OHNY 2010: free hard-hat tours of WTC1, new High Line
The 8th annual openhousenewyork weekend — set for Oct. 9 and 10 — this year will allow free access to more than 300 sites and programs, including hard-hat tours of 1 World Trade Center, the newest but unopened section of the High Line park, and the Louis Kahn-designed Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island.
The old Atlantic Avenue Train Tunnel will open for free tours, along with a sludge boat, an MTA substation, Diane von Furstenberg’s studio, the lobby of the Chrysler Building, cheese caves, the artist studio of Tom Otterness, the Grand Lodge of the Masons and Richard Meier & Partners Model Museum.
New to the OHNY list will be access to the Upper East Side’s Islamic Cultural Center, which was designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill in 1991 as the first mosque and religious center to be designed specifically for New York City.
“This year we will be touring places and opening doors to sites that span the history of New York – from Staten Island’s Conference House, the only pre-Revolution manor house still standing to contemporary public and private spaces including The Centurion, a midtown Manhattan residential building designed by Pei Partnership Architects with I.M. Pei,” Renee Schacht, executive director of OHNY, said in a statement announcing the preview list of participating sites.
Fire safety upgrades to close Statue of Liberty late-'11/12
Sometime after October 2011, the Statue of Liberty’s crown, pedestal and museum will temporarily close to the public for extra fire safety upgrades that will allow more people to visit the landmark, a spokesperson for the National Parks of New York Harbor told NewYorkology today.
On Friday, the NPS will release an environmental assessment report detailing the repairs, which will include” alterations to the staircases in the pedestal, upgrades to the fire suppression system, changes to the HVAC system, two new means of exiting the monument and a ‘fire break’ between the Statue itself and the pedestal,” according to a statement issued Monday by the NPS.
“The NPS hasn’t completed the planning process nor awarded a contract for the work, so the cost of the project is actually unknown at this time. Also, because we have not finalized the plans, we do not know for how long visitation will be affected,” NPS spokeswoman Mindi Rambo told NewYorkology via e-mail. “Work will NOT start before the end of October 2011. We are going to celebrate Lady Liberty’s 125th birthday (Oct. 28) before we begin construction.”
In May 2009, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced the crown would reopen July 4, 2009 for the first time since the 2001 terror attacks. At that time, he said the crown would be open for two years and then close again for more major safety upgrades. (However, most media neglected to even mention the upcoming closing and instead only reported on the re-opening.)
Smoke, smell of an overheating part led to Statue alarm
As it turns out, there was smoke at the Statue of Liberty today, and it wasn’t just a malfunctioning sensor that caused the brief evacuation.
A small amount of smoke at the elevator and the smell of oil and something overheating led to the statue’s evacuation. Earlier news reports said the evacuation was a false alarm caused by a broken sensor.
The Public Affairs Office of the National Parks of New York Harbor has just released the following account of today’s incident:
An automatic smoke/fire alarm was activated within the base of the Statue of Liberty at approximately 1:15 p.m. on Wednesday, July 21. Visitors within the museum, pedestal and the Statue were evacuated by U.S. Park Police and National Park Service personnel within five minutes of the alarm sounding. No injuries were reported as a result of the evacuation.
A small amount of smoke and the odor of oil as well as the odor of an overheated component was noticed by the USPP officers who initially investigated the alarm, which originated in the elevator room at the Statue of Liberty.
Members of the New York Fire Department arrived at the Liberty Island shortly thereafter, but by the time they arrived, the small amount of smoke had dissipated. Lack of smoke upon his arrival at the elevator room, prompted the park’s chief of maintenance to suspect a faulty smoke head and he ordered it replaced. Once the investigation was finished and the alarm system was reset, the monument was re-opened to the public at approximately 2:35 p.m.
The remainder of Liberty Island, including the visitor center, restaurant and gift shop, remained open to the public throughout the incident.
FDNY responded to smoke at the Statue of Liberty caused by an overheated
elevator motor on July 16. The elevator at the Statue has been removed from
service at this time.
Update: false alarm in Statue of Liberty evacuation - NY1
Update as of 3:30 p.m.: NY1 says a faulty sensor led to the evacuation. There was no smoke. Update as of 3:50 p.m.: “Ferries are operating on a normal schedule, and the Statue of Liberty did reopen shortly after the evacuation,” Statue Cruises, the only ferry company allowed to take visitors to Liberty and Ellis Island, told NewYorkology via Twitter. Update as of 6:30 p.m.: There was smoke, the NPS says.
The Statue of Liberty was evacuated Wednesday after smoke was reported in an elevator, the FDNY told DNAInfo.com.
Currently a fireboat is docked near Liberty Island (pictured above) and people can still be seen on the eastern part of the island, away from the ferry dock.
“The motor on our elevator started smoking,” Mindi Rambo, a spokeswoman for the National Parks of New York Harbor, told Reuters. Only the statue’s interior was evacuated, while Liberty Island remains open to visitors, NY1 reports.
The elevator in the Statue of Liberty, which only goes as high as the pedestal and not to the crown, is frequently broken and out of service, park rangers have told NewYorkology in the past.
Evacuation of the statue was a major concern for National Parks officials, even before the monument was closed on Sept. 11, 2001. Liberty Island was reopened months later, but it was 2004 before the NPS re-opened the pedestal and museum. And it was July 4, 2009 when the NPS resumed tours to the crown of the Statue of Liberty. The new system allows only a 30 people per hour to climb the 354 narrow steps of the spiral staircase to the crown. Each group is escorted up and down by a ranger.
The old system required tourists to cram onto the spiral staircase, a trek that could literally take a few hours to get to the top. The stairwell — shaped like a DNA helix — has one narrow twisted spiral set of steps used to climb up and the other side of the helix to go down. Over the years, more than one NPS spokesperson has told NewYorkology that the statue would have been a “firetrap” had there been an emergency when the old system was in place.
See NewYorkology’s full report on what to expect if you visit the Statue of Liberty’s crown. This is how the statue’s stairwell looked in 2009 when it re-opened to the public:
When the crown re-opened in 2009, the plan was to keep the crown open for two years only and then close it again for more extensive safety repairs. However, funds for that project will require a Congressional appropriation, Darren Boch, a spokesman for the National Park Service, told NewYorkology at the time.
But last month, Rambo told NewYorkology: “We still don’t know when the next phase of work on the Statue will begin.”
Also of note: Although popular culture may say otherwise, the torch has been closed since the 1916 explosion in New Jersey.
Picture credits: Statue of Liberty as seen today about 2:45 after the initial reports of smoke were reported by Reuters. Stairwell in July 2009. Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.
Empire State Building lights up for Spain's World Cup win
It was a last-minute surprise, but the Empire State Building tonight is lit up red and yellow for Spain’s World Cup victory, a spokeswoman for the skyscraper’s management company confirmed to NewYorkology via e-mail tonight.
The official lighting schedule still lists the colors as purple, pink and yellow, which was the color scheme intended Friday through Sunday for Broadway Barks Cat and Dog Adopt-a-Thon.
Update as of July 12 at 7:30 a.m.: The Empire State Building will light up red, yellow and red for a second night tonight in honor of the World Cup winners, a spokeswoman for the building’s management company said in an e-mail to NewYorkology. The online lighting schedule has also been updated to include last night’s change.
“We have not made a decision about next year. The guiding force behind the location of the show is the design of that year’s spectacle,” Macy’s spokesman Orlando Veras said Tuesday in an e-mail to NewYorkology. “We are now in the process wrapping up behind the scenes logistics for this year’s show. It is too early to make any final determinations on a theme, design and location for 2011. When those creative decisions are made and all logistics are in place, we will announce the initial details of next year’s show.”
This was the second year in a row the show was on the Hudson River, much to the delight of west siders and New Jersey. But Brooklyn was mostly annoyed, including Borough President Marty Markowitz who has called for the fireworks’ return to the East River.
July 4, 2010 in NYC: where to see fireworks, other events
On Sunday night, the 34th Annual Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks will light up the skies above the Hudson River around 9:20 p.m. for a 26-minute show featuring more than 40,000 shells including red, white and blue comet bursts, a cascading Silver Wall, a red-and-green mile of sparkle, color changing ghost shells, and a new aqua-colored Jellyfish with silver tentacles.
More than 1,500 shells will explode per minute at heights up to 1,000 feet in the air. They’ll be fired from fired six barges on the Hudson River positioned between 24th and 50th Streets, with the prime Manhattan west-side viewing locations from 23rd to 59th Streets. (Specific viewing locations listed below.)
The fireworks will be timed to music that will be simulcast on radio station 1010 WINS. The score — from “Stars & Stripes Forever” and “God Bless America” to “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” and “When The Saints Go Marchin’ In” — will be performed live by the New York Pops Orchestra, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Straight No Chaser, Broadway Inspirational Voices, U.S. Army Soldier’s Chorus and United We Sing. They’ll be on the newly christened Norwegian Epic, docked at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal.
Update: Before sunset, a plane will tow a 30-by-60 foot American flag along the Hudson at 6 p.m. Later, F-15 fighter jets and police helicopters will fly along the Hudson sometime between 7:30 and 8 p.m., NY1 reports.
On Thursday morning the new LEGO Store at Rockefeller Center will open its doors and reveal a stellar display of iconic New York City scenes rendered in plastic bricks by skilled, clever minds.
Plus, they sell LEGOs.
Rock Center-inspired LEGO murals adorn the walls, including Zeus and a pair of relics. Atlas gets his own prominent pedestal in one corner. Peek-a-boo dioramas feature landmarks such as the United Nations and Statue of Liberty, as well as the Fifth Avenue Apple Store with a line of people snaking out its door.
The centerpiece is a massive Rockefeller Center replica at the top of the stairs. It’s filled with a “Where’s Waldo”-style crush of LEGO people and details that demand prolonged examination. The builders took a few liberties with the locations of buildings, but there are some remarkably clever touches, including the landscaped roof garden that are normally closed to the public, a skating Prometheus, and a crowd pressed against the windows of the “Today” show studio. The Magnolia Bakery building is also there. But since LEGO Master Builders are only allowed to use pieces that are available to the public — no custom-engineered pieces — Magnolia has a croissant on the window ledge instead of a cupcake.
Three LEGO Master Builders (there are 40 total who travel the world building specialized LEGO projects) spent about six to eight weeks designing the project on the company’s proprietary software and then assembling the work in Enfield, Conn. The pieces were bright to Rockefeller Center, where they’ve been installed during the past two weeks, Julie Stern, a brand relations manager for LEGO, told NewYorkology during a tour of the store Wednesday.
Brooklyn Museum opens 'Andy Warhol: The Last Decade'
The Brooklyn Museum on Friday will open “Andy Warhol: The Last Decade” a very Pop exhibition of his silkscreens, paintings, videos and Interview magazine work from 1978 through 1987.
The show features self-portraits, a “Last Supper,” reworked images of his earlier iconic works (such as Marilyn Monroe and the Mona Lisa,) as well as large-scale collaborations with Jean-Michel Basquiat.
His materials run the gamut from diamond dust to urine used in the oxidation paintings. Upstairs, a fifth-floor gallery features reels of clips he did for MTV (even in 1987 it wasn’t all music, all the time.) His quotations are painted on the walls, such as:
“How can you say one style is better than another? You ought to be able to be an Abstract Expressionist next week, or a Pop artist, or a realist, without feeling you’ve given up something. … I think that would be so great, to be able to change styles. And I think that’s what’s going to happen, that’s going to be the whole new scene.” - Andy Warhol, 1963.
