Photos by Tory Williams, courtesy of The Sill

Cobble Hill got a little more green with the opening of The Sill‘s first brick-and-mortar in Brooklyn (they also have a recently opened kiosk at City Point). The outpost at 195 Pacific Street features an apartment-friendly collection of succulents, cacti, and tropical plants that can be potted in the store’s own line of planters or purchased on their own. And to make it easy for newbies, each plant has straight-forward labels that you know how much sunlight and water it needs, as well as if it’s pet-friendly.

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Yayoi Kusama in 2020. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Opening May 9th and running until November at the New York Botanical Garden, a blockbuster exhibition dedicated to Yayoi Kusama will immerse us in the Japanese artist’s visionary world. As the exhibition begins to take shape, we got our first sneak peek of the ambitious plans, which include a career-spanning survey, the debut of four new works, and a variety of complementary horticultural installations created by the Garden’s team.

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Listing images courtesy of Halstead Real Estate

The charming West Village townhouse that was once home to Hilary Swank is back on the market for $10.995 million (h/t Curbed). Swank and her then-husband Chad Lowe bought the four-story property at 33 Charles Street for $3.9 million in 2002 and sold it four years later for $8.25 million, a significant profit. The current owner is Harry A. Lawton III, the president of Macy’s, who closed on the home in 2017 for $10.5 million, just under the current asking price.

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Previous rendering of 2 World Center via DBOX, courtesy of Bjarke Ingels Group

It looks like Norman Foster’s design for 2 World Trade Center might rise after all. First unveiled in 2006, the original Foster + Partners proposal was scrapped in 2015 for Bjarke Ingels’ stacked tower, which was deemed more suitable to prospective media tenants. After leases with Fox and News Corp. fell through in 2016, the future of the tenant-less tower has remained uncertain. Absent any takers, developer Larry Silverstein is now pivoting back to the Foster vision, the New York Post reports. The old design is being “significantly modified to be more reflective of contemporary needs and taste,” Silverstein said.

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Rendering courtesy of Related Companies

“There has never been a wall along the High Line and there will never be a wall,” Hudson Yards emphasized on Twitter today in response to reports that a 700-foot wall will turn the next phase of development into a veritable gated community. Plans for the Western Yard always included paving over the remaining tracks with a deck that would slope down toward the High Line, but last week, it was reported that developer Related Companies was floating around an idea that would have the deck slope up instead to accommodate a parking garage underneath. It would also essentially wall off the new development’s green space and overshadow the High Line. However, Hudson Yards continued in its series of Tweets, “We have always shared the vision that the Western Yard should include a great public open space.”

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Renderings by Gabellini Sheppard Associates courtesy Tishman Speyer; via NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Tishman Speyer proposed a plan to revamp certain aspects of Rockefeller Center during a hearing at the Landmark Preservation Commission on Tuesday, as CityRealty reported. With Gabellini Sheppard Associates at the helm, the design proposal makes tweaks to the gardens and outdoor plaza spaces at the 22-acre site. The upgrades—which mostly seek to improve circulation—come as city officials have been discussing the permanent restriction of traffic around Rockefeller Center following the successful pedestrianization of the area during the recent holiday season.

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Photos courtesy of Tiffany & Co.

Under the watchful eyes of 30 security officers and 300 surveillance cameras, Tiffany & Company moved 114,179 pieces of jewelry from their iconic Fifth Avenue flagship store over the weekend to prepare the building for a renovation. Everything was taken to the adjacent storefront at 6 East 57th Street—a former Nike store—that will host a temporary location of the jewelry store until the renovation wraps up in 2021. Cheekily dubbed The Tiffany Flagship Next Door, the jeweler’s new home centers around a central atrium that will feature a rotating schedule of “periodic installations and exclusive partnerships.”

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The original Liquiteria on 2nd Avenue and 11th Street in 2013; Map data © 2020 Google

The Liquiteria at Fourth Avenue and 13th Street closed down last week, the last of five remaining New York City locations that have now shuttered, Eater reports. The juice bar chain opened its first location in the East Village at Second Avenue and East 11th Street in 1996, making it an early pioneer in the celebrity-fueled juice craze that eventually followed. There has been no mention of the closures from the company (their social media accounts haven’t been active in months or years, depending on the platform) but their website is no longer active and phones at every location are disconnected. The Fourth Avenue storefront appears largely emptied in photos captured by EV Grieve.

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Rendering courtesy of Rockwell Group

The Olayan Group released a new batch of renderings giving us a sneak peek inside the amenity floor at 550 Madison Avenue. Designed by Rockwell Group, the seventh floor offers a mix of “hospitality-driven” spaces for tenants, including food and beverage options, lounges, shared workspaces, and fitness and wellness areas. The center of it all will be the iconic Philip Johnson-designed oculus—which greets visitors as soon as they step off the elevator on the club floor—framed by two floor-to-ceiling artworks by Dorothea Rockburne, which were commissioned in 1993 specifically for the building.

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Photos of Bergamo’s by Rachel Vanni

Busy but relatively dry Midtown East got a new cocktail bar last week with Bergamo’s at 26 Vanderbilt Avenue. Located on the ground floor of the Company building—a tech incubator designed by SHoP Architects—the sprawling 8,530-square-foot lounge was inspired by old New York glamour and features a vaulted ceiling with custom tiles that nod to the historic Guastavino vaults at nearby Grand Central Terminal.

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