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Bowne & Co. Stationers at 211 Water St., is part of the South Street Seaport Museum. It is open daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and is stocked with gifts for the holidays.
(Photo: Terese Loeb Kreuzer) 

"City to shoulder more public benefit costs," The Real Deal, 11/13/14. In a statement relevant to the current discussion over the future of the South Street Seaport, chairman of the City Planning Commission Carl Weisbrod was quoted in The Real Deal as saying, "The city will shoulder a higher share of costs associated with creating public benefits such as schools and parks, in order to encourage more developers to address the affordable housing crisis."

The Howard Hughes Corporation says that it needs to build a 494-foot-tall waterfront tower in the Seaport in order to pay for community amenities such as a middle school, the restoration of piers in the East River, a marina and affordable housing.

According to The Real Deal, "Under the Bill de Blasio administration, Weisbrod expects to see a reversal of several decades of public policy. Whereas in the past the city required developers to pay for parks, schools and public spaces in exchange for incentives such as upzoning, the city will now take on more of that burden. ... Weisbrod was speaking on a panel at the Massey Knakal Realty Services Multifamily Summit, held at the McGraw-Hill Building at 1221 Sixth Avenue .... Weisbrod leads City Planning, which is one of the key agencies responsible for the mayor's aggressive affordable housing plan." For the complete article, click here.

"Vision: 118 Fulton Street, 63-Story Financial District Residential Tower," YIMBY, 11/26/14. "The assemblage at 112-120 Fulton Street has undergone several changes over the past few years: first, the site was reduced to 112-118 Fulton after a 421-a snafu, and then, Lightstone Group sold the parcels to Carmel Partners for $171 million two months ago," says YIMBY.  "Vague renderings had been released for initial concepts, but now, YIMBY has a look at what we believe were Lightstone's most recent plans for the site, before selling to Carmel Partners. Gerner Kronick + Valcarcal designed the 60-odd story tower, which has a simple form, distinguished by a wave-like pattern running along the facade. We're not sure if Carmel Partners intends to follow through with this design, and no new building permits have been filed. Fulton Street is still relatively under-built, and with the Financial District's booming popularity for residential development, its true potential is only just becoming apparent. Anything approaching starchitecture would - at least for now - be unwarranted for the street, and something attractive but simple, like the GK+V plan, is to be expected." For the complete article, click here.

"A Home for the Headlines," New York Times, 11/28/14. "A structure that just missed the New York City landmarks preservation law of 1965 was the 1905 Times Tower at 42nd Street at Broadway," says Christopher Gray of The New York Times, who writes about New York City real estate in a historical context. Gray recalls that before The Times moved uptown, the paper was published in Lower Manhattan. "At one time most of the newspaper industry was clustered along Park Row, where The Times built its own skyscraper at No. 41 Park Row in 1889," he says. "But when the Ochs family bought the paper in the 1890s, they were open to new ideas, especially in 1900, when construction began on New York's first subway, its route turning at what was then called Longacre Square. In 1903 The Times's architects, Eidlitz & McKenzie, filed plans for a 24-story tower on the trapezoidal plot at the south end of the square, bounded by 42nd and 43rd Streets, Broadway and Seventh Avenue." For the complete article, click here.

"A Singular World That Won't Fade Away," New York Times, 11/28/14. "The traffic was light, the sky dark, the sidewalks mostly empty on a bitterly cold recent Sunday evening in TriBeCa," The New York Times recounts. "Looking down shadowy side streets, it was possible, for a moment or two at a time, to imagine being back in the forbidding, exhilarating downtown New York of the 1970s. The fantasy only deepened on arriving at the West Broadway building where the composer, vocalist, dancer, choreographer, director and filmmaker Meredith Monk has lived and worked since 1972. A star and survivor of that long-ago downtown scene, she marks the 50th anniversary of the start of her professional career this year, an ideal moment to honor her pathbreaking work, which has inspired artists as different as Merce Cunningham and Bj�rk." For the complete article, click here.

"A Soaring Emblem of New York, and Its Upside-Down Priorities," New York Times, 11/29/14. "The observatory, with the wraparound, nosebleed views, is not finished. Almost half the office space isn't leased yet. But a baker's dozen years after Sept. 11, 1 World Trade Center is up and running," says Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times. He doesn't like what he sees. "Like the corporate campus and plaza it shares, 1 World Trade speaks volumes about political opportunism, outmoded thinking and upside-down urban priorities," he says. "It's what happens when a commercial developer is pretty much handed the keys to the castle. Tourists will soon flock to the top of the building, and tenants will fill it up. But a skyscraper doesn't just occupy its own plot of land. Even a tower with an outsize claim on the civic soul needs to be more than tall and shiny." For the complete article, click here.

Downtown bulletin board

Museum of Jewish Heritage Hanukkah sale: Through Dec. 31, the Pickman Museum Shop of the Museum of Jewish Heritage at 36 Battery Place is holding its annual Hanukkah sale. Museum members receive 25 percent off all purchases. The shop carries a wide variety of Judaica, jewelry, books, music, DVDs and toys for children. Proceeds support the museum's educational programs. For more information, click here.