Rendering by Arup, courtesy of Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Brooklynites are hoping the third time’s a charm for the trouble-plagued Squibb Bridge, a 450-foot-long wooden walkway connecting Squibb Park to Pier 1 in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The bridge has had what Brooklyn Bridge Park president Eric Landau called a “challenged history.” But the park has been working with engineers at Arup to find ways to make the new bridge safe (h/t Curbed). Possible solutions included retrofitting the existing bridge, which would cost $4 million and take about a year, and building a new bridge from scratch atop the current concrete in-ground support structures, with a cost of about $6.5 million and an 18-month schedule. The latter plan was chosen, and the new bridge will be made from pre-fabricated steel, which means it should be safe for years to come rather than needing significant maintenance soon.

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Sketch by Richard La Rovere courtesy of the Journal Square Community Association

A Jersey City community association wants to turn an abandoned rail cut into a 17-acre High Line-style park. The Journal Square Community Association is proposing turning what used to be the Erie Railroad’s four-track cut through the Palisades into a public park. Better known as the Bergen Arches, the historic rail-cut borders Journal Square and opened in 1910, but has not been in use since the late 1950s. Since then, the Bergen Arches has become an overgrown wooded area in the expanding Journal Square neighborhood.

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Rendering courtesy of Brookfield Properties and Park Tower Group.

Developers Brookfield Properties and Park Tower Group have unveiled the next phase of development in the massive Greenpoint Landing waterfront project, including an addition to the public waterfront esplanade designed by James Corner Field Operations and mixed-income housing designed by OMA, the architecture firm founded by Rem Koolhaas. Construction is scheduled to begin this summer on the two new towers and an adjacent seven-story building that will bring the total number of units in the project to 745, of which 30 percent will be affordable.

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Rendering via MVVA and the Hudson Yards Development Corporation

Update 3/25/19: Tishman Speyer bought last week an auto repair building on West 36th Street for $20 million, the New York Post reported Monday. The company will demolish the two-story building to make way for a greenway that will be the next segment of Bella Abzug Park. In exchange for paying for the new park, Tishman Speyer will get air rights from the city to put up a tower bounded by Tenth and Eleventh Avenues.

The city on Friday renamed a park near Hudson Yards in honor of the late Bella Abzug, a former U.S. Representative of New York and stalwart supporter of the women’s rights movement. The greenspace, formerly Hudson Yards Park, stretches just over two acres between West 33rd and 36th Street. First developed with the extension of the 7 subway line to 34th Street, the park will soon be extended to 39th Street and run over an Amtrak rail cut.

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Image by James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, courtesy of the City of New York.

The Spur, the last section of the High Line, extending east along 30th Street and ending above 10th Avenue, is scheduled to open in 2019. Unlike other sections of the park which are more linear and perfect for strolling, this section will feature a large-scale plaza for public programming and art and areas for seating and gathering. Anchoring the new section will be the High Line Plinth. As Designboom reports, the Plinth will be one of the only sites in New York City with the purpose of featuring a rotating series of new contemporary public art commissions.

Renderings of the Plinth, this way

After her late husband, Bobby Zarin, passed away earlier this year, original “Real Housewives of New York” cast member Jill Zarin has put her Upper East Side condo on the market for $3.3 million, after living there for 18 years. Since her daughter is also out of the house, she told Forbes, “it’s time for a change of scenery,” which likely be warmer weather since she added, “Since I love tennis, I want to spend more time in a climate that is suited for it.” Likely in anticipation of selling, Jill renovated the three-bedroom apartment at 401 East 60th Street less than a year ago, working with designers at Schoeller + Darling on a contemporary makeover.

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Back in May 6sqft reported on plans for the 15 new gallery spaces in the works next to the Zaha Hadid-designed condo at 520 West 28th Street along the High Line, with the Paul Kasmin Gallery to anchor the project, which will expand into a 5,000-square-foot space with a sculpture garden designed by Future Green on its roof. With the official opening of the new building and inaugural exhibitions of works by Walton Ford and Joel Shapiro come new photos of the gallery and of the sculpture garden being installed.

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Last month, financing was secured for the second phase the extension of Hudson Park and Boulevard at Hudson Yards. The $374 million expansion–which will expand the existing park by 75 percent with a three-acre park over an Amtrak rail cut from West 36th Street to West 39th Street, between 10 and 11th Avenues–has gotten some slack for its price tag, which would make it NYC’s most expensive park project ever. But new renderings of the green space uncovered by CityRealty show everything this Western end of the project will bring to the mega-development, including an open lawn that will be turned into an ice-skating rink in the winter, curving stone paths amidst plush landscaping and tall trees, a food kiosk, and a colorful children’s playground.

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For a client who had attempted two previous renovations in an Upper East Side townhouse that had retained its grand details from a 1937 remodel, the third time was a charm with the guidance of architect Anik Pearson. The townhouse received a complete overhaul of its infrastructure and service core to maximize performance and efficiency, with the layer of history reflected in its rooms and details carefully restored and preserved. Among the best of the renewal was the redesign of an existing rooftop garden to include sustainable elements like a grass roof, live-roof sedum and herb garden modules, a vegetable patch, a flower cutting garden, an orchard, a worm compost and a beehive for pollination.

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Image: TF Cornerstone

Developer TF Cornerstone has released new details about public open space slated to be part of the proposed project spanning over 1.5 million square feet at 44th Drive on city-owned land along the Long Island City waterfront, LICpost reports. Known as the Long Island City Innovation Center, the proposed massive city-led development, which will need zoning changes in order to move forward, includes office, retail, and manufacturing space and two high-rise residential towers with over 1,000 units, 25 percent of which would be affordable. The latest news concerns the acre of publicly accessible open space that is also part of the controversial development. According to TF Cornerstone, this open space will become a waterfront park with a focus on resiliency and sustainability.

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