Open House New York weekend may have come and gone, but that doesn't mean your only shot at seeing some of the city's secret spaces is lost and gone for another year entirely. OHNY is currently running a raffle for the chance to win a private behind-the-scenes tour of the Woolworth Building in the Financial District, one of the oldest and most gorgeously designed skyscrapers in the city.
Win A Behind-The-Scenes Tour Of The Woolworth Building
Someday, You Could Live At The Woolworth Building
After years of talk, one of the single greatest buildings in all of Gotham is finally moving ahead with plans for a residential (or maybe hotel) conversion. Will there be a mass exodus across City Hall Park from Frank Gehry's Beekman Tower Cass Gilbert's neo-Gothic masterpiece? We know which address we'd prefer!
Photos: Current State Of The Woolworth Building
The absolutely gorgeous Woolworth Building has been undergoing a fairly sluggish renovation. Following the attacks on 9/11, the building was without electricity, water and telephone service for weeks, and now the former tourist attraction has a sign on the door that reads: "Tourists Are Not Permitted Beyond This Point." Flickr user yojimbot somehow got inside, however, and just sent over these photos.
Silverstein Adds Another Lower Manhattan Skyscraper
Developer Larry Silverstein announced yesterday that he will build an 80-story building at 99 Church Street, in place of the former Moody's headquarters, just a block away from the World Trade Center site. Twenty-two floors will be for a Four Seasons hotel; the other floors will include 143 condominiums, making it the "tallest residential structure" in the city.
The Library of Congress Photo Archive Meets Flickr
Last night we received a link to a treasure trove of old copyright-free photos being hosted on the Library of Congress's Flickr page. Here's a link to all of their New York images, and some of our favorites are below and after the jump. The pilot project will get 3,000 of the Library's 14 million photographs online. See what both the Library of Congress and Flickr have to say about the endeavor.
Memorializing Audrey Munson
Last year WNBC got up close and personal with the Civic Fame statue atop the Municipal Building, and this week The NY Times looks at the woman who modeled for that statue, and many others -- Audrey Munson, "a long-forgotten New York celebrity whose face and figure continue to grace the contours of statues all around Manhattan."It was Ms. Munson’s eyes that stared stoically from the marble forms of the Firemen’s Memorial on Riverside Drive,...
NY Times Hails Nouvel's Skyline-Enhancing Tower
NY Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff reviews Jean Nouvel's future 75-story tower at 53 West 53rd Street, describing it as "the most exhilarating addition to the skyline in a generation." He compares Nouvel's latest to the Woolworth, Chrysler and Seagram buildings. Filling a 17,000 square-foot vacant lot next to MoMA, the structure will be the future site of a developer Hines' 100-room hotel and 120 "highest-end" (Hines' words) luxury apartments. MoMA, which sold the lot...
Empire Love
10. Vietnam Veterans Memorial - Maya Lin with Cooper-Lecky PartnershipNew Yorkology has a list of the NYC structures in the top 150, and looking at what both the public and architects (they made some pre-selects), the rankings are all over the place. Sure, the Brooklyn Bridge is #20 and the Woolworth Building is #44. But the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue ranks #53, higher than the Flatiron Building (#72). Heck, even the new Hearst Tower ranks ahead of the Flatiron!
Seven Wonders of New York City
There is a competition to name the new seven wonders of the world, and the Statue of Liberty is the only NYC mention out of the 21 finalists. Run by New 7 Wonders and with experts like Cesar Pelli and Zaha Hadid on its panel, the finalists are quite a bunch: Stonehenge, the Pyramids of Giza, the Sydney Opera House, Easter Island statues, the Kremlin, the Eiffel Tower, and the Colosseum are just some. Which makes us wonder if the Statue of Liberty will make it to the final seven.
Mayor Vetos City Council's Brooklyn Warehouse De-Landmarking
Bam! The Mayor used his veto power to "support landmark status" for a Brooklyn warehouse in Williamsburg. The City Council had approved to remove landmark status for the Austin, Nichols Warehouse at 184 Kent Avenue (read this Gotham Gazette story about it) last week, paving the way for the building to be converted to condos. City Councilman David Yassky told the NY Times that the Mayor's sudden decision to go landmark happy was "to curry favor with preservationists after refusing to landmark 2 Columbus Circle. Now they'll milk it and really try to get political credit." What, politicians trying to get political credit? Shocking!
Snowfall Amounts
By popular demand, snowfall amounts over Friday and Saturday, from the New York Times:

