Down at the end of Spring Street where the Hudson flows to the sea, a lot more than river can be seen from the Urban Glass House at 330 Spring Street. A mass of monumental metal tubes is growing across from Philip Johnson's stack of condos, where the city's Tower O' Garbage will eventually be. What's rising there these days are pilings, driven deep into the ground to stabilize old landfill where the Lispenard Meadows once met the river's shore. Now the trees are gone and two acres of gravel can be seen from UGH's wide windows. Eventually a new garage for trucks and stuff will top out at 142 feet, just a tad taller than Johnson's collection of pricey glass houses. But who wants to look at some old river, anyway?
Plans found deep in the files of the Department of Buildings show the big box of garbage that's going in here, where James Gandolfini and other locals tried hard to create something less cubical and more people-friendly. But that plan was tossed into the trash in favor of something more conventional. How this will effect the recently revived sales at 330 Spring remains unknown. Someplace up high with views of the site could be the perfect spot for a sidewalk superintendent who thrills to the sound of metal being pounded into earth. Across West Street the vista is changing, too. As the pilings rise to the east the stump of Trump Soho, land of dueling designer-developer lawsuits, is disappearing from view. Like they say, every garbage-laden cloud has a silver lining.
· Urban Glass House coverage [Curbed]
· Tower O' Garbage coverage [Curbed]
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