The Avenue A barstaurant Sidewalk Cafe has been an East Village fixture since 1985. The joint's always been popular for its open mic nights (Jeff Buckley and The Moldy Peaches are among the acts that got their start here) and its reasonably priced drinks, not so much for its shabby furnishings and middling food. This is something the owners have set out to change; after shutting down in March, it reopened this week with an extensive face-lift and a new menu. Boozy $10 milkshakes, anyone? more ›

Overwhelmed by her endless throngs of visitors, Lady Liberty is indeed closing down this fall for renovations, right on schedule with the announcement made last year. more ›

The 5th Avenue Apple Store, which opened back in 2006 and in 2010 was named the 5th most photographed NYC landmark, will soon be missing from the street's landscape. A $6,661,050 renovation has begun, which has the glass cube currently covered up while it's being prepared for its removal. more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] What is going on at ACME Bar & Grill? Yesterday, it was reported by many that after 25 years the cajun eatery would be closing, and one employee told us, "We're already done. We just couldn't afford it anymore. Thanks for your patronage. Thanks for your thoughts." It seems like pretty definitive evidence, but last night a reader sent us this photo, and owner Bob Pollock told Grub Street, “We are not closing for good we need to renovate this place after 25 years, the place was built on a shoestring 25 years ago and needs a major overhaul as the Board of Health would want me to do and the fans of Acme please be patient we'll be back after a few months.” It's Chinatown Fair all over again! more ›

Winter may be creeping up on us but today the Brooklyn Paper takes a look at McCarren Park Pool—formerly a pool, then a concert venue, and now undergoing a $50MM renovation so that it can serve the community as a pool again. It's been nearly a year since Mayor Bloomberg headed to the Brooklyn spot to break ground, so what's been going on since? more ›

Updated with more photographs: The American Museum of Natural History may be a place for things ancient and skeletal, but that doesn't mean the museum itself should stagnate. First came the iPad and iPhone navigation app (launched last week!), and now this: after 19 years interlocked in combat on a platform in the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda, the AMNH's entrance centerpiece of two dinosaur skeletons—the Barosaurus and Allosaurus—will be separated into two display mounts! more ›

Over the past few weeks, the City Council has been moving from City Hall into temporary offices on Broadway, because a $106 million renovation project is being conducted on the 198-year-old building (it was completed in 1812). The AP, which calls it "one of the nation's oldest continuously-used city halls," reports that during a smaller renovation project a few years ago, "Officials found widespread failings and alarming decay: cracks through the trusses that support the roof, a rotting basement floor, wiring that was known to spark and dangerously sagging ceilings." more ›

A couple of years ago Madison Square Garden planned on renovating the existing arena in lieu of joining up with the Moynihan Station plans. Now word is that developer Steven Roth may be attempting to revive a plan to move MSG one block west. more ›

Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn will possibly be getting a major makeover sometime soon. Instead of the perpetually trafficked and dreary scenery, the six-mile stretch would be transformed into "a premier livable street" called Brooklyn Boulevard. Catchy, right? Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz enlisted students from NYU Wagner to contribute ideas to the project, and they produced these renderings of a future Fourth Avenue paradise, bringing Markowitz's dream of a "bleak stretch of road transformed into something reminiscent of the beautiful, tree-lined portion of Park Avenue on Manhattan's Upper East Side" one step closer. more ›

There's been much discussion about reviving old theaters in town lately, with the Ridgewood Theater getting landmark status and the Loew's in Chinatown getting refurbished into a community center. Now Brooklyn's Loew's Kings Theater is getting some attention after rotting away since 1977—the NY Times notes that its current state includes a "rusting, dirt-caked marquee," a cobweb-filled deteriorated interior, and plenty of vandal and pigeon feces. You know, just your typical movie theater here in New York! more ›

Here are some things that Albany lawmakers might cut under Governor Paterson's proposed budget: free student MetroCards, the W train, 18,500 New York City jobs, $101 billion in school funding, and $1 billion in health care funding. Here's one thing that's not at risk: a $5.2 million renovation of hearing rooms for Albany lawmakers. According to an Associated Press report, the renovations include new 3- by 5-foot television screens, better lighting and technology for TV coverage, new carpets, refurbished seats, and "more prominent name plates for lawmakers." According to a spokesman, this is the first major renovation of the hearing rooms in 35 years and it will improve "the openness of the Legislature's work and make the rooms more accessible for the disabled." more ›

Remember last year when we warned you about an upcoming project that would make JFK's longest and busiest runway (13R-31L), known as the Bay Runway, unusable for 4 months? That time is almost here! The much-needed makeover (underway come March) will widen and make the runway more durable — it has, after all, been around since 1948. more ›

A state judge has again ordered Mayor Bloomberg to follow the city's land use review procedure and hold public hearing about his controversial plan to construct new sports fields on Randalls Island and rent them to 20 private schools. Under the Mayor's plan, private schools like Buckley, Chapin and Dalton would pay $45 million for exclusive access to a part of the new athletic facilities during peak after-school hours — a move that critics contend would turn public land into private land. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg has abandoned the most ambitious part of his plan to reduce greenhouse gases, which would have required the owners of the city's largest buildings to undergo mandatory energy audits to determine green renovations — and forced the landlords to pay for the improvements. more ›

They finally did it; they finally killed those weird and almost iconic asphalt mounds in Washington Square Park, destroying them with the cool efficiency of a doctor lancing a boil. Which they most certainly were not—they were mysterious '70s-era tributes to the city's ever-imperiled idiosyncrasy. They'll be replaced with safety-first fake-turf clones, as part of the city's multi-million dollar renovation of the park. Curbed reports that the entire southwest quadrant is now "quiet as a crypt, the silence broken only by the scrounging of squirrels." Goodnight, sweet mounds, may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest! more ›

After threatening to lay off some 400 employees during the lucrative holiday season, Tavern on the Green has been granted a reprieve. The city had ordered owners to vacate the premises on January 1st and turn over the lease, but owners insisted that deadline would have required them to close down in December, in order to conduct an onsite auction of their assets, which were valued by an appraiser at $8.171 million. Though Tavern's owners had wanted three months for the changeover, a US Bankruptcy Court judge in Manhattan said "two weeks to a month" in January would be "a reasonable transition period." But will the new occupant play along? more ›

This morning the Empire State Building took some time to show off its newly renovated Art Deco Lobby and restored historic ceiling mural, with architect Frank Prial (who did the Grand Central restoration) on hand. This is all part of a $550 million historical renovation, the lobby taking about $12.5 million of that. The NY Times reports that the pricey touch up brought back to life "two shiny Art Deco murals that disappeared from view in the 1960s." more ›

Last night we were informed by the Wildlife Conservation Society that there would be a major announcement made this evening at the New York Aquarium. While the official press conference isn't until 7:30 p.m. tonight (it will include Mayor Bloomberg, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, and Councilman Domenic M. Recchia, Jr.), the NY Times managed to loosen some lips and found out it has to do with their Sea Change (what the WCS has dubbed their renovation project). more ›

Duane Reade may be a soulless corporate chain, but its our corporate chain, forged right here in 1960 at a warehouse between its eponymous Tribeca streets. But despite (or because of?) its ubiquity—253 locations in NYC and counting—Duane Reade is deeply in debt, and last week its corporate parent, private-equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, shelled out $125 million to save Duane Reade from defaulting on its debt. more ›

The Met sure is having a big week! First their Costume Institute Ball brought all the big names out, and then the NY Times reported on their recent renovation. They explain that in the 1970s the museum "unveiled a plan to create its own Crystal Palace in Central Park—a glass-enclosed, glass-roofed space to house its expanded American Wing—Community Planning Board 8 voted 24 to 1 against the proposal, and one board member called it a rape of the park." That board member was likely feeling violated around 1980, when the American Wing opened, and perhaps even more so now, following two years of construction and renovations it will open up to the public on May 19th. more ›

For the past thirty years, Norm Abram has served as the master carpenter for This Old House. Abram has become a beloved and inspiring figure who demystifies the home renovation and restoration process to millions on public television. Abram, who also hosts The New Yankee Workshop, has been making frequent trips to Brooklyn these past few months, as This Old House tackled its first ever New York City project with the restoration of a brownstone in Brooklyn. We spoke Abram at the wrap party for the project, which brought a decrepit Prospect Heights SRO (see some photographs from last December) back to its former glory. more ›

After nearly two years of renovations, the first phase of Lincoln Center's overall transformation is ready: A completely re-energized Alice Tully Hall is getting to set to open once again this weekend. Diller Scofidio + Renfro, in association with FX Fowle, designed the re-imagined space, which houses both Alice Tully Hall and the Juilliard School and was originally a boxy, concrete Brutalist structure by architect Pietro Belluschi. Now, there's a three-story high, glass-enclosed lobby (with cafe) that peers onto Broadway and lets Broadway look inside as well. And over a sunken outdoor plaza—complete with mini-amphitheater seating—is Juilliard's cantilevered extension. more ›

Curbed has a photograph of the renovated Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, and we have to say it looks great. (Lincoln Center's website has photographs of its massive renovation project's progess, including photo of the old ATH.) Our biggest pet peeve with the space, which is where many New York Film Festival films are screened, had been that the exit signs were brighter than hell—they were utterly distracting in the darkened space. As Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeffrey Wells wrote in 2001 for Reel.com, "The exit lights are so bright that they cast a red glow over everything within a 10- or 12-foot radius. And there's six or eight of them, so half the theater is lit up like a New Orleans cat house. All that needs to be done is for managers to insert bulbs behind the signs that don't have quite as much wattage." Now, it looks like the exits and signs are recessed—here's hoping! more ›

Yesterday the Village Voice blog Runnin' Scared noted that some construction netting was placed over the 36 Cooper Square facade (aka their HQ) over the weekend. A DOB permit on the building states there will be "selective repointing and replacing of damaged portions of the brick and stone with in-kind replacements." Today they found out that this includes the removal of the Village Voice sign. The building owners say the changes aren't a secret and they want the facade to look "like it did years ago," however, no one told the publication about the removal of their sign. Wonder if they'll get to keep the flag... more ›

Some Park Slope activists have so little faith in the MTA's promise to renovate the dreary Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street station that they're imploring transit officials to scale back their plans and instead make a few specific improvements immediately. The massive refurbishment was supposed to begin this year and turn the "dank and dark" station into a light-filled hub with clean windows and a new copper roof. But the plans were later scaled back and postponed in the shadow of looming budget shortfalls. more ›

The Port Authority unveiled renderings yesterday for an ambitious $152 million renovation of the George Washington Bridge bus station in Washington Heights. Built by Italian architect Pier Luigi Nervi, the sprawling three-level station opened in 1963, winning an award that year for its use of concrete in construction. It occupies both sides of Broadway between 178th and 179th Streets, near the entrance to the George Washington Bridge. more ›