It may finally be time to say goodbye to the corner of Houston and Lafayette streets as we know it. After several years in limbo, a plan for the lot, long eyed by developers, emerged in 2013: It would be transformed into a 60,000-square-foot office building, designed by COOKFOX.
And now, three years after the LPC first approved those plans, it looks like construction may finally be moving forward. Gothamist reports that Irish bar Puck Fair, a neighborhood stalwart for more than a decade, is closing at the end of the month, making way for the imminent demolition of buildings on that corner (which also includes a BP gas station). A Facebook invite for the bar's closing party says that "the powers that be are making way for a new development on our corner of Lafayette Street," so it's only a matter of time before these buildings disappear.
The COOKFOX building will rise seven stories; true to principal Rick Cook's many other designs, it'll have lots of nature-filled pockets within its glassy design. And here's the developer's take on the site:
Since the 1930s the site has been in continuous use as a gas station. Its greatest value, however, has come in the form of advertising revenues generated by enormous billboards that target drivers on Houston Street. For pedestrians and the average New Yorker, the site has long had little to offer.
So there's that.
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