With all the hubbub surrounding the reveal of Renzo Piano's new branch of the Whitney Museum at the southern end of the High Line, it got us thinking about our old friend, the soon-to-be park in the sky. Actually, that's a lie. We're always thinking about the High Line, but it was only now that the good people at the Park Department and Friends of the High Line let us up on the rails to get a closer look at construction progress. If you recall, Phase 1 of the High Line—the snaking chunk between Gansevoort and West 19th Streets—is nearly ready for soil and landscaping in anticipation of a fall/winter opening, but it's not until you're led up a rickety wooden staircase on 19th Street that you realize, whoa, Phase 1 is ready for soil and landscaping! We'll present our findings in three galleries, the first of which is above. Later today: a game of rendering/reality and a look at The Chair. What chair? Oh my, just wait.
· High Line Blog [blog.thehighline.org]
· Curbed's High Line coverage [Curbed]
EAST VILLAGE—With last weekend's crane collapse causing New Yorkers to look up nervously whenever they pass by a construction site, we point your attention to the big, scary crane that is working on the Ukrainian-conquering Cooper Union building. Writes a tipster: "Cooper Union representatives have hinted to us that they expect to be topping off concrete pouring within 7-8 weeks. Frank Sciame must be one hell of a task-master." And how would you like to be that guy standing on the edge? We peed our pants just looking at this picture. [CurbedWire Inbox]
FLATIRON—240 Park Avenue South, also known as the God-given2forty, is—shall we say—a minor work in the Gwathmey Siegal canon. As such, some don't feel too bad about desecrating the new condo building. Writes a tipster, "Just a final touch to the façade and the folks can move in!" [CurbedWire Inbox]
WEST CHELSEA—Some news now about Annabelle Selldorf's contribution to Starchitect Row along West 19th Street: "520 West Chelsea has just closed on all but 2 of their apartments. The last of the two $10 million apiece penthouses is available and one other unit." [CurbedWire Inbox]
1) Four construction workers were killed by the crane collapse on Saturday in Turtle Bay, just east of Second Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets. Three people are still missing. A piece of steel meant to secure the crane came lose and dropped onto a second support, shearing it free and causing the 22-story crane to fall. The victims were remembered as men who loved their jobs. Miraculous survival tales, like the story of a bar employee who was nearly crushed under the rubble, are starting to surface. Hundreds of people are still being kept out of their homes nearby, and the disaster has New Yorkers thinking twice about passing under all those cranes in the city. The Buildings Department, already under unprecedented heat for the recent deadly accidents at the Deutsche Bank building and Trump Soho, must now respond to the worst incident yet. Commissioner Patricia Lancaster said the number of accidents is still relatively small given the number of construction permits issued per year. The construction site had 13 violations prior to the crane collapse.
2) Keith Jacobson, where have you been our whole life? Right here, without us knowing! Jacobson is the guy who rented to Nicole Kidman and sold to Harvey Weinstein at 76 Crosby. He is also the guy who is developing 520 West Chelsea, architect Annabelle Selldorfs addition to 19th Street's Starchitect Row. And, in the wake of all that bad publicity Richard Meier's Perry Street towers got in 2004 for being leaky pieces of crap, Jacobson swooped in and bought two full floors (including Vincent Gallo's raw space) for an astonishingly low $1,000/sf. K-Dog, can we rub your head for luck? [Habitats/Fred A. Bernstein]
3) Locals assess how the rapid gentrification of Third Avenue in Gowanus has affected the local population of prostitutes: "Now, maybe there’s just one, and I haven’t seen her in a while. They’ve all gone over to Second Avenue." Gotta love that West Park Slope! [The City/Deborah Kolben]
4) The Port Authority spent $895,000 to preserve an Eero Saarinen departure lounge at the architect's famed Terminal 5 at JFK, sawing the 700-ton structure off the concourse and hauling it 1,500 feet away so as not to interfere with the construction of JetBlue's new terminal on the very same spot. Now it may get demolished anyway. Whoops. [The City/Alex Mindlin]
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FLATIRON—240 Park Avenue South, also known as the 
