The New York City Department of Design and Construction unveiled a redesign plan for the Astor Place and Cooper Square areas of the East Village, according to DNAinfo. The plan, aimed at enhancing pedestrian accessibility by closing off some traffic thruways, would also create outdoor plazas with sitting areas. But David Crane, chair of Community Board 3′s transportation committee, said he was concerned the new plan could have an unintended negative effect. [more]

Bob Siegel, co-founder of Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects

Bob Siegel who co-founded Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects in 1968, said his staff numbers 40 today, down from 65 two years ago. Plus, a few major projects are winding down, “and there are not a lot of replacements coming in” to the firm’s sole office, in Manhattan, Siegel said. One recently completed project is the new W Hoboken Hotel and Residence, a 26-story high-rise in New Jersey with 225 rooms and 30 condominium units, while the Financial District’s under-construction W New York Downtown Hotel & Residences, whose 58 stories contain 217 rooms and 159 residences, is set to debut within weeks, though the project has been somewhat troubled: the city has slapped it with 30 stop-work orders, and it’s wrapping up two years behind schedule. In an interview with The Real Deal, Siegel, 70, spoke about why his favorite New York neighborhood is Battery Park City, what apartment buildings will look like later this century and coping with the death of the firm’s other founder, Charles Gwathmey, last year. [more]

Ismael Leyva Architects has renewed its lease for the 13th floor at 48 West 37th Street, according to a press release from Adams & Co. Real Estate, which brokered the deal. The firm occupies 16,000 square feet on the building’s 12th and 13th floors, where the company has general and executive offices. The asking rent for the space was around $36 per square foot, though the final rent was not available. Ismael Leyva Architects, headed up by Ismael Leyva, has worked on projects at Tribeca Green at 325 North End Avenue, Astor Place at 26 Astor Place and the Westminster at 180 West 20th Street, according to the firm’s Web site. TRD [more]

From the July issue: Nearly a dozen retail vacancies dot
Broadway between Houston Street and
Astor Place. In recent years of economic excess, the strip languished
in the shopping shadow of its neighbors — trendy Soho to the south and
bustling Union Square to the north.
But in today’s sagging economy, Noho, with its rents half the price
of areas like Soho, could draw new retail blood such as apparel
tenants, gourmet markets, and European brands that would have
previously turned their noses up at the area, brokers said. Still, the
economy and bleak national retail picture are stalling the
neighborhood’s resurgence. Due to market conditions, “so many retailers
have pulled back,”
said Jeffrey Roseman, a principal and executive vice president at
Newmark Knight Frank Retail. [more]