.
By contrast, there were about 11,000 spaces in Lower Manhattan available for drivers with placards, including spots designated for authorized vehicles, loading zones, no-parking zones, and all the metered and unregulated spaces open to the public. Many placards allow free parking in metered spaces. “It’s one of the worst neighborhoods you could park in,” said Mike Singh, 52, a contractor from Queens who parked his sport utility vehicle on Friday by a fire hydrant near Hudson and Harrison Streets in TriBeCa. “It’s beyond everything. You’re going all over, looking, and you see nothing.” Mr. Singh said he often parks illegally and pays someone to sit in his truck all day and to move it if a parking agent appears. Nearby, Guillermo Berra, 26, was double-parked on Harrison Street, waiting to pick up his wife from her job. “I go around in circles,” he said, describing the search for a spot.
While the study paints a dire picture of the fierce game of parking-space musical chairs downtown, officials said that a 20 percent reduction in government placards, ordered in January by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, would bring improvement. A separate survey of placards found that at least 142,000 were in circulation. City Hall said the reduction would be completed by September. “We can see from the study that a 20 percent reduction will have a big impact on the parking situation in Lower Manhattan,” said Bruce Schaller, deputy commissioner for planning and sustainability at the Transportation Department, which had paid a consultant $570,000 for the study released Friday. He said other steps would be taken, like increasing enforcement.
The study illustrated the lengths that drivers will go to when faced with an acute parking shortage. The study found that a quarter of all vehicles in Lower Manhattan were parked illegally: either blocking crosswalks, fire hydrants or bus stops, or parking in no-standing or no-stopping areas (neither private vehicles nor vehicles with official placards may park that way).
In Battery Park City, fully half of all vehicles were parked illegally during the 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. period covered by the survey. The biggest contributors to the parking crunch were vehicles with law enforcement placards, which made up 25 percent of all vehicles in the area. Additionally, they outnumbered the on-street spaces designated exclusively for law enforcement parking by more than two to one.
That means there is a significant spillover by these vehicles into metered and unmetered spots, which could otherwise be used by the public. Many drivers with law enforcement placards also park in loading zones, which causes trucks to double-park, further tangling traffic on the street.
Vehicles with law enforcement placards are also the most likely to park in an unsafe way, according to the study. Among the nearly 700 vehicles with placards that were spotted parked in crosswalks or at hydrants, double-parked or parked in other hazardous ways, more than half belonged to law enforcement. The study also found many fake placards. They accounted for 9 percent of all placard parking during the study period.
The data for the study was collected in fall 2006 and consisted of a census of all parked cars on the street from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Community groups in the area have long complained about excessive placard use and had been impatiently awaiting the study’s release.
Colin Moynihan contributed reporting.
Angela Costa, 54, Tribeca musician and writer
‘All That Jazz’ (An excerpt from Angela J. Costa’s poem, “All That Jazz”) Every musician knows there isnothing greater than the soundof the song moving through space finding its place in someone else’s heart allart is a love affairall love longs for a song for the breath to blow 12 bars of blues solo intoduet transcendence.Angela J. Costa, a long time Tribeca resident and musician/writer/poet in the New York arts scene, died of cancer on Jan. 18th. She was 54.
In the 1990s, Costa was a regular at the Nuyorican Poets Café, where Allen Ginsberg made a surprise appearance, saying to her after her performance, “It was really a pleasure to share the stage with you,” and CBGB, where owner Hilly Krystal became a mentor. Legendary songwriter Laura Nyro, a friend and fan, often attended her performances. She lived the last 21 years in Independence Plaza with her life partner, Elizabeth Primamore. The Downtown art scene first drew them to the neighborhood, Primamore said. In recent years, Costa became more and more concerned that artists were getting pushed out of Tribeca and that “Downtown was losing it’s creative edge and becoming too upscale,” Primamore said. Costa published a book of short verse, “1,000 Reasons You Might Think She is My Lover.” Her last work, a play, titled “New Years’ Resolution,” was debuted at the HB Playwrights Theater on Bank St. in December as part of a festival of holiday plays. At the time of her death, she was collaborating on a musical, “Jackson Road,” named after one of her songs.
With painter Don Kommit, Costa founded the Silk City Poets in Paterson, N.J., a poetry performance group in the early 1970s. She received the William Carlos Williams Poetry Award in 1975, and, in New York, studied with Diane Wakowski and Ntozake Shange. Various literary magazines and anthologies (Black Creation, Diversitas and Howling Dog) published her work. She often read on WBAI (“Ghosts in the Machine”) and appeared on Manhattan Cable’s “Radio Thin Air.”
Her life in poetry soon became a life in music. With writing partner, guitarist Liz Lamar, she formed a number of bands, most notably Run Girl Run, Angel and the Drunken Gods and Presents of Mind. Working with producer Mark Kamins (Madonna, Sinead O’Connor), she released her first single, “Hallelujah Dance,” in 1985. Three more recordings were to follow, the last a solo U.K. Release, “Soul Disease” (1997). Her bands played virtually every club Downtown from The Knitting Factory to The Ritz to The Pyramid Club.
Angela Joann Costa was born to Fred and Marianna Costa on June 13, 1953 in Haledon, New Jersey. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the William Paterson College and studied music and writing at The Julliard School, New York University, and The New School. She taught English at adult and neighborhood centers in the city before becoming a full time poet, writer and musician.
In addition to Primamore, Costa is survived by many friends.
In the 1990s, Costa was a regular at the Nuyorican Poets Café, where Allen Ginsberg made a surprise appearance, saying to her after her performance, “It was really a pleasure to share the stage with you,” and CBGB, where owner Hilly Krystal became a mentor. Legendary songwriter Laura Nyro, a friend and fan, often attended her performances. She lived the last 21 years in Independence Plaza with her life partner, Elizabeth Primamore. The Downtown art scene first drew them to the neighborhood, Primamore said. In recent years, Costa became more and more concerned that artists were getting pushed out of Tribeca and that “Downtown was losing it’s creative edge and becoming too upscale,” Primamore said. Costa published a book of short verse, “1,000 Reasons You Might Think She is My Lover.” Her last work, a play, titled “New Years’ Resolution,” was debuted at the HB Playwrights Theater on Bank St. in December as part of a festival of holiday plays. At the time of her death, she was collaborating on a musical, “Jackson Road,” named after one of her songs.
With painter Don Kommit, Costa founded the Silk City Poets in Paterson, N.J., a poetry performance group in the early 1970s. She received the William Carlos Williams Poetry Award in 1975, and, in New York, studied with Diane Wakowski and Ntozake Shange. Various literary magazines and anthologies (Black Creation, Diversitas and Howling Dog) published her work. She often read on WBAI (“Ghosts in the Machine”) and appeared on Manhattan Cable’s “Radio Thin Air.”
Her life in poetry soon became a life in music. With writing partner, guitarist Liz Lamar, she formed a number of bands, most notably Run Girl Run, Angel and the Drunken Gods and Presents of Mind. Working with producer Mark Kamins (Madonna, Sinead O’Connor), she released her first single, “Hallelujah Dance,” in 1985. Three more recordings were to follow, the last a solo U.K. Release, “Soul Disease” (1997). Her bands played virtually every club Downtown from The Knitting Factory to The Ritz to The Pyramid Club.
Angela Joann Costa was born to Fred and Marianna Costa on June 13, 1953 in Haledon, New Jersey. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the William Paterson College and studied music and writing at The Julliard School, New York University, and The New School. She taught English at adult and neighborhood centers in the city before becoming a full time poet, writer and musician.
In addition to Primamore, Costa is survived by many friends.
J.Crew's new Tribeca digs
This summer, Mickey Drexler's brand is opening its first-ever all-men's store inside NYC's The Liquor Store, 235 West Broadway (TriBeCa) at White St. An old tavern now considered a historical landmark.
(The companyncidentally just reported that revenues went up 9 percent last quarter.) The shop will carry the label's "best of the best," including its Collector's Item line of limited-edition clothes and accessories. But despite the building's origins, there are no plans to sell drinks.
[DNR]
Photo: nyc-architecture.com
(The companyncidentally just reported that revenues went up 9 percent last quarter.) The shop will carry the label's "best of the best," including its Collector's Item line of limited-edition clothes and accessories. But despite the building's origins, there are no plans to sell drinks.
[DNR]
Photo: nyc-architecture.com
Tribeca Film Festival unveils lineup
Event kicks off on April 23
By WINTER MILLER
'Let the Right One In' is one of Tribeca's competition films.After criticism that last year's event was overstuffed with pics, the seventh edition of the Tribeca Film Festival has pared its lineup by 20%, with a group of competish titles that tilts toward directorial debuts and pics that explore aspects of youth. The World Narrative Competition and World Docu Competition feature 12 films each. Notable names here include multihyphenate Nanni Moretti, "This Is England" writer-director Shane Meadows, Irish dramatist Declan Recks, German documentarian Rosa von Praunheim and, as docu subject, art photog Cindy Sherman. The fest's noncompetitive Encounters section, unveiled Tuesday, offers 11 narrative pics and 10 docs, including world preems helmed by Melvin Van Peebles and Bill Plympton; features starring Frank Langella, William H. Macy and Sissy Spacek; and docus about John F. Kennedy and the Dalai Lama.
Tribeca kicks off April 23 and runs through May 4 at two hubs in Lower Manhattan, with reduced ticket prices and a more centralized and coherent plan for screenings and events.
The entire lineup consists of 122 feature films, down from last year's 159 pics. Selections were culled from 2,327 feature submissions.
The slimmed-down lineup comes as a response to critics who carped that the 2007 edition of Tribeca was too dense and sprawling, given the fest's roots as a downtown event launched as a community rebuilding effort after Sept. 11.Tribeca remains a grab-bag of splashy studio premieres (recent years have brought "Spider-Man 3," "Mission: Impossible III" and "Poseidon"); community events such as a well-attended family street fair and an outdoor screening series; and a smattering of indie pickups. Universal's "Baby Mama" has been set as the fest opener, and other studio titles are expected to be unveiled soon.
Among Tuesday's announced titles are 55 world preems from 31 countries, and 10 international, 26 North American and eight U.S. preems. Of the 145 directors, 66 are first-timers. The team making selections is led by artistic director Peter Scarlet, with director of programming David Kwok and senior programmer Genna Terranova. The feature group includes films about adolescents and the complex relationships within families as teens and parents grapple with coming-of-age issues and a landscape featuring death, sexuality and immigration. The docu section, which has earned an estimable rep thanks to the preems of prize winners such as "Taxi to the Dark Side" and "Jesus Camp" includes two films about life in Iraq. "Baghdad High" follows four high schoolers given cameras that offer a window into adolescent life during wartime. "War, Love, God & Madness" takes viewers behind the scenes of a challenging and dangerous film shoot in Iraq in 2003 at the outset of the U.S. invasion.
"The digital revolution has spawned far more filmmakers than ever existed before," Scarlet said. "When you see as many films as we do, you see an awful lot of dreck. ... We've tried to cull the exciting ones." A dozen narrative pics and a dozen docs compete for kudos and $100,000 in total prize money. Fest planners said a primary goal is attracting filmmakers from around the world to interact with auds and industry. "This year's festival is a quintessential reflection of our world," said event co-founder Jane Rosenthal.
Last year's successful co-venture with ESPN, the Sports Film Festival, will return this year with 11 pics that also are included in the main section but focus on sports or competish. Pics also will screen as part of two "marathon" days when auds can hunker down for back-to-back viewings.
The world narrative feature category includes: "57000 km entre nous" (57,000 Kilometers Between Us), directed by Delphine Kreuter, deals with a teen girl's online refuge from her complicated relationships with her stepdad and biological father, who has become a transsexual.
"Let the Right One In," based on a bestselling Swedish novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, follows a budding romance between a 12-year-old boy and the girl next door, who happens to be a vampire. (Magnolia Pictures' Magnet label is releasing the pic Stateside.) "Newcastle," written and directed by Dan Castle, concerns a 17-year-old surfer who alternates success with self-destruction.
"Trucker" stars Michelle Monaghan as a tough-talking truck driver faced with raising her estranged 11-year-old son.
The Encounters picks include:
"Bart Got a Room," helmed by Brian Heckler, which stars Cheryl Hines and Macy as parents of an angst-ridden high schooler on the eve of the prom.
"The Caller," directed by Richard Ledes, which stars Langella and Elliott Gould in a noir about an executive trying to expose his company's corrupt activities.
More than one option
(Film) The Caller
Malcolm McDowell, Arthur Allan Seidelman
(Film) The Caller
n "Confessions of an Ex-DoofusItchyFooted Mutha," written and directed by Van Peebles, which follows a semiautobiographical protag whose adventures take him from Harlem to the high seas and back again.
A new program, "Behind the Screens: Films and Conversations About Truth, Clarity and Responsibility," will offer a series of Q&As and crowd chats with filmmakers and talent.
Ticket prices drop from last year to $15 for evening and weekend screenings and $8 for daytime weekday and latenight screenings.
(Dade Hayes contributed to this report.)
By WINTER MILLER
'Let the Right One In' is one of Tribeca's competition films.After criticism that last year's event was overstuffed with pics, the seventh edition of the Tribeca Film Festival has pared its lineup by 20%, with a group of competish titles that tilts toward directorial debuts and pics that explore aspects of youth. The World Narrative Competition and World Docu Competition feature 12 films each. Notable names here include multihyphenate Nanni Moretti, "This Is England" writer-director Shane Meadows, Irish dramatist Declan Recks, German documentarian Rosa von Praunheim and, as docu subject, art photog Cindy Sherman. The fest's noncompetitive Encounters section, unveiled Tuesday, offers 11 narrative pics and 10 docs, including world preems helmed by Melvin Van Peebles and Bill Plympton; features starring Frank Langella, William H. Macy and Sissy Spacek; and docus about John F. Kennedy and the Dalai Lama.
Tribeca kicks off April 23 and runs through May 4 at two hubs in Lower Manhattan, with reduced ticket prices and a more centralized and coherent plan for screenings and events.
The entire lineup consists of 122 feature films, down from last year's 159 pics. Selections were culled from 2,327 feature submissions.
The slimmed-down lineup comes as a response to critics who carped that the 2007 edition of Tribeca was too dense and sprawling, given the fest's roots as a downtown event launched as a community rebuilding effort after Sept. 11.Tribeca remains a grab-bag of splashy studio premieres (recent years have brought "Spider-Man 3," "Mission: Impossible III" and "Poseidon"); community events such as a well-attended family street fair and an outdoor screening series; and a smattering of indie pickups. Universal's "Baby Mama" has been set as the fest opener, and other studio titles are expected to be unveiled soon.
Among Tuesday's announced titles are 55 world preems from 31 countries, and 10 international, 26 North American and eight U.S. preems. Of the 145 directors, 66 are first-timers. The team making selections is led by artistic director Peter Scarlet, with director of programming David Kwok and senior programmer Genna Terranova. The feature group includes films about adolescents and the complex relationships within families as teens and parents grapple with coming-of-age issues and a landscape featuring death, sexuality and immigration. The docu section, which has earned an estimable rep thanks to the preems of prize winners such as "Taxi to the Dark Side" and "Jesus Camp" includes two films about life in Iraq. "Baghdad High" follows four high schoolers given cameras that offer a window into adolescent life during wartime. "War, Love, God & Madness" takes viewers behind the scenes of a challenging and dangerous film shoot in Iraq in 2003 at the outset of the U.S. invasion.
"The digital revolution has spawned far more filmmakers than ever existed before," Scarlet said. "When you see as many films as we do, you see an awful lot of dreck. ... We've tried to cull the exciting ones." A dozen narrative pics and a dozen docs compete for kudos and $100,000 in total prize money. Fest planners said a primary goal is attracting filmmakers from around the world to interact with auds and industry. "This year's festival is a quintessential reflection of our world," said event co-founder Jane Rosenthal.
Last year's successful co-venture with ESPN, the Sports Film Festival, will return this year with 11 pics that also are included in the main section but focus on sports or competish. Pics also will screen as part of two "marathon" days when auds can hunker down for back-to-back viewings.
The world narrative feature category includes: "57000 km entre nous" (57,000 Kilometers Between Us), directed by Delphine Kreuter, deals with a teen girl's online refuge from her complicated relationships with her stepdad and biological father, who has become a transsexual.
"Let the Right One In," based on a bestselling Swedish novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, follows a budding romance between a 12-year-old boy and the girl next door, who happens to be a vampire. (Magnolia Pictures' Magnet label is releasing the pic Stateside.) "Newcastle," written and directed by Dan Castle, concerns a 17-year-old surfer who alternates success with self-destruction.
"Trucker" stars Michelle Monaghan as a tough-talking truck driver faced with raising her estranged 11-year-old son.
The Encounters picks include:
"Bart Got a Room," helmed by Brian Heckler, which stars Cheryl Hines and Macy as parents of an angst-ridden high schooler on the eve of the prom.
"The Caller," directed by Richard Ledes, which stars Langella and Elliott Gould in a noir about an executive trying to expose his company's corrupt activities.
More than one option
(Film) The Caller
Malcolm McDowell, Arthur Allan Seidelman
(Film) The Caller
n "Confessions of an Ex-DoofusItchyFooted Mutha," written and directed by Van Peebles, which follows a semiautobiographical protag whose adventures take him from Harlem to the high seas and back again.
A new program, "Behind the Screens: Films and Conversations About Truth, Clarity and Responsibility," will offer a series of Q&As and crowd chats with filmmakers and talent.
Ticket prices drop from last year to $15 for evening and weekend screenings and $8 for daytime weekday and latenight screenings.
(Dade Hayes contributed to this report.)
America's Next Top Models Thrash Tribeca Loft
THE 14 wannabe models from the latest cycle of "America's Next Top Model" are accused of making a dump out of the gorgeous $6 million TriBeCa loft where they lived for 10 weeks.
Anisa Productions, which makes the show hosted by Tyra Banks, rented the loft at 39 Lispenard St., promising landlord Michael Marvisi that any damage would be minor, according to an insider.
Instead, we're told, the crew "punched hundreds of holes in the ceiling to hang lighting equipment" and ruined the Brazilian wood floors, forcing the owner to tear them up and install all new flooring when the women moved out three weeks ago.
"These girls not only destroyed the floors, it appears they had food fights. There's ketchup and coffee splattered all over the landlord's $20,000 white drapes. There's lipstick on the walls," said the insider. "They moved in furniture and made holes all along the walls."
According to our source, while the beauties were staying in the 4,200-square-foot loft, they damaged a $15,000 chandelier beyond repair and splashed so much water around, the bathroom was ruined and had to be tested for mold.
"A plumber had to come fix the toilet and the water caused $90,000 worth of damage to the electrical store on the first floor," said our source.
"America's Next Top Model" also "skipped out on" a $1,500 electric bill, claimed our source, who estimated the damage totals $500,000.
"The landlord is devastated," the source said. "Three other shows approached him [to use the loft] and he turned them all down for 'Top Model.' And a tenant was supposed to move in a week ago, but when the place wasn't ready, they pulled out. Tyra Banks should be ashamed of herself."
The show offered to settle for $125,000, but has not paid Marvisi any money, according to our insider. The landlord now plans to file a lawsuit against the show.
Reps for both Anisa Productions and the show said, "No comment." A rep for Banks did not return calls for comment.
Anisa Productions, which makes the show hosted by Tyra Banks, rented the loft at 39 Lispenard St., promising landlord Michael Marvisi that any damage would be minor, according to an insider.
Instead, we're told, the crew "punched hundreds of holes in the ceiling to hang lighting equipment" and ruined the Brazilian wood floors, forcing the owner to tear them up and install all new flooring when the women moved out three weeks ago.
"These girls not only destroyed the floors, it appears they had food fights. There's ketchup and coffee splattered all over the landlord's $20,000 white drapes. There's lipstick on the walls," said the insider. "They moved in furniture and made holes all along the walls."
According to our source, while the beauties were staying in the 4,200-square-foot loft, they damaged a $15,000 chandelier beyond repair and splashed so much water around, the bathroom was ruined and had to be tested for mold.
"A plumber had to come fix the toilet and the water caused $90,000 worth of damage to the electrical store on the first floor," said our source.
"America's Next Top Model" also "skipped out on" a $1,500 electric bill, claimed our source, who estimated the damage totals $500,000.
"The landlord is devastated," the source said. "Three other shows approached him [to use the loft] and he turned them all down for 'Top Model.' And a tenant was supposed to move in a week ago, but when the place wasn't ready, they pulled out. Tyra Banks should be ashamed of herself."
The show offered to settle for $125,000, but has not paid Marvisi any money, according to our insider. The landlord now plans to file a lawsuit against the show.
Reps for both Anisa Productions and the show said, "No comment." A rep for Banks did not return calls for comment.
Bouley's Brushstrokes
Bouley defenders Chef David Bouley threw in the towel at least temporarily last week and withdrew his application for a liquor license at what will be his first Japanese restaurant, Brushstrokes, but that didn’t stop some community members from continuing to lobby on his behalf.
Wendy Chapman, Dawn Cook and Sarah Reetz, co-chairpersons of this year’s Taste of Tribeca, wrote a letter to Community Board 1 singing Bouley’s praises.
“These establishments are the top of their industry and well run,” they wrote of his Tribeca restaurants, Bouley and Danube. “People from all over know about our little triangle of the world in part because of what [Bouley] and other top chefs built here.” They call Bouley a generous neighbor who has steadily supported local schools through Taste, and Bob Townley’s new community center.
That’s a remarkably different picture than the one painted by Julie Nadel, a C.B. 1 member who led the fight against the liquor license and called Bouley anything but a good neighbor.
But since Bouley withdrew his application for the W. Broadway spot, the fight appears over, at least for now.
Wendy Chapman, Dawn Cook and Sarah Reetz, co-chairpersons of this year’s Taste of Tribeca, wrote a letter to Community Board 1 singing Bouley’s praises.
“These establishments are the top of their industry and well run,” they wrote of his Tribeca restaurants, Bouley and Danube. “People from all over know about our little triangle of the world in part because of what [Bouley] and other top chefs built here.” They call Bouley a generous neighbor who has steadily supported local schools through Taste, and Bob Townley’s new community center.
That’s a remarkably different picture than the one painted by Julie Nadel, a C.B. 1 member who led the fight against the liquor license and called Bouley anything but a good neighbor.
But since Bouley withdrew his application for the W. Broadway spot, the fight appears over, at least for now.
Tribeca and Chelsea sections starting to take shape
By Christopher W. Martin
Building toward the 10th anniversary of the Hudson River Park Act, 2007 witnessed several accomplishments in construction and park use that brought the vision of a completed and fully operational park one step closer to reality. This past year saw a tremendous amount of construction in Chelsea and Tribeca, as well as Pier 86 at W. 46th St., and the park’s completed sections were enjoyed by millions of visitors.
Located just north of the Chelsea Piers sports and entertainment complex and slated for completion in 2009, Chelsea Cove will include three new public park piers, a 3.5-acre lawn, groves of trees, a wildflower meadow and public garden, a carousel and a skateboarding park. In 2007, the Hudson River Park Trust began pile-driving at Pier 62, completed the construction of the Pier 64 marine work, and finished the 25th St. maintenance building at the northern edge of the area. Pile-driving for Piers 62 and 63, and upland construction at Chelsea Cove will continue throughout 2008.
The Tribeca section will feature two spectacular new piers and an extraordinary upland park. The Tribeca section’s Pier 25 will stretch 1,000 feet out into the Hudson River and have numerous community amenities, including an exciting new playground, practice recreation field, mini-golf and snack bar, beach volleyball and mooring field. Pile-driving was completed on Pier 25 in 2007 and the new pier deck has now been installed.
Pier 26 is slated to include a community boathouse, waterside cafe and a future estuarium devoted to the ecology of the Hudson River. A large section of Tribeca’s upland area was substantially completed, and a considerable portion will be opened in the summer of this year: That will include basketball courts, tennis courts (already complete), public art and beautiful landscaping with natural grasses, lawns and gardens.
The Trust, its board of directors and the park’s advisory council continue to work together with the community and the potential developers on the development of Pier 40 at W. Houston St. The focus of 2007 was evaluating the development submissions, the target of which remains repairing the pier’s deteriorating infrastructure, preserving the equivalent of 50 percent of the pier’s footprint as public open space, and creating a revenue stream that will support the self-sustaining mission of the park for maintenance and operations.
Finally, as one of New York’s premier recreational destinations, Hudson River Park had something to offer everyone in 2007. The park’s many lawns, gardens and piers offered numerous opportunities for active and passive recreation, including sunbathing, reading, picnicking, sports or simply watching one of the Hudson River’s spectacular sunsets. The park also had a full calendar of free public events that included first-rate music, movies, dancing and educational programs, all of which were experienced in the park’s beautiful waterfront setting.
Building toward the 10th anniversary of the Hudson River Park Act, 2007 witnessed several accomplishments in construction and park use that brought the vision of a completed and fully operational park one step closer to reality. This past year saw a tremendous amount of construction in Chelsea and Tribeca, as well as Pier 86 at W. 46th St., and the park’s completed sections were enjoyed by millions of visitors.
Located just north of the Chelsea Piers sports and entertainment complex and slated for completion in 2009, Chelsea Cove will include three new public park piers, a 3.5-acre lawn, groves of trees, a wildflower meadow and public garden, a carousel and a skateboarding park. In 2007, the Hudson River Park Trust began pile-driving at Pier 62, completed the construction of the Pier 64 marine work, and finished the 25th St. maintenance building at the northern edge of the area. Pile-driving for Piers 62 and 63, and upland construction at Chelsea Cove will continue throughout 2008.
The Tribeca section will feature two spectacular new piers and an extraordinary upland park. The Tribeca section’s Pier 25 will stretch 1,000 feet out into the Hudson River and have numerous community amenities, including an exciting new playground, practice recreation field, mini-golf and snack bar, beach volleyball and mooring field. Pile-driving was completed on Pier 25 in 2007 and the new pier deck has now been installed.
Pier 26 is slated to include a community boathouse, waterside cafe and a future estuarium devoted to the ecology of the Hudson River. A large section of Tribeca’s upland area was substantially completed, and a considerable portion will be opened in the summer of this year: That will include basketball courts, tennis courts (already complete), public art and beautiful landscaping with natural grasses, lawns and gardens.
The Trust, its board of directors and the park’s advisory council continue to work together with the community and the potential developers on the development of Pier 40 at W. Houston St. The focus of 2007 was evaluating the development submissions, the target of which remains repairing the pier’s deteriorating infrastructure, preserving the equivalent of 50 percent of the pier’s footprint as public open space, and creating a revenue stream that will support the self-sustaining mission of the park for maintenance and operations.
Finally, as one of New York’s premier recreational destinations, Hudson River Park had something to offer everyone in 2007. The park’s many lawns, gardens and piers offered numerous opportunities for active and passive recreation, including sunbathing, reading, picnicking, sports or simply watching one of the Hudson River’s spectacular sunsets. The park also had a full calendar of free public events that included first-rate music, movies, dancing and educational programs, all of which were experienced in the park’s beautiful waterfront setting.
New York Urban Vintage
Urban Vintage
By PETER HELLMANMarch 5, 2008
A neighborhood wine shop is like an old-fashioned apothecary — or so it struck me while hanging out one recent afternoon at Frankly Wines, a new and tiny shop in TriBeCa. Customers come into both kinds of establishments looking for savvy counsel. The difference, of course, is that at a wine shop, they're seeking prescriptions to bring pleasure and well-being, not relief from pain or illness. One such seeker at this shop was a stylish young woman who said to proprietor Christy Frank, "My boyfriend is cooking catfish for dinner. What can you recommend for around $15?"
"How will he cook the catfish?" Ms. Frank asked, but the young woman couldn't say.
"He'll probably batter fry it," Ms. Frank said. She took a few steps — that's as far as you can go in any direction in this shop — and plucked off the shelf a bottle of MonteNovo ($13), a Spanish white wine made from an obscure but lively grape called godello. "This is delicate enough so it won't overwhelm the catfish, but it's also got some nice body so it'll stand up to the batter," she said.
After the customer had gone on her way, Ms. Frank said, "That's the fun stuff — when people give you definitive constraints and a price point."
"It's often a trick to figure out the difference between what they say and what they mean," she says of her customers. And sometimes, the trick is to suggest the unexpected. A major challenge was posed, for example, by a customer who needed a gift bottle for a friend with a trophy cellar — but the customer's price limit was $25. "I gave him a bottle of a wine nobody's heard of — Dr. Konstantin Frank's Rkatsiteli, a Georgian variety that has a small planting in the Finger Lakes," she says. "My theory is, if you can't spend the big money, then go obscure."
Growing up in Tiffin, Ohio ("surrounded by cornfields"), Ms. Frank says, "I won't tell you how young I was when I started drinking wine coolers." Her introduction to the real thing came when she took a wine appreciation course at Cornell University, and worked for a local wine shop. In 2007, after equipping herself with an MBA from Columbia, Ms. Frank worked for Moet-Hennessy USA, an upscale importer. Seven years later, she says, "I couldn't stand to write one more brand plan, so I thought, okay, I'm going to open a wine shop. Everyone said, 'Oh, retail hours, you're working all the time.' The reality is, as a brand manager, I was working all the time anyway."
It took just two weeks for her to find a location on West Broadway south of Chambers Street, only a block away from her TriBeCa home. While she can't match the stock of bigger shops, she points to a marketing experiment that shows that smaller can be advantageous: "If you offer people their choice of a dozen different jams, they don't know which to buy. But if they try just four, then they can make a decision."
Thanks to Ms. Frank's tight editing, her selection of 220 wines feels anything but skimpy. The only glaringly deficient category is Loire wines — but hers is a deliberate decision, given that the city's greatest collection from that region is just a few blocks away at Chambers Street Wines. "No use trying to compete with nirvana," she says. Her tilt is toward Southern Hemisphere wines, where she believes value is greatest, especially at the high end. "There's a lot of genuinely great $80 wine from down there, which is only the starting point for California's top end," she says. Among those down-under gems are the hard-to-find Columella ($85), a superb Rhone-style blend from South Africa; Dry River Pinot Noir, a New Zealand beauty ($86.99), and Gosset's Polish Hill Riesling ($35), Australia's premier bottling of this food-friendly variety.
For now, Ms. Frank is the sole employee of the 3-month-old shop. When I last stopped in, Ms. Frank had just delivered a case of wine to a Murray Street condo, even though she's due to give birth to her third child in June. "I've still got a good month before I give up the hand truck," she said. Blessed with a great nanny, she plans to be back at work within weeks. "Maternity leave has a whole different meaning when it's your own business," she says.
Note: Next weekend, wine buffs can sample wines from 170 international producers at the first ever New York Wine Expo, to be held at the Javits Convention Center. Seminar offerings include Mark Oldman's "Outsmarting Wine 101" and "New York's Riesling Renaissance." Friday, 7 p.m.–10 p.m. (tickets are $85 on Friday), Saturday, 2 p.m.–6 p.m. ($95). Information at wine-expos.com/wine/ny.
By PETER HELLMANMarch 5, 2008
A neighborhood wine shop is like an old-fashioned apothecary — or so it struck me while hanging out one recent afternoon at Frankly Wines, a new and tiny shop in TriBeCa. Customers come into both kinds of establishments looking for savvy counsel. The difference, of course, is that at a wine shop, they're seeking prescriptions to bring pleasure and well-being, not relief from pain or illness. One such seeker at this shop was a stylish young woman who said to proprietor Christy Frank, "My boyfriend is cooking catfish for dinner. What can you recommend for around $15?"
"How will he cook the catfish?" Ms. Frank asked, but the young woman couldn't say.
"He'll probably batter fry it," Ms. Frank said. She took a few steps — that's as far as you can go in any direction in this shop — and plucked off the shelf a bottle of MonteNovo ($13), a Spanish white wine made from an obscure but lively grape called godello. "This is delicate enough so it won't overwhelm the catfish, but it's also got some nice body so it'll stand up to the batter," she said.
After the customer had gone on her way, Ms. Frank said, "That's the fun stuff — when people give you definitive constraints and a price point."
"It's often a trick to figure out the difference between what they say and what they mean," she says of her customers. And sometimes, the trick is to suggest the unexpected. A major challenge was posed, for example, by a customer who needed a gift bottle for a friend with a trophy cellar — but the customer's price limit was $25. "I gave him a bottle of a wine nobody's heard of — Dr. Konstantin Frank's Rkatsiteli, a Georgian variety that has a small planting in the Finger Lakes," she says. "My theory is, if you can't spend the big money, then go obscure."
Growing up in Tiffin, Ohio ("surrounded by cornfields"), Ms. Frank says, "I won't tell you how young I was when I started drinking wine coolers." Her introduction to the real thing came when she took a wine appreciation course at Cornell University, and worked for a local wine shop. In 2007, after equipping herself with an MBA from Columbia, Ms. Frank worked for Moet-Hennessy USA, an upscale importer. Seven years later, she says, "I couldn't stand to write one more brand plan, so I thought, okay, I'm going to open a wine shop. Everyone said, 'Oh, retail hours, you're working all the time.' The reality is, as a brand manager, I was working all the time anyway."
It took just two weeks for her to find a location on West Broadway south of Chambers Street, only a block away from her TriBeCa home. While she can't match the stock of bigger shops, she points to a marketing experiment that shows that smaller can be advantageous: "If you offer people their choice of a dozen different jams, they don't know which to buy. But if they try just four, then they can make a decision."
Thanks to Ms. Frank's tight editing, her selection of 220 wines feels anything but skimpy. The only glaringly deficient category is Loire wines — but hers is a deliberate decision, given that the city's greatest collection from that region is just a few blocks away at Chambers Street Wines. "No use trying to compete with nirvana," she says. Her tilt is toward Southern Hemisphere wines, where she believes value is greatest, especially at the high end. "There's a lot of genuinely great $80 wine from down there, which is only the starting point for California's top end," she says. Among those down-under gems are the hard-to-find Columella ($85), a superb Rhone-style blend from South Africa; Dry River Pinot Noir, a New Zealand beauty ($86.99), and Gosset's Polish Hill Riesling ($35), Australia's premier bottling of this food-friendly variety.
For now, Ms. Frank is the sole employee of the 3-month-old shop. When I last stopped in, Ms. Frank had just delivered a case of wine to a Murray Street condo, even though she's due to give birth to her third child in June. "I've still got a good month before I give up the hand truck," she said. Blessed with a great nanny, she plans to be back at work within weeks. "Maternity leave has a whole different meaning when it's your own business," she says.
Note: Next weekend, wine buffs can sample wines from 170 international producers at the first ever New York Wine Expo, to be held at the Javits Convention Center. Seminar offerings include Mark Oldman's "Outsmarting Wine 101" and "New York's Riesling Renaissance." Friday, 7 p.m.–10 p.m. (tickets are $85 on Friday), Saturday, 2 p.m.–6 p.m. ($95). Information at wine-expos.com/wine/ny.
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