New marriage bureau to open Monday

An old city Department of Motor Vehicles Office up the street from City Hall has been transformed into a 24,000-square-foot wedding chapel for the Manhattan Marriage Bureau. The $12 million project, at 141 Worth Street at Centre Street, was designed by Jamie Drake, who also designed Madonna’s Los Angeles home and Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Upper East Side townhouse. Drake created two separate wedding chapels, turned the bathrooms in the old DMV office into dressing rooms, and put an over-sized photograph of City Hall in the bureau to be used as a backdrop for pictures. The new marriage bureau, which has been under renovation since 2006, will open on Monday.