1) Wait, not everyone is pumped about FLAnk's 15-story glass-and-steel mindtrip rising over the rubble of Cy Coleman's townhouse on 57th Street? Writes one neighbor: "So a new era begins on my block, and once again I have a bird’s-eye view of history, one in which a 150-year-old town house is demolished so seven purchasers can spend millions and have the privilege of living in (or more likely visiting) our city." Scathing. [New York Observed/Judith Katz]
2) Vivian Toy investigates the odds of winning one of those middle-income housing lotteries and finds out what you already knew: you have as much chance at winning the right to buy a $51,000 Chelsea co-op as you do as landing a same-day reservation at Per Se. ['Winning That One in a Million'/Vivian S. Toy]
3) An architect who specializes in theaters has a go at a landmarked Harlem brownstone on West 122nd Street (on the market for $2.5 million and absolutely gorgeous) and comes away with a plan: whitewash it, glass up the rear façade and stick some wind turbines on the roof. Yeesh, must everything have floor-to-ceiling glass nowadays? [Sketch Pad/Tracie Rozhon]
4) When was the last time a Hunt subject was determined to live in Brooklyn, but ends up in Manhattan? This musician do-gooder had serious flirtations with a pair of new Williamsburg developments, Withers Place and the delayed Aqua, before discovering everyone's favorite isolated Lower East Side bargan, Co-op Village. [The Hunt/Joyce Cohen]
5) The debate over the lighting scheme on Coney Island's Parachute Jump is a metaphor for the give-and-take between art and commerce, and it is all summed up beautifully by an arcade manager who drops this gigantic pearl of wisdom: "People are going to buy the hot dogs whether the ducks are on the napkins or not." [The City/Jake Mooney]
Loading comments...