[Photo via AllWaysNY/Curbed Photo Pool]
1) Four construction workers were killed by the crane collapse on Saturday in Turtle Bay, just east of Second Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets. Three people are still missing. A piece of steel meant to secure the crane came lose and dropped onto a second support, shearing it free and causing the 22-story crane to fall. The victims were remembered as men who loved their jobs. Miraculous survival tales, like the story of a bar employee who was nearly crushed under the rubble, are starting to surface. Hundreds of people are still being kept out of their homes nearby, and the disaster has New Yorkers thinking twice about passing under all those cranes in the city. The Buildings Department, already under unprecedented heat for the recent deadly accidents at the Deutsche Bank building and Trump Soho, must now respond to the worst incident yet. Commissioner Patricia Lancaster said the number of accidents is still relatively small given the number of construction permits issued per year. The construction site had 13 violations prior to the crane collapse.
2) Keith Jacobson, where have you been our whole life? Right here, without us knowing! Jacobson is the guy who rented to Nicole Kidman and sold to Harvey Weinstein at 76 Crosby. He is also the guy who is developing 520 West Chelsea, architect Annabelle Selldorfs addition to 19th Street's Starchitect Row. And, in the wake of all that bad publicity Richard Meier's Perry Street towers got in 2004 for being leaky pieces of crap, Jacobson swooped in and bought two full floors (including Vincent Gallo's raw space) for an astonishingly low $1,000/sf. K-Dog, can we rub your head for luck? [Habitats/Fred A. Bernstein]
3) Locals assess how the rapid gentrification of Third Avenue in Gowanus has affected the local population of prostitutes: "Now, maybe there’s just one, and I haven’t seen her in a while. They’ve all gone over to Second Avenue." Gotta love that West Park Slope! [The City/Deborah Kolben]
4) The Port Authority spent $895,000 to preserve an Eero Saarinen departure lounge at the architect's famed Terminal 5 at JFK, sawing the 700-ton structure off the concourse and hauling it 1,500 feet away so as not to interfere with the construction of JetBlue's new terminal on the very same spot. Now it may get demolished anyway. Whoops. [The City/Alex Mindlin]
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