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.......

Rendering © Rafael Viñoly Architects Well, candy is in the mouth of the beholder, but here are the actual renderings. As noted yesterday, the proposals for the new residential and retail complex at the Domino Refinery will be presented to the Landmarks Preservation Commission at a public hearing today at 2pm at the Municipal Building (1 Centre Street), 9th Floor North. Brownstoner posted snapshots of the renderings taken last week at a community board meeting,......

More detailed images of the proposed development at the landmarked Domino Refinery in south Williamsburg have emerged; the biggest news is that developers plan to build a five-story glass addition on top of the Filter House (above), the tallest structure at the refinery, which has been closed since 2004. According to plans revealed by architects Beyer Blinder Belle, the modified refinery would have 1,550 underground parking spaces, 30,000 square feet of retail space, an......

Last year WNBC got up close and personal with the Civic Fame statue atop the Municipal Building, and this week The NY Times looks at the woman who modeled for that statue, and many others -- Audrey Munson, "a long-forgotten New York celebrity whose face and figure continue to grace the contours of statues all around Manhattan."It was Ms. Munson’s eyes that stared stoically from the marble forms of the Firemen’s Memorial on Riverside Drive,......

So if you remember correctly, Grand Theft Auto IV, the New York City crime simulator, was supposed to be in stores by now. But between production delays and the million other great games this season to compete with, they decided to just push it back till next Spring and get it right. But just in case you've you've still got an itch for some Eastern European organized crime this holiday season, here's a brand......

Yesterday, the NY Post revealed that the dingy Manhattan Marriage Bureau would be getting a deluxe makeover. First of all, the City Clerk's Office will move from 1 Centre Street at the Municipal Building to 80 Centre Street. Second, Mayor Bloomberg's personal decorator, Jamie Drake, will be overseeing the redesign - at a discount (we doubt the new bureau will have the touches that Mayor B's swank townhouses do), but the budget is still......

From 1910 until 1963, when New York actually had a Pennsylvania Station instead of a dingy 1960s subterranean rat warren beneath a hockey rink and office towers, twenty-two stone eagles stood guard over the McKim, Mead, and White masterpiece. The eagles themselves, along with almost all the other stone artwork on the station were the work of artist Adolph A. Weinman, who among other things created Civic Fame atop the Municipal Building and the......

There is an incredible feature about British author Will Self visiting NYC in the NY Times Arts section. Why a feature and why so incredible? Well, Self decided to walk from JFK Airport to Manhattan - all 20 miles - and Times writer at large Charles McGrath and Times photographer Casey Kelbaugh went along for the journey, too. So it's incredibly brilliant and incredibly nuts at the same time. There's a great map of......

Via The Daily Politics, the City of New York has created its own Google-type map with all sorts of information overlaid to show you the nearest services. For instance, you can map an address and then find out the nearest post office, school, subway station or WiFi hotspot. You can also define boundaries as boroughs, zip codes - or landmark districts, business improvement districts, city council districts, or community boards. There's also regular map......

Augh! The NY Sun reports:Speculation is heating up that the Municipal Building, the soaring limestone landmark that overlooks City Hall, could be among the government real estate assets to be sold off and converted to residential buildings as municipal employees prepare to move into a new, privately managed office building planned for ground zero.Why? Because the city signed an agreement with World Trade Center developer to assume 600,000 square feet of space at Tower......

There is a competition to name the new seven wonders of the world, and the Statue of Liberty is the only NYC mention out of the 21 finalists. Run by New 7 Wonders and with experts like Cesar Pelli and Zaha Hadid on its panel, the finalists are quite a bunch: Stonehenge, the Pyramids of Giza, the Sydney Opera House, Easter Island statues, the Kremlin, the Eiffel Tower, and the Colosseum are just some.......

On Friday night, there was a smoke condition at City Hall. Apparently an "electrical panel overheated," filling the basement with smoke around 7:45PM, forcing a building evacuation. According to the NY Times, only a few building workers were in the building (Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn weren't around) and though the fire department brought a hose into the building, no water was sprayed. We're glad that City Hall wasn't damaged, as it's a truly......

WNBC's Chopper reporter Dan Rice has been doing a Friday feature of certain buildings and landmarks. Last week, he focused is the largest statue in the city after the Statue of Liberty: Civic Fame, which is perched on top of the Municipal Building at 1 Centre Street. Rice wrote a post about the statue on the Today in New York blog and marveled at the detail he's able to see from the WNBC 4......

Has anyone played Project Gotham Racing 3 yet? We were watching TV and saw a commercial, with a car zipping past the Municipal Building. We then went to IGN, where they had screen captures like this one at the Manhattan Bridge! Project Gotham Racing seems like pure fantasy, no one is their right mind should be driving that fast in NYC. In fact, Gothamist can barely remember how drive. Hey, game developers, please create......

So, Boston native Matt Damon got married to his fiance, Miami resident Luciana Bozan, on Friday morning at City Hall - and Mayor Bloomberg was present. Damon and Bozan were able to bypass the Municipal Building wedding. We thought, "Why would Mayor Bloomberg attend the wedding?" Is it because Damon is filming a movie in NYC? Or because Damon is from Boston, the Mayor's original haunt? Or, perhaps, it's a returned favor, after Damon attended......

Over the weekend, the Municipal Building at 1 Centre Street had a fire break out on its 20th floor. Luckily, firefighters were able to control the fire (seven had minor injuries), and the FDNY is still investigating its cause - only maintenance workers were around on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We're glad that the Municipal Building is okay, because it is easily one of the most awesome buildings in the city. Designed by McKim, Mead......

It's the time of year again: Starting at 9AM today, one hundred three-seats sets from Yankee Stadium will go on sale. The Department of Parks and Recreation will use any funds raised and put them back into the city's health, safety, parks and municipal services activities. These seats were installed in 1975 and removed in 1998/99 during a renovation which welcomed seats with padding, which means that the seats have seen World Series Championships.......

To make room for all the money they need to store for their roster, the Yankees are getting rid of 1,200 seats that were removed in the late '90s (they were installed in 1975). The best part is that the seats will go on sale to the public Monday, April 19, with money going towards the city's general fund. The Parks and Recreation Department has been housing them and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe says, "If......