Preliminary work could begin as soon as next month on the ambitious $500 million plan to transform Governors Island into a premiere destination for cyclists, nature lovers, large-scale music concerts and rock climbing. Last December a consortium of five design companies was chosen to turn the flat southern part of the island into an oasis with manmade hills and a shoreline promenade. Ultimately (say, 2013?) 90 acres of parkland will be remade for anyone willing......

Although the proposed redesign to Governors Island won’t be finished until at least 2013, the island’s administrators are coming up with plenty of reasons to pay a visit today. Starting May 31st, the island, which has expansive parks, a full-circle bike path, former military bases and a spectacular view of Brooklyn and lower Manhattan, will be open on more days and for longer hours than ever before. And the calendar of concerts and events is......

Museum Guard, by Atomische at flickrToday on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on Amboy Rd. in Staten Island, another bank robbery on 5th Ave. in Manhattan, and a scaffolding collapse on Grand Concourse and 149th St. in the Bronx. A building slated for destruction on Governors Island will become a lab for the FDNY to examine the dynamics of high-rise fires and how best to defeat them. Fire crews from cities around the......

How do you get rid of an unwanted fire truck? Simple, put it on Craigslist! That is exactly what the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation (GIPEC) did with an unused 1993 Pierce aerial platform truck they inherited from the Coast Guard when the city-state agency took control over Governors Island in 2003. They got over $75,000 from the East Prospect Fire Company in York County, Pennsylvania near Lancaster. That is a pretty good deal......

Illustration of of the BMT from north and south vantage points, via the NYC Economic Development Corp. Plans to construct a glass addition to the top of the Battery Maritime Building moved a little closer to fruition this week with the approval of Community Board 1. The New York Post reports that the Board was a little concerned about the scale of the glass addition that will be added to the century-old structure, but......

Computer rendering of the waterfalls by the Public Art Fund. Details have emerged on the ambitious, $15 million East River waterfalls project coming to New York in mid-July to cap off the Olafur Eliasson retrospective at MoMa. The project will consist of four man-made waterfalls, ranging 90 to 120-foot tall, installed temporarily at four sites along the shores of Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Governors Island: by the Brooklyn anchorage of the Brooklyn Bridge, between Piers......

SFist saw Christmas Day turn tragic after a Siberian tiger escaped from her pen at the San Francisco Zoo, killing a visitor and mauling two others. Phillyist counted down the top ten items on Philadelphia's New Year's wish list. Gothamist looked at the wooden bikes being offered for NYC's first bike share program on Governors Island. LAist received a Christmas present in the form of a drunk Santa Claus in a g-string. Bostonist launched......

Not only will Governors Island be getting a makeover, it will also get the city's first bike sharing program. amNew York reported that Dutch firm West 8, hired to handle the Governors Island makeover, "will also build 3,000 wooden bicycles for free use by visitors to the island." The island is expected by be renovated by 2012, and the hope is that the bike sharing test will inspire the city to expand the program.......

There's been a lot of ink, virtual and otherwise, already spilled on Governors Island. But today, NY Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff proclaimed that the new site "could well become the most inspired public park built here in generations." He also said the plan is "humble in scale but big on ambition." But didn't he say last spring that the designs lacked ambition? Hmm. We have to give him this: Of the five proposals,......

Earlier this year some renderings for a Governors Island redesign were released. Out of the five contending designs, all of which the NY Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussof called "unambitious", a winner was finally chosen. Earlier today at the Whitehall Ferry Terminal, Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Spitzer announced the Dutch firm West 8 has been selected to recreate the open space on the island. This was one of the firms that Ouroussof pointed out......

During his weekly radio address yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg proposed that Governors Island be turned into the site of a sprawling public health institute that he would bankroll with funds from his own private foundation. After the city bought the island for $1 from the federal government several years ago, the former military site and Coast Guard station has been relatively underutilized. Bloomberg's plan envisions an institute that would draw health experts from around the world......

Yesterday we took a National Park Service tour of Governors Island. The tour was just of the sites controlled by the Parks Service known as the Governors Island National Historic District and not of the whole island which is under the control of various local, state and federal agencies, so all the good stuff on the southern end of the island like the abandoned PX, bowling alley and Burger King weren’t on the tour.......

EXPLORE: Last call to visit the historic Governors Island this season! Free ferry rides depart hourly right next to the Staten Island Ferry terminal. Sitting 800 yards off the southern tip of Manhattan and about 400 from the Brooklyn waterfront, it isn't often you can get a view of the city and a house like that one to the right all from the same place. All Weekend // Governors Island // More info here READING:......

NewYorkology has its eye on the high seas Buttermilk Channel today, reporting on Puccini's Il Tabarro which will be staged there next month. The Brooklyn waterfront will host four evenings of the opera in September, "aboard a retired fuel tanker tied up to the dock at the container port." The first performance of Il Taborro was at the Metropolitan Opera in 1918. The Mary Whalen (which is the name of the tanker) will bring the......

This weekend, you could take a trip back to the 1860s with a visit to Governors Island. It's the Civil War Weekend, and the 119th New York Volunteer Historical Association will "recreate garrison life on Governors Island during the Civil War, portraying officers, soldiers and guards in the Regular Army conducting drills, a guard mount and historic weapons demonstrations." Here's a schedule of events for both Saturday and Sunday: 10:00: Witness the morning calls......

The Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation is having a public meeting tonight to share the five designs for the island so far. The designers will be presenting and the public can offer feedback. The meeting is at 6:30PM at FIT (Reeves Great Hall, 28th Street and 7th Avenue), and you can see the designs here and wonder if you agree with what the NY Times' architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff thought about them, as......

The five conceptual proposals for redeveloping Governors Island, "The Park at the Center of the World," have been floating for over a week now. Maybe you saw the technicolor article in last week's New York Magazine. Or maybe you've swooned among the large-scale paradise boards on display at the Center for Architecture. None of these five proposals will necessarily materialize. We're familiar with this type of conceptual process from design competitions at the WTC......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an amputation at Lee Ave. and Wilson St. in Brooklyn, another amputation on Beach Channel Dr. in Queens, and an armed robbery with shooting at Lenox Ave. and West 134th St. in Manhattan. The New York Times looks at the effect of city term limits and finds a near-permanent state of campaigning by NYC politicians. A 44-year-old Queens grandmother and her two-year-old grandaughter have been missing from their home......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: shots fired early this evening on Blake Ave. in Brooklyn, a homicide/suicide on 225th St. in Queens this afternoon, and a sexual assault early this morning on West 120th St. in Manhattan. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn wants black activist Sonny Carson stricken from the list of nominees for proposed street names because she thinks he was divisive and anti-white. Former Black Panther and current Brooklyn Council Member Charles......

Two long-festering plans could come together: Redeveloping Governor's Island and bringing car racing to NYC. The NY Sun reports that the Indy Racing League might be interested in including a Governor's Island race in its circuit. A spokesman told the Sun:"Governors Island certainly is something that has come up, but in terms of definitive plans, we still have a long way to go. We've had some discussions with people in the greater New York......

The New York City Journal is a blog about New York... in Sim City. It's author has spent many months laboriously recreating every detail of the five boroughs, from Times Square, to MSG, to Governors Island, to Roosevelt Island, and beyond. It's amazing stuff-- page through his monthly archives for reenactments of major New York events like September 11th and the Upper East Side plane crash. If you like this stuff, you should check out......

It makes total sense: The city has announced that the New York Harbor School may move to the Governors Island and be its first tenant. amNewYork notes the specialized public school, which teaches students about maritime issues, is currently landlocked in Bushwick. The NY Harbor School's program director is thrilled and the Governors Island Alliance calls it a "positive thing." GIA's Robert Pirani tells AMNY, "It sets the tone for the island as being......

The Statue of Liberty celebrated her 120th birthday yesterday with the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. But can you imagine living on Liberty Island? The NY Times has a feature on the Hill family who has been selling souvenirs and food for the past 75 years. Bradford Hill operates the business today (it makes $15 million a year), in the footsteps of his grandparents Aaron and Evelyn and his father James......

Sometimes we think deputy mayor Dan Doctoroff is a little nuts. Take for instance his newest brain-child: The New York Harbor District. Whereas most official districts in the city are defined by geographic proximity and commercial interests the Harbor district, which recently formed an advisory board and is seeking a director and consultants to help define it, will include Governors Island, the Statue of LIberty, Ellis Island, parts of the Brooklyn waterfront and Battery......

-- Some timely advice: always look both ways before you backflip! -- Improv Everywhere goes to Yankee Stadium and hilarity ensues. -- Yeshiva University gets $100m worth of gelt right before the holidays. -- Have you ever wondered who reads the Post? Now you know. -- Who says the real estate market is imploding? These douches are asking for 40% more than they paid SIX MONTHS AGO! -- Speaking of real estate douchebaggery, Property......

The Daily News revealed the top ten ideas in the running for the redevelopment of Governor's Island. Only 25 proposals were submitted, and while the other ideas may still be considered, these the ones the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation is "concentrating" on:Nickelodeon Recreation/Miller Global Properties: Development of a Nickelodeon Family Suites themed resort complex. The company presently runs a similar operation in Orlando, near Disney World. Federal Development LLC/City University of New......

- There's lots of stuff going on at Governors Island, like the golf tournament later this year, but this Saturday, 100 plus swimmers will be participating in the Governors Island Swim, a two-mile swim around Governors Island. The race starts at 8 a.m. in front Castle Williams, with competitors swimming south (counterclockwise) around the island. Organizers expect the race to be finished at about 8:30! While this is something that could be fun to......

Professional golf is coming to Manhattan. Of course, it's on Governor's Island, only 9 holes, and it's a pro-am tournament which will feature professional women and Hollywood actors. The tournament, dubbed The Manhattan Golf Classic and scheduled for October 22nd, will be on the only golf course in all of Manhattan. Scenes from the tournament will surely be beautiful. With the historic buildings on the island, the Brooklyn and the Manhattan skyline as backdrops, the......

“NYU is the largest private university in the United States and they are growing,” Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, told Community Board 2 Thursday night. “They are growing at a much faster pace than our neighborhood is. NYU has always been here. It should always be here. I don't think the Village would be the Village if NYU wasn't here. But I don't think the Village can......

Leave it to Santiago Calatrava, the golden boy of rebuild NYC design at the moment for his beautiful Port Authority transit hub planned for Ground Zero, to design a gorgeous tramway between lower Manhattan and Governor's Island. (The tramway isn't a certainty, but it's a great, flashy "This is what our future could be" symbol.) The city and state announced that they are looking for "visionary ideas for the redevelopment of Governor's Island" to......