Author Archives: admin
Lucky number seven.
The Times provides some background on the inability of the MTA board to count. Turns out the unanimity regarding the Jets’ bid was out of concern for expanding the system, which they see as part of their mandate. The Times provides some talking heads who claim that no, the board’s primary role is fiduciary responsibility. […]
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Welcome to Orlando.
It’s just about done — whoops, sorry it is. Peter Kalikow, Woody Johnson, and Mike Bloomberg have bent the collective we over a canoe and announced: “I’m gonna make you squeal like a pig.” This should dispel those pesky rumors that the MTA is something other than corrupt ($200MM in overruns to a limo driver […]
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Errata.
Some loose ends, midweek: SO WHAT BUILDINGS do I actually like? Well, I can’t help the dearth of quality. Others can, and back in 2003, the Architectural League decided to try and promote their efforts, creating the New York Designs lecture series to: …provide a forum for the presentation of innovative and accomplished work in […]
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The memory of Olympia & York looms large.
Crain’s New York (print only) is reporting that Larry Silverstein dropped about $300,000 producing cloth-bound promotional brochures (at $150 a pop) for 7WTC, a property still unsullied by the grime of commerce. He’s got a good nine months or so to seal the deal — a deal — any deal. But he’s also got some […]
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I’ve got a hole in my pocket.
As distracting as the teeming masses of humanity that collide on the streets of New York each day can be, I still find myself craning up or down, seeking insight into the mysteries of life lived so transparently in towers, or the secret spaces below that knit together the services that sustain them. I’ve often […]
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How much is that tax subsidy in the window?
There’s nothing like cash: anonymous, a little grimy, but everyone takes it, and doesn’t ask questions. Except for Mr. Clean Hands, Mike Bloomberg, who is still turning up his nose at the cold, hard green that Cablevision plunked down. Those Cablevision folks are playing this one like Karl Rove. I foolishy predicted that they would […]
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It’s time for the obvious ‘Show me the money’ reference.
So everyone had to put their cards on the table, and would you believe it? The Jets happened to have about 600 million more cards than everyone thought they did (that’s some Gaultier-like sleeve they were wearing). Before the MTA starts counting chicks, there is the issue of the platform. Aside from the fact that […]
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Morris Minor.
Cue woeful, seventies Elmer Bernstein soundtrack (sorry — caught the end of Serpico this weekend), fire up the Penn Station references and knit together the Identikit of bygone days obliterated before our very eyes. Oh, wait, someone did all that already. Thanks. Anyhow, one of the last remnants of the old school flavor of Union […]
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Someone else gets $850MM. You get a free dinner.
The dregs of WTC recovery funds are still unallocated. The upside is that the dregs are some $850 million. The downside is the LMDC has well over that in requests. If you include such blue-sky/ill-advised proposals such as the West Street Tunnel, or an airport rail link, there is upwards of three times as much […]
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It won’t be like Supertrain, it will just look like it.