Consider anew the Upper Bowery, the six-block stretch north of East Houston that divides the East Village from Noho. The action so far:
1) The Robert Scarano-designed Tower of Bowery, finally reaching fruition at the corner of East 3rd and Bowery after a year of being green.
2) Avalon Chystie II, now towering over the nabe between Houston and 1st. (Dear God, was it really just January they started construction work?)
3) Scarano's Pencil, a 15-story creation recently approved for a lot between 3rd and 4th Streets, the design for which we have yet to glimpse.
4) Not to mention whatever development that is that they're building adjacent to CBGB, and the general proliferation of bank outlets and iffy restaurants.
Comes this reader tip to the Curbed inbox to complete the fun:
The Peck Moss group is running into trouble in its quest to build the tallest building in the East Village, a proposed 23-story hotel on the Bowery between 5th and 6th Streets. First, there are the hold out poets, living in a tenement in the middle of the site. Demolition of the back half of that building and the adjacent one was plagued by trouble: a roof fire, a scaffolding collapse and a stop work order for forcing pedestrians to walk in traffic. Now that they’ve started to build the foundation, they’ve been hit with two stop work orders in three weeks for damaging adjacent buildings.Can you guess who's building this beast? Oh, the suspense...
The first stop work order was issued Wednesday, July 26 and promptly torn down by Sciame Construction, but the hold out tenants say it was because of damage to their building, either the foundation or support beams. The second stop work order is for “failure to safeguard public and property” at 207 East 5th Street was issued Saturday August 12. This is the building behind the site that has a crack running from the foundation to 5th floor inside and out of the building. More cracks are spreading throughout the building (see picture), either despite or because of the work Sciame did to underpin the building. Those responsible have disregarded complaints of tenants there for weeks and refused to inspect the damage they caused.
Can it all be real? Anyone seen plans for this 23-story creation? Ah, the glory of an all-Sciame Bowery skyline: from the Tower of Bowery, to the Pencil, to the Crack-Up Hotel. Renderings, please, to tips@curbed.com; we'll do up a proto-view of our collective East Village future.
· Tower of Bowery Update: Now with Added Pencil! [Curbed]
· Admiring the New Upper Bowery [Curbed]