Results tagged “daviddunlap”

Dear Santa,

The new designs for the other buildings at the World Trade Center have been released, and forgetting all the other arguments, the computer renderings show a glittering, rather dazzling skyline. And the buildings will be TALL. The NY Times' David Dunlap reports on the new designs and give some analysis of how the buildings would work within the city:

The developer of the new World Trade Center unveiled the designs this morning for three skyscrapers at ground zero, which in their gargantuan scale would reshape the New York skyline.

Continue reading "Vision of World Trade Center in the Future"

There's one sign the World Trade Memorial will be built - a builder has been selected to build the memorial's footings and foundation. NJ company E.E. Cruz was awarded the job, and Governor Pataki said, "This month, we will begin in earnest to build a fitting and lasting tribute to he thousands of heroic men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice on September 11." Now, besides finding contractors for other parts of the project, it's all about raising the money to fund the building.

Just weeks before the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the agency created to manage the rebuilding process, has announced it has ended its "mission" and will close soon. The NY Times' David Dunlap explains that the mission included "selecting a master plan and a memorial design for the trade center site; allocating more than $2.7 billion in federal grants, including support for downtown residents and businesses; financing park renovations and cultural programs; and planning the revitalization of Fulton Street, from river to river." Which is certainly more generous than our initial thought and a good reminder of what the LMDC has done, as we've come to regard it as a puppet for Governor Pataki and muddling through the redesign of Freedom Tower and the WTC Memorial. The Times article has good quotes that show the pros and cons of the agency, with many hopeful that one less agency means more action and less bureaucracy.

If there's something politicians know how to do, it's to convene a committee! The NY Times focuses on how everyone wants new plans to bring the WTC Memorial budget down - there's that much agreement. But the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has one committee working on it...and Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg created another committee to work on ideas! Double the thinking, infinite times the resentment! The LMDC team includes the builder Bovis, whose $1 billion estimate of the memorial caused a lot of the agita that prompted these committees, while the Pataki-Bloomberg team, "Memorial and Master Plan Design Commitee," has memorial designers and architects, Michael Arad, Peter Walker, and Max Bond, plus WTC "master planner" Daniel Libeskind and rival builder Frank Sciame. At any rate, the LMDC committee is planning on having a couple of new ideas by next week. Hmm, maybe the LMDC can time a new memorial design by July, which is about three years after the WTC memorial competition ended.

With the rest of the World Trade Center redevelopment mired in a bureaucratic morass, the opening of 7 World Trade Center was greeted with joy, excitement, and yes, even praise for beleagured developer Larry Silverstein for actually building something. The festive opening ceremonies lacked Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg, who had "other commitments," giving center stage to Silverstein who said, "We've come a very long way. What you're looking at today is just the beginning." And a whimsical Jeff Koons sculpture, Balloon Flower (Red), was unveiled in the middle of the park outside 7WTC, and tthe sculpture is supposed to change color with the light - we can't wait to take a look up close ourselves.

This is what all the testing with the Canadian fountain consultant has determined: The waterfalls at the World Trade Center memorial will be turned off during the winter, for fear of injuring visitors with flying droplets of ice. The LMDC decided to "winterize" the waterfalls because it would cost four times more (than the maintenance?) to heat the water for the falls to run smoothly. While the decision was the fiscally practical one, a mother of a WTC victim said, "It's like an eternal flame and you don't shut off an eternal flame. These things should have been considered in the beginning." Yeah, you'd think.

The Skyscraper Museum asked one hundred architects, brokers, builders, critics, developers, engineers, historians, lawyers, officials, owners, planners and scholars what their ten favorite NYC skyscrapers were from a list of buildings (which did not include the World Trade Center). The NY Times looks at the results, which are a great shorthand of the must-sees in the city. The top ten are Chrysler Building (with the most votes), Seagram, Flatiron, Woolworth, Empire State, Lever House, RCA, McGraw-Hill, U.N. Secretariat, and CBS. Reporter David Dunlap notes the Chrysler Building's "ebullient eccentricity" as being the best at "expressing New York's cloud-piercing ambitions" and calls the runner-up, the Seagram Building, the Chrysler's "anthithesis" as the Seagram is "cool, tranquil, rectangular and restrained."

Something to look forward to this fall: The reopening of the observation deck at Rockefeller Center. The deck was closed in 1986, to accomodate a renovation of the Rainbow Room, and will now be the second highest, after the Empire State Building (the World Trade Center had been the highest). Reporter David Dunlap had this description of the view from Rockefeller Center:

Coney Island is still visible, marked on the southern horizon by the T-shaped profile of the Parachute Jump. Near the northern horizon, the Tappan Zee Bridge can be glimpsed at a turn in the Hudson River. Even during the snowstorm on Tuesday, there was a majesty to this place, lost in a howling whiteness through which Midtown's familiar spires and plateaus were recognizable only as ghostly gray shadows.

Tickets will cost $14, which is competitive with the $14.50 the ESB charges for adults (or maybe we're getting our facts wrong, because the NY Times says the ESB is $1 cheaper, but when we attempt to buy ESB tickets online, they seem to be $14.50), and Tishman-Speyer, the company that manages Rockefeller Center, is looking for ways to make sure visitors aren't waiting for too long, which, again, is what the ESB is also doing - films for people to watch while in line, advanced ticket purchases; plus they are bringing back pedestal-mounted binoculars. And for those of you who work at Rockefeller Center, there will be a separate entrance for the observation deck.

There's an interesting article by David Dunlap in the NY Times about the recent barriers in front of Morgan Stanley's Times Square offices at 1585 Broadway. Now, the barriers were erected because of fears that certain bulidings (especially ones that move American moneys) would be terrorist targets. Dunlap determines that the obtrusive "41 dark gray, eight-foot-long concrete planter tubs and 16 cylindrical planters. At some places, the tubs are barely more than one foot apart" equal some 2000 cubic feet of concrete. The Department of Transportation has asked Morgan Stanley, which has a temporary permit, to make some changes. While Gothamist totally understands why Morgan Stanley or any organization would like to protect itself from terrorist attacks (the JCC on the Upper West Side has a perimeter of concrete on its corner), we look at the mammoth barriers as being almost as bad as the teeming packs of screaming teen and tween fans during the hey day of TRL. In other words, they are a bitch to walk around. And the streets of Times Square are already packed with tourists and vendors. At least with slow-moving packs of tourists that insist on walking five people wide, we have the dream that they aren't going to be there ten minutes later. Gothamist finds the pedestrian traffic in Times Square so sticky that we often walk in the street to avoid getting stuck in the scrum.
What are your strategies for navigating Times Square?

The NY Times gave Times Square the 100th Birthday treatment this weekend. Some articles Gothamist found interesting:
- A look at 10 movies that feature Times Square (from the Sweet Smell of Success to 13 Going on 30)
- Times reporter David Dunlap on Times Square businesses
- An evolution of Times Square
- Perspectives from people who work around or love Times Square, like a pyschic on 41st Street, a theater junkie, and a resident

The Fulton Street Transit Center project will bring together the A, C, J, M, Z, 2, 3, 4 and 5 lines. For more information about the project, visit the MTA's site. However, the project will be introduced today at the Center for Architecture, 536 La Guardia Place, between Bleecker and West Third Streets, at 4PM. The Times says that "models, computer animations and drawings will be on view at the center through mid-July, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays."