The charms of Forest Hills Gardens are no longer a secret: Cottage Living has named it the number one cottage community in the country. The country! Forest Hills Gardens is within Forest Hills, Queens, and it was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., son of the famous landscape designer. The article's author, Justin Martin, lives in Forest Hills Gardens and writes:

Olmsted's gift was that he was equal parts landscape architect and social engineer. When planning Forest Hills Gardens, he chose to curve the streets—not to avoid any particular impediment but simply to promote a feeling of calm. This was an innovation at the time. The effect slows traffic, both auto and pedestrian, to a more leisurely pace. more ›

This is definitely a case of when best laid New Year's plans go awry. An upstate man is now allowed to sue the Marriott Marquis in Times Square for $750,000. According to the Daily News, Jeffrey Dagen and friends got two rooms at the Marriott to ring in 2005 in the heart of Times Square. However, the Marriott decided to kick out Dagen's party when a woman was found "facedown" in a hallway right before midnight.

The swanky hotel was unable to find him and his friends suitable rooms elsewhere. So Dagen took off for his home near Albany - but he only made it as far as the Taconic Parkway, where he drove off the roadway into a tree, shattering his left leg and suffering chest injuries. more ›

The unveiling of the new buildings - Towers 2, 3, 4 - that will accompany the Freedom Tower at the redeveloped World Trade Center was met with excitement yesterday, proving there's nothing that beautiful computer renderings, a who's who of architects, and a healthy dose of optimism can't do. The NY Times updated its article about the announcement yesterday and also has an article about the pink elephant in the room: How slow progress has been at Ground Zero, thanks to battling egos and dollars on all sides. more ›

Another dispatch from the center of the world's most overblown real estate bubble: apartments in the soon-to-be-converted Williamsburgh Savings Bank building are going for up to THREE MILLION DOLLARS. What do you get for that price? A fairly long elevator ride and a great view of the north wall of Bruce Ratner's new Nets Stadium project. Hot! As if that news wasn't upsetting enough, the New York Post is reporting that beautiful lobby of the bank is going to be converted into a BORDERS BOOK STORE. If you want to see the building before it falls to the rampaging forces of redevelopment, Amy says you can take a tour on May 7th for $25. more ›

The NY Sun likes the newly opened West Midtown Ferry Terminal that has opened at Pier 79, which is at West 39th Street. Sadly, the article is premium or we'd give you more details of the architectural critique, but the structure is a glass structure (designed by William Nicholas Boudova & Associates) that is next to two brick ventilation towers. Two weeks ago, the NY Times had an article about the project, which was spurred by government interest in increasing ferry service for commuters. Yes, anything to keep cars from coming into the city. The breakdown of money to fund the project is: $38.4 million from federal agencies; $12.3 million from the city; $3.3 million from the state; and $2 million from New York Waterway, which will operate the ferries for now (the state is so cheap!). Anyway, the ferry terminal has been open for a couple days now - and the NY Waterway also operates sightseeing cruises from there as well. more ›

Earlier this week, a Daily News article taught us that many city fountains are maintained by Joe McBain, an employee of the Central Park Conservancy. In addition to money (though homeless people usually take the quarters, dimes and nickels), he's fished out "MetroCards to cell phones to watches" - maybe the watches fly off the wrist when tossing in a coin? The money goes to the city's "general fund" or towards replacement parts for the fountain. This got us thinking about the city's different fountains and wondered if there was a grand list of all the fountains. We found a partial list at Wired New York, but these might only be the city fountains. Help us add to the list below by adding a comment and we'll update it. more ›

Last night, one of the walls of 496 LaGuardia Place collapsed, causing the evacuation of all residents and Houston Street to be closed. Luckily, no one was hurt as a "cascade of bricks" fell at 6:30PM. Residents told the Daily News that there was no construction at the buliding; the Department of Buildings is investigating the collapse. And according to Wired New York, 496 LaGuardia was built in 1909 and converted to a condo building in 1984. more ›

The NY Times is reporting that the Empire State Development Corporation has selected the developers for the long-gestating Moynihan Station (aka the new Penn Station). Now the question is when will construction actually begin? The new plan, which will put NJ Transit and LIRR trains into the Farley Post Office across the street from the existing Penn Station, also includes possibilities for retail, commercial and residential development for Vornado and Related, the two newly named developers. An interesting point in the article regards the structure of the deal:

The two companies will pay about $300 million for the development rights and an annual payment in lieu of property taxes, which has not been disclosed. The size of the payment was a point of contention between state and city officials. City officials had wanted the amount to be higher than real estate taxes downtown so the development would not compete with the rebuilding effort in Lower Manhattan.

There's a very cool article in the NY Times about the "kinetic, interactive stainless-steel wall" being designed for 7 World Trade Center. Because the base of 7 WTC is a Con Ed substation, architect David Childs is sheathing it in glass, and has worked with James Carpenter Design Associates to design a sort of sculptural installation: There are panels of prisms that will cause pedestrian's reflections to move along the wall. Gothamist loves the idea of capturing the movement of people walking during their day; one of our favorite things is seeing people cross the walkways in the windows of Grand Central. Plus, inside the lobby will be a "floor-to-ceiling, 14-by-70-foot wall of acid-etched translucent glass illuminated by whitish light-emitting diodes, created by Mr. Carpenter and the artist Jenny Holzer." Who knows when Freedom Tower will be built (yes, Daniel Libeskind, we read your Op-Ed last week) but there will be 7 WTC, which has gone really fast...and it's really tall. more ›

Wired New York's forum has a collection of articles about 455 Central Park West, proving that if the building isn't haunted, its recent development history certainly is. And go to Forgotten New York for other pieces of old NYC lore. more ›

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The Daily News shows some residences bigger than a studio that are comptetively priced, such as a two bedroom co-op on Jane Street and a four bedroom house in Rego Park, Queens. The owner of the Queen house says, "It's a nice neighborhood, very quiet. It's just the opposite of Manhattan." Touche. more ›