The Friends of Moynihan Station shared a rendering of what Moynihan Station will look like, according to NY State. According to FMS, the Empire State Development Corporation has been "reluctant" to share them, but FMS thinks "looks great," though there's a lot that needs to be explained. The Observer broke down what's in the rendering:In the bottom of the picture is the Farley Post Office with a new Madison Square Garden in the rear.......

A rendering for a building that will replace a Cooper Union engineering building has emerged (above). Designed by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, the 440,000-square-foot mixed-use building will replace the brown tribute to banality that currently hunkers across from the historic 1859 Cooper Union Foundation building. The 51 Astor Place building is to be demolished; the fate of the connected Starbucks (between Third and Fouth Avenues) is uncertain. The Observer says the proposed building “will......

Photograph by Jake Dobkin Later today, the city will discuss whether the I.M. Pei-designed Silver Towers should be landmarked. The Observer reported that NYU announced its support today, a reversal from an earlier position over three years ago. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation pushed for landmarking the complex, located between Bleecker and Houston Streets and LaGuardia Place and Mercer Street, a few years ago, calling it "an innovative modern design by I.M.......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on Richmond Ave. on Staten Island, an injured corrections officer at Rikers Island in the Bronx, and a gas leak on East 68th St. in Manhattan. Chris Booker, the NY radio DJ boyfriend of Philly news personality Alycia Lane who allegedly punched a female NYPD police officer after calling her a dyke, says that she's being singled out because "[she's] a babe." Or it's because she......

When ParkSlopeParents.com advertised an open casting call for the new face of Baby Gap, we're sure an emergency meet-up took place at Tea Lounge. Who would make the cut?! Well The Observer reports from the front lines of the stroller-heavy Slope, outside of Kidville on Union Street where tots recently lined up.In another city, even in another New York City neighborhood perhaps, a model search like this would bring out the momagers and mini pageant......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a person under a train at East Fordham Rd. and Jerome Ave. in the Bronx, a shooting on Henry and West 9th Sts. in Brooklyn, and a homicide on Roosevelt Ave. in Queens. New Yorkers found guilty of repeated incidents of ignoring recycling laws may be required to throw out their trash in see-through bags for easy inspection. Ads soliciting the perfect ass might not make it onto city......

It seems like just yesterday that the Brooklyn Bridge was being blown up by Hollywood. How time flies. I Am Legend, the movie for which this post-apocalyptic craziness occurred, is opening today (get your promotional survivor kit ready!). In the 100 minutes of watching it, you'll meet three main characters: Manhattan, Sam the dog, and Will Smith ("Robert Neville"). The combination is apparently a winning one, as the reviews have been frighteningly positive...it will scare......

We've been monitoring how I am Legend, the big budget post-apocalyptic zombie movie set in New York, will be portraying the Big Apple ever since filming took place on the Brooklyn Bridge (it eventually gets blown up). Now, with reviews starting to pop up, we're hearing mixed things about the movie but raves about how a futuristic people-less New York City looks. The Observer's Sara Vilkomerson was freaked out, noting how the city is......

The reviews are in for the $180 million production of The Golden Compass, and they’re lackluster at best, which is a pity not just for fans of the novel from which it’s adapted but for New Line Cinema, which was banking on another Lord of the Rings cash cow. Times critic Manohla Dargis calls it flawed and cluttered, although her description of Nicole Kidman ought to sway any dudes reluctant to see a movie starring......

The Observer points us to a new exhibit opening at the Whitney this month. "Television Delivers People" will feature video works from the 1970s to present day. The will be work from Alex Bag, Dara Birnbaum, Joan Braderman, Keren Cytter, Kalup Linzy, Richard Serra (yes, that Richard Serra), Michael Smith, and Ryan Trecartin. "The exhibition borrows its title from Richard Serra's video Television Delivers People (1973), which playfully pairs a Muzak soundtrack with a scrolling......

While the NBA season is less than a month old, you wouldn't know it from the amount of press the Knicks have received so far. Between the well-publicized scandals and a tumultuous 8-game losing streak, there hasn't been much good to report on. But The Observer offers a glimpse into why the media often seems to take so much pleasure in reporting on the team's embarrassing demise. Turns out, The Garden doesn't think too fondly......

Chumley’s owner Steve Shlopak recently poured his heart out to The Observer, admitting that the former speakeasy is now “just a dirt hole” with only two walls still up! The 1831 West Village landmark was closed in April when a chimney collapsed during repairs on an interior wall. Shlopak went into further disheartening detail:The rest of the building is held up with construction scaffolding. There is no ceiling and there is no floor... It’s almost......

New York seems to have a love/hate relationship with the branded beanery Starbucks (their seasonal Peppermint Mochas sure are tasty, but their sterile generic storefronts keep the siren's call muted). While the local mom and pop collects our $3/day coffee allowance, there are plenty lining up at the corner 'Bucks for their daily buzz. Alas, there is now a book to appease the haters and the adoring herds of the establishment. Taylor Clark has gone......

There's been talk of what will happen to the Hotel Pennsylvania for a while now, and today the NY Observer reports that the skyscraper planned to take over the 401 Seventh Avenue address could be stopped by preservationists. Since the demolition project needs to be met with public approval it might not bode well that the construction "would entail building over the railroad tracks that run beneath the hotel and pose engineering and security challenges."......

There's a group of guys, younger than Tony Hawk but older than your average skater punk, who refuse to give up their skateboards -- though admittedly they say they have nothing to rebel against anymore. Skateboarding doesn't have to be about rebelling though, sometimes it can just be about...commuting? Bikers aren't the only ones finding a better way to move around this city, turns out the skateboard is helping grown men get to work --......

The NY Times is hinting that Brooklyn may be so over, a theory that seems to be based around Heath Ledger leaving the borough.What if Brooklyn’s recent cachet as the locus for what’s next is little more than a thin and fragile crust of chic, hiding the insecurity of people who constantly measure the social currency of their ZIP code by Manhattan standards? The number of trendy boutiques, bistros and music clubs in Brooklyn may......

The Observer revisits The Hotel Chelsea in a piece about a long-time resident who runs a salon out of the building. April Barton cuts hair out of Suite 303 in a salon that fits right in at the legendary building, and the cachet of running her business there isn't something she necessarily wants to give up. Recently, however, new management told her that she may be facing a massive rent hike. An otherwise “gracious” representative......

The Observer reports that Google is outgrowing its 360,000+ square foot office space at 76 Ninth Avenue and has closed on 130,000 square feet at 75 Ninth Avenue, the Chelsea Market. Located directly across the street from each other, Google is keeping private about any plans for the new space, but The Observer gets more info on how much it might have cost the company:The source also explained that a special deal had been worked......

Josh Schwartz left the sunny beaches of O.C. to bring his brand of teen drama to the gritty city. His new show, Gossip Girl, will premiere on the CW September 19th, and it's been filming all over town lately. The series, which was gabbed about in The Observer recently, is based on the young-adult books of the same name and puts the spotlight on "the struggle for social supremacy among teens from both sides of......

Just after Ethan Hawke declared more love for the Hotel Chelsea and more fear about the changes there being the final nail in the coffin of "old New York," The Observer suspects his exes ex of helping to hold the hammer. Earlier this summer hotel developer André Balazs was spotted in the lobby of the hotel once it was under management of his pals Richard Born and Ira Drukier of BD Hotels (together the trio......

The Observer people watches the people watchers this week with a piece on The Bench. Almost too ridiculous to report on, the Lower East Side American Apparel happens to have a hot spot outside of its windows which has become the "epicenter of perhaps the hottest 'anti-scene' scene on Saturday nights." Exactly the kind of thing you'd expect to be forged outside of an American Apparel, it even has founders - including DJ Big Black......

The city of New York is mourning the death of Brooke Astor. The philanthropist, who died yesterday at age 105, had channeled millions from her husband's fortune into a numbers of institutions and organizations - from Carnegie Hall to small community groups across all boroughs. The NY Times obituary makes a very good point about why the $195 million she donated through the Astor Foundation was so important: "Although the foundation was not large......

Will Manhattan's clubs be moving to the 10013? With the group that opened Cain on 27th Street having opened Gold Bar at 389 Broome Street in February; and uber-promoter Danny A having opened the VIP-only Upstairs on Spring Street and Broadway, The Observer is reporting on a move of "clubland" to Chinatown. Following the flock is former model Emma Cleary who purchased Double Happiness at 173 Mott Street. The lounge will open as a "hip......

Just last week Jeremy Blake's body was identified after being found off the coast of New Jersey. In July he and his girlfriend committed suicide one week apart from each other, and since then stories of their lives, fears and final days have surfaced. After the LA Times extensive piece, the NY Post recently published a lengthy article on the couple, who at the time were living in a converted rectory at St. Mark's Church......

This week The Observer plays the role of that guy at the movie theater by pointing out inaccuracies in a film. This time it's a New York location that's off in the new Bourne movie - which was filming here back in February of this year. (Skip the blockquote if you don't want to know any details about the movie.) However, nothing is as it seems in the third installment of the Bourne saga, and......

The owner of the downtown topless bar Pussycat Lounge is attempting to get the building that houses his business landmarked in order to prevent the club's destruction by an expansion-minded hotelier. The latter is Sam Chang, who currently has 20 different hotel development projects under way in Brooklyn and Manhattan. An article in The Observer reports that Chang has three hotels in the works in the neighborhood surrounding the Pussycat Lounge––a 300-room hotel on Greenwich......

The Observer's Matthew Schuerman has a few interesting stories about Columbia's Manhattanville expansion plans. An article published today looks at how the University of Pennsylvania's successful (and more community-embraced) urban transformation could potentially inform Columbia's plans, now that former Penn president Judith Rodin's book, The University & Urban Revival has hit the bookshelves. Rodin, now the president of the Rockefeller Foundation, only says that the conversations she has had with Columbia president Lee Bollinger......

PARTY: Nostalgic for the Blackout of 2003? Someone has put together an event that will recapture the night of no lights so we can all enjoy it once again (with reassuring knowledge that the contents of the fridge aren't melting back at home). Stain's blackout party will be complete with candles, canned goods, beer, a battery-run boombox, board games, grilling and other non-electricity-dependent activities. 8pm // Stain [766 Grand St, Williamsburg] // Free MUSIC: Before......

The laptop as guest - and sometimes the centerpiece - at dinner parties gets the Observer treatment today. We're all too familiar with friends staring at their Blackberry/iPhone/ Sidekick devices during social situations, but some might tell those toting a Macbook to a dinner party to just stay at home...or not? After all, they do come in handy when a debate is being settled (say, how many degrees of Kevin Bacon is Alan Thicke?). As......

The Observer has an interesting piece on The New Victorians, who are apparently bringing monogomy and early adulthood back. To get a mental image, think: Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger in Boerum Hill, Jonathan Safran Foer and Nicole Krauss in Park Slope and Liv Tyler and Royston Langdon in the West Village. A new breed of 20-somethings in the big city, and apparently this new regime is more into nesting than late nights. The Observer......