Architecture! Urban design! Ebooks!: "This week the MIT Press launched MIT Press Open Architecture and Urban Studies, a robust digital collection of classic and previously out-of-print architecture and urban studies books, on their digital book platform MIT Press Direct. The collection was funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as part of the Humanities Open Book Program, which they co-sponsored with the National Endowment for the Humanities.
"For years, the MIT Press has fielded requests for ebook editions of classic, out-of-print works, like the two volumes of The Staircase by John Templer, On Leon Battista Alberti: His Literary and Aesthetic Theories by Mark Jarzombek, Possible Palladian Villas: (Plus a Few Instructively Impossible Ones) by George L. Hersey and Richard Freedman, and Making a Middle Landscape by Peter Rowe. Many of these foundational texts were published before the advent of ebooks and remained undigitized because of complex design requirements and the prohibitive cost of image permissions.
"Now, with funding from the Mellon Foundation and the efforts of an open-access-savvy digitization team, the MIT Press was able to not only secure image permissions, but also to solicit fresh forewords that bring new insights to bear on many of these classic texts. Many of the titles will also be made available on the open access platform PubPub where readers will be able to interact with and annotate the works with contemporary context and related readings.
"Representing the breadth and depth of the MIT Press’s architecture and urban studies publishing program, the collection is a quintessential blend of theory, practice, history, and technology." (MIT Press)
In other news:
Activists continue the fight to trim the controversial residential tower rising at 200 Amsterdam by 20 floors: "It ain’t over ‘til it’s over – especially not on the litigation-loving Upper West Side. Activists opposed to the soaring height of 52-story 200 Amsterdam Avenue at West 71st Street have made a last-ditch stab at making the developers chop twenty floors off the luxury condominium. The Municipal Art Society filed an eleventh-hour plea to the state Court of Appeals late Wednesday to reconsider a March ruling by the Appellate Division that found that the building’s height complied with zoning rules." (NY Post)
A major win for the Two Bridges towers: "The Court of Appeals has denied the City Council’s effort to prevent a group of developers from bringing four towers to Lower Manhattan. [...] Manhattan state Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron had ruled in the City Council's favor last February, but the Appellate Division unanimously reversed Engoron’s decision in August. The City Council had announced in November that it planned to appeal this ruling to the Court of Appeals." (Crain's)
It’s like fingernails on a blackboard: "A luxury condo in Cobble Hill has radiated a shrill whistling sound for months, disrupting life in the quiet brownstone nabe with its piercing noise, according to locals." (Brooklyn Paper)
Community members and lawmakers are wary of Cuomo's proposed Penn Station overhaul: "The undertaking is being pursued through a general project plan, which allows the state to get around the city’s land use process. For these and other reasons, Manhattan Community Boards 4 and 5, along with state legislators, have asked the state’s economic development arm to pump the brakes. [...] In a joint statement, the community boards called the plan “a real estate development packaged as a transportation project” with scarce details on what the overhaul of Penn Station itself would entail." (The Real Deal)
5 Pointz LIC
5Pointz LIC in Long Island City launches leasing: "5Pointz LIC, the two-tower luxury development in Long Island City, announced today the official launch of leasing. Developed by G&M Realty with leasing and marketing led by MNS, 5Pointz features 1,122 units ranging from studios to three-bedroom units and duplexes. Pricing will range from approximately $2,830 - $7,500. With exteriors by HTO Architects, 5 Pointz LIC will be the 10th tallest project in Queens, making a lasting impression on the borough’s skyline. Standing at 498 feet and 440 feet, a courtyard and connecting lounge unite the North and South towers. Upon entry, the fully attended lobby boasts cavernous 30’ ceilings with a digital wall in a tapered metal frame, featuring arts of all kinds throughout the day. The ground-floor reception serves as the gateway to the building’s common area and amenities." (5Pointz)
New NYC Design and Construction Chief wants less restrictive rules for procurement: "New York City's new Dept. of Design and Construction commissioner says its March 30 report shows that less restrictive procurement and contracting rules resulted in projects being delivered in less time than expected and on budget—and that the new procedures might be worth keeping. Jamie Torres-Springer took over the role March 23 after Lorraine Grillo accepted a new position as the city's senior advisor for recovery. A day later, he told the NYC city council's committee on finance that being able to deliver hundreds of millions of dollars of construction in mere months shows how effectively we can work when we are not bound by the typical procurement, administrative and oversight regime.'" (Engineering News Record)
New York ranked the #3 least affordable housing market: "A family in the city would need to spend 77.88 percent of their annual income in order to own a home." (Realty Hop)
Biden calls for a hike in corporate taxes to fund his infrastructure plan: "President Biden intends to pay for the $2 trillion package of infrastructure spending he will propose on Wednesday with a substantial increase in corporate taxes, people briefed on the plan said Tuesday. The scale of the infrastructure program — one of the most ambitious attempts in generations to shore up the nation’s aging roads, bridges, rail lines and utilities — is so big that it will require 15 years of higher taxes on corporations to pay for eight years of spending, they said." (NYT)
Remote work will become the standard: "A year after the coronavirus sparked an extraordinary exodus of workers from office buildings, what had seemed like a short-term inconvenience is now clearly becoming a permanent and tectonic shift in how and where people work. Employers and employees have both embraced the advantages of remote work, including lower office costs and greater flexibility for employees, especially those with families. Beyond New York, some of the country’s largest cities have yet to see a substantial return of employees, even where there have been less stringent government-imposed lockdowns, and some companies have announced that they are not going to have all workers come back all the time." (NYT)
As some bodegas struggle, others are expanding: "Francisco Marte’s northwest Bronx bodega saw neighbors getting infected by the virus and losing their jobs, pushing regulars to plead to put groceries on tab. About 20 miles away in Park Slope, Samrat Shah and Samiksha Shah recently opened their second store in Brooklyn following the success with their first selling premium items from organic milk to locally sourced jam. Their fates epitomize the uneven impact of the Covid-19 crisis in the five boroughs: Bodegas in low-income communities battled with a spike of unemployment, robberies and even shootings; stores in Manhattan’s office and tourist areas suffered from the lack of foot traffic, while those in affluent residential neighborhoods saw a steady flow of business as the working-from-home crowd shopped locally and spent more time cooking." (Bloomberg)
Ghost Forest being installed in Madison Square ParkAndy Romer | Maya Lin and the Madison Square Park Conservancy
Artist Maya Lin is bringing a new installation to Madison Square Park: "Ghost Forest will erect a forest of dead Atlantic white cedar trees on the park’s lawn, where the bare trunks and branches will stand in stark contrast with the leafy living trees of Madison Square Park (they should be filled out by the time Ghost Forest opens). The show is named after the phenomena of when saltwater infiltration or an extreme weather event kills vast swaths of forests but leaves the dead trees behind unscathed, where they remain until felled. Lin worked with the Madison Square Park Conservancy to source the 40-to-45-foot-tall trees, which were removed from the Pine Barrens as part of a land regeneration project. Accordingly, Ghost Forest is intended as a poignant and clear visual metaphor for habitat loss and the ravages of climate change." (AN)
