If you are one of the 700,000 people who pass through Grand Central Terminal every day there are things that you may take for granted or just may not know about the great train station. Thanks to Metro-North's Dan Brucker, Gothamist can reveal some of them to you. First things first: It is Grand Central Terminal, not Grand Central Station, since it has always been the terminus for the railroads it serves since its......

Gorilla, by jenna bascom at flickrToday on the Gothamist Newsmap: A construction accident at 32 Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, shots fired over the air at Meeker Ave & Frost St in Brooklyn, and an evidence search at 50-30 Broadway and 50 St in Queens Brooklyn Heights Blog has a great picture of the front entrance The Moxie Spot, a still-to-be-opened establishment on Atlantic Ave. The door comes in three sizes: adult, child, and pet.......

Photographs of the Bedell House, clockwise from upper left: Normal-looking in 2005 (from Tottenville Historical Society), covered in graffiti in 2005 (from Tottenville Historical Society), and boarded-up in 2008 (from Staten Island Advance) A landmark Tottenville home that caused a bitter fight between its owner and neighbors has entered a new stage of its existence: foreclosure proceedings. The Staten Island Advance reports John Grossi, who bought the 1869 Bedell House in hopes of razing......

The fate of McCarren Park Pool turned around after being landmarked and given a $50 million gift from Bloomberg, yet its future look is still up in the air. Following the February 4th meeting, last night another Community Board meeting was held to discuss The Pool. This time architects Rogers Marvel and The Parks Department were on hand to present conceptual plans. Curbed has the reveal, but they note the renderings are merely "draft images......

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.......

Michael Lappin, CEO of the managing company for what is being called the "New Domino", responded yesterday to our questions about the proposed project via email. The iconic Domino Sugar sign is not included in these renderings. [We photoshopped it back in, above.] Is there any plan to preserve that somewhere at the site? We are making every effort to save the sign. We are looking at different engineering solutions regarding the “where and......

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......

A building that formerly housed the Jamaica Savings Bank is total landmark bait. It was even called "the finest Beaux-Arts building in Queens" by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. But now the building's current owner may stand in the way of the third attempt to landmark the building. Built in 1898, the Jamaica Avenue limestone building designed by Hough & Deuell has been up for landmarking twice - and denied twice, after rejections from the Community......

Everyone is buzzing about the Brooklyn Bridge Park development today. The latest is that the project (which has been stalled time and time again) could begin next month as a wrecking ball tears down a piece of the area's history. The Daily News reports:If approved today, the $18 million construction phase would include the demolition of the historic Purchase Building [pictured] and the removal of portions of five piers, officials said. "This is the......

It's official. Today the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to designate DUMBO a historic district, pending City Council approval. The area, composed of 91 industrial buildings dated mostly from 1880 to 1920, is bound by John Street to the north, York Street to the south, Main Street to the west and Bridge Street to the east. It is the city's 90th historic district. The district contains the Manhattan Bridge, and its support piers and anchorage......

This past September, preservationists won a major victory when the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to give parts of the massive old Domino Sugar Refinery in Williamsburg landmark status. Three of the buildings at the site will be preserved and renovated for residential use, including some affordable housing. These things move slowly, of course. In the meantime the old refinery has been given a sweet homage by a Flickr group named Powerhouse. All we know......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a woman fell from a building at 35th St. and 5th Ave. in Manhattan, a body part was found on 20th Rd. and 18th St. in Queens, and a pedestrian was fatally struck at 50th St. and 6th Ave. in Brooklyn. Architects may lose the 408 foot spire that tops off the Freedom Tower because giant antennas may be technologically obsolete. An alliance of broadcasters are considering moving to......

The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted yesterday to landmark eight new sites in four of the city's boroughs - the Bronx loses out. City Room details the new landmarks, which include the Lord & Taylor building, the white brick Manhattan House, two homes on Grand St., the Standard Varnish Works Factory building (its owner thinks the designation is bad for business) and the Greek-Revival style Fillette Tyler Mansion in Staten Island and the Voelker-Orth Museum, Bird......

This week, reports the Downtown Express, the Landmarks Preservation Commission recommended that architects incorporate elements of the Battery Maritime Building's original architecture into a proposed plan to renovate and expand the ferry terminal. The Dermot Company seeks to develop a glass boutique hotel (complete with roof lounge) and specialty foods marketplace above the Beaux Arts ferry terminal. The changes at the Battery Maritime Building gives us an inside look at the politics of historic preservation,......

These days people tend to complain about Webster Hall more than they praise it. The drinks are expensive (even a water will set you back 4 bucks), the shows are too early and the nightclubs below the venue's main room are hopping with the B&T; crowd. On the other hand, the stage has hosted some great bands, and the lighting always looks nice...so it may just be time to pay some respect to the place......

The Landmarks Preservation Commission approved a modern design for a townhouse to be built at 34 East 62nd Street. The lot, just east of Madison Avenue, has been empty ever since Dr. Nicholas Bartha blew up his home, which seemed like an effort to keep his ex-wife from taking the home as part of their acrimonious divorce settlement. The new design (rendering on right), by Preston T. Phillips, is a departure from the original......

As we've mentioned, the Guggenheim is being renovated -- but what's currently going on under all that scaffolding? Now that the museum has been stripped of its paint, it's time to choose order the paint cans. Unfortunately, the Guggenheim isn't sure what color to paint the exterior, because architect Frank Lloyd Wright actually chose a different shade of color for the building - a color that was painted over five years after the museum......

This afternoon, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to give parts of the Domino Sugar Refinery in Williamsburg landmark status. Redevelopment plans for the old Domino location call for 2,200 apartments (about 660 will be affordable housing) on the entire 11.5 acre site. The Landmark status was specifically given to three buildings (the filter house, the pan house, and the finishing house). Even before the LPC acted, development of the site included some preservation......

The aftershocks of the explosion that destroyed 34 East 62nd St., which Dr. Nicholas Bartha blew up in a suicidal fit of pique directed at his former wife in 2006, continue to reverberate on the Upper East Side. The New York Times describes how neighbors are complaining to the Landmarks Preservation Commission that the proposed plans for its replacement fit neither the style nor the personality of the block. Instead of rebuilding the destroyed Victorian......

What does NY need? Another historic district, of course! Downtown Express is reporting that Community Board 3 has finally voted in favor of the Lower East Side Historic District, a proposed 20-block area that comprises 450 buildings from East Houston to Canal and from Allen to Essex streets. Officials at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum have been vocal proponents of the district, which has been pushed forward by the Lower East Side Preservation......

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......

On Friday, Brooklyn blog Brownstoner was alarmed about a Clinton Hill resident on Grand Avenue who was painting a brownstone's archway white. Though the second comment wondered "are you sure it's not primer?", the comments thread turned into a heated debate about the rights of owners of buildings in landmarked neighborhoods, calling the painting a "disgrace" and a "mortal sin," and whether publicly outing the owner was appropriate. Well, the Daily News' Michael Daly headed......

That big empty cement pool in Greenpoint has become a landmark. The recently rejuvinated (but still dry) McCarren Park Pool was designated such by the Landmarks Preservation Commission yesterday morning. McCarren was the 8th of 11 huge pools built by the Works Progress Administration, it was opened in 1936 with a dedication ceremony on July 31st of that year (making it the ripe old age of 71 in a few days). With an original capacity......

Earlier this year, The Sun reported that AvalonBay Communities would "begin construction this summer on a 42-story, residential market-rate tower with approximately 600 units. The property will have ground floor retail, which could house the borough's first Trader Joe's market." And even earlier this year it was suspected that TJ's would move into One Brooklyn Bridge Park. Today, The Brooklyn Eagle is reporting that Trader Joe's will soon be stocking the fridges of many Brooklynites......

On Tuesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing about landmarks designation for the Domino Sugar Factory, a complex of buildings on the Brooklyn waterfront. Overall, preservationists, community members, and the developers agreed that preservation is important. The only question is how much should be preserved: While the main refinery building will almost certainly be landmarked given support, there's debate about the surrounding area. Some preservationists, though, want to expand the landmarks designation. However,......

AM New York's cover feature is on the landmark debate amongst neighbors in Sunnyside, Queens. Some residents want the 77-acre area, made up of houses and park area, to be landmarked, while others are worried about the problems landmark status can cause. Sunnyside Gardens, created by the City Housing Corporation in the 1920s, was meant to be affordable housing (there's a nice write-up at Forgotten-NY). Residents who oppose landmark status worry about being able......

The National Trust for Historic Preservation released its 20th annual list of the 11 Most Endangered Places in the United States and Brooklyn's Industrial Waterfront topped the 2007 list of sites. The organization describes the industrial waterfront's history:For more than a century, the New York City region was one of this country’s dominant manufacturing hubs. Due to its location on the East River and the New York Harbor, Brooklyn was the city’s industrial center......

The NY Times takes a careful, detailed look at the rising Museum of Arts and Design building at 2 Columbus Circle more than two years after preservationists failed to stop plans to radically alter the 1964 Edward Durell Stone building. Yale School of Architecture dean Robert AM Stern was one of the better-known critics (after novelist Tom Wolfe, of course), arguing that the original structure was an important Modernist landmark. The fight helped paved the......

If you've ever wondered what the big deal is with fear-mongering over "big-box stores" and anonymous-looking architecture, The New York Sun directs your attention to Union Square. Once an aesthetically vibrant town point of commercial assembly, and it will probably always remain as such, the square is developing a severe style deficiency with all the warmth of a mall food court. James Gardner assesses the latest development around 14th Street:The larger of the two,......