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Yesterday, the NY Post revealed that the dingy Manhattan Marriage Bureau would be getting a deluxe makeover. First of all, the City Clerk's Office will move from 1 Centre Street at the Municipal Building to 80 Centre Street. Second, Mayor Bloomberg's personal decorator, Jamie Drake, will be overseeing the redesign - at a discount (we doubt the new bureau will have the touches that Mayor B's swank townhouses do), but the budget is still $13 million.
Why the change? The city wants to market itself as a destinations for weddings. A source told the Post, "Vegas might be one location where people go [to get married]. But a lot of Europeans, if they go somewhere romantic and are coming to America, one of the first things they think about is New York City." That's true: A recent article in the NY Times noted how there was a growing interest from foreigners to get married in the Big Apple - and why not, with the dollar being so weak?
The new marriage bureau will be in a storefront and have 6,000 more square feet, some of which will be for bathrooms and vanity rooms (amenities missing from the current utilitarian marriage bureau). The Post says there will also be "proper seating areas, attractive marble floors and columns" (no more plastic chairs!) plus a "streamlined security system."
The CityRoom found out that the graffiti wall, where newly married couples tag their names, will not be a part of the new facility.
Here's the city's Marriage Bureau website. The Manhattan one is the most famous, the one in the Bronx is recently infamous for being reluctant to marry people.
Photograph of the Marriage Bureau wall (room 262) by rion on Flickr
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Thank heavens. As a gay man, I'd never want to go to that filthy place to get my marriage license.
What happen the syphillis test?
I got married there, and despite the dingy surroundings the staff made it a good experience. The guy who married us nailed my wife's name just right (from the way it's written, it's hard to pronounce but I realized he was listening to us very closely to get it right) and the staff was so friendly.
A really nice place.
Also, while the bureau is dingy, the building, at least outside, is historic. I hope the new venue keeps the flavor of old NYC architecture.
-- JFT
the first thing they need to redesign is the staff. We were just there a few days ago and it was one rude, disinterested person after another. Not really the way one imagines entering the world of marital bliss.
What a waste of money.
Getting married at City Hall, you know what you're getting. Its not supposed to be a fancy, nice affair, its a city bureaucratic transaction.
My friends wer married there in the 1980s and they had a chapel like setting, and it made for a decent photo op. I was married there 4 years ago and the room looked like a small courtroom. I am looking for the love note folks left behind wedged in the plexiglass couter and wall coverings. Will post later.