HARLEM?Word comes via the Historic Districts Council that the city is in the process of demolishing the top two stories of the Mount Morris Bank Building, known as the Corn Exchange, due to emergency safety issues. The long-neglected landmark (born in 1889) at Park Avenue and East 125th Street was purchased in 2003 by a community activist who promised to restore the building and turn it into a culinary school. That didn't happen, and City Room reports that in January a judge ruled the city could repossess the building. That came too late to save the top floors, and it may get even worse for the landmark before it gets better. [CurbedWire Inbox/City Room]
MIDTOWN?Opponents of Jean Nouvel's MoMA Tower are now running commercials ahead of tomorrow's City Council subcommittee hearing on the skyscraper, recently chopped from 1250' to 1050' tall. If the City Council approves the mixed-use West 53rd Street tower, that pretty much wraps up the ULURP process, and so the neighbors are pulling out all the stops. In an e-mail to supporters to rally the troops for tomorrow's City Council hearing, this little bomb is dropped: "Rumor has it that Nouvel is off the project-we are trying to confirm." Propaganda or developing bombshell? We'll know soon enough. [CurbedWire Inbox]
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