Category: Uncategorized

Venerable Neighborhood Institution Succumbs to Rising Rents The pizza emporium on South End Avenue that has served generations of Lower Manhattan residents, Picasso, abruptly shut down on Friday evening, after months of uncertainty over whether it would be possible to renew the lease on terms that would allow the store to remain in business. Owner...

Ranging from Provocative to Evocative, Broadsheet Founder’s Photographs Evince a Vision Undimmed by His Passing Robert Simko, the Broadsheet’s cofounder (who died November 10, at age 68, from a September 11-related cancer), was many things: publisher, musician, community leader, amateur horologist, devoted husband and father. But anyone knew him well would rank high on Robert’s...

Restoring Landmarks Military and Mercantile The New York Landmarks Conservancy, which works to preserve and protect New York’s architectural legacy, is honoring two Lower Manhattan structures with its Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award, the highest honor the Conservancy confers for excellence in preservation: Castle Clinton, at the Battery, and 131 Duane Street, in Tribeca. In...

The Urban Archipelago Celebrates Its Surroundings New York Water Week is hosting a panoply of events on the topic of water in our city of islands. A joint initiative of the City’s Department of Environmental Protection and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Water Week showcases innovative water management and action, and is produced in tandem...

Coalition Pushes to Protect 60 Wall Street A coalition of Lower Manhattan leaders, elected officials, and preservationists are coalescing around a push to grant landmark status to 60 Wall Street, a postmodernist office tower designed by Kevin Roche of Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates that opened in 1989, and is noted for its fusion...

Today’s Lower Manhattan Waterfront Bears Little Resemblance to the Past As this map from a 1915 guidebook shows, today’s Lower Manhattan waterfront bears no resemblance to the past, with the exception of Battery Park and the ferry terminals at the southern end of the island. In their parallel progression up and down the riverfronts, the...