New York – Around Town : SoHo and TriBeCa (part 1)

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The area named for its shape
(TRIangle BElow CAnal) long consisted mostly of abandoned warehouses.
Then Robert De Niro set up his Tribeca Film Center in 1988, stylish
restaurants began to open, and the area started to draw celebrity
residents. Now TriBeCa is one of New York’s hottest neighborhoods, the
center of the city’s movie industry with the TriBeCa Film Festival and
plenty of nightlife. SoHo (South of Houston) has also come full circle.
The empty loft spaces first drew artists, then galleries, then crowds of
browsers and the restaurants to serve them. The new chic image quickly
drove up rents and drove out many galleries. Some remain, and the
streets are lined with designer clothing and home furnishing boutiques,
maintaining SoHo’s lure as the city’s favorite Sunday brunch-and-browse
neighborhood. Both areas boast the cast-iron architecture that is a New
York specialty.

TriBeCa’s Movie Business

TriBeCa is known as
Hollywood East, and although much of its movie business is behind the
scenes, many screenings take place. Big name stars have been sighted
heading for the Grand Screen Room at the TriBeCa Grand Hotel. The TriBeCa Film Festival, begun in May 2002, is a further star-spotting event.








Sights

  1. Greene Street

    Cast-iron
    architecture flourished in New York in the late 19th century, as a way
    to produce decorative elements such as columns and arches and create
    impressive buildings inexpensively. Greene Street, between Canal and
    Grand streets, and between Broome and Spring streets, has 50 of these
    beauties, rows of columned façades creating a striking streetscape.




    Mural, Greene Street



  2. Children’s Museum of the Arts

    Founded
    in 1988, the CMA’s mission is to enable children aged one to 12 to
    reach their full potential in the visual and performing arts. Children
    can work with paint, glue, paper, and recycled materials to paint,
    sculpt, build, and imagine. They can also play in the ball pond and art
    house, design projects, explore exhibitions, and meet other children.

    • 182 Lafayette St

    • 212 941 9198

    • Open noon–5pm Wed & Fri–Sun, noon–6pm Thu

    • Admission charge

  3. Prada

    The
    sign still reads “Guggenheim SoHo” but the current occupant of the
    building is an extraordinary $40 million flagship store for
    trend-setting Italian retailer Prada, a sign of SoHo’s shift from art to
    fashion. Dutch architect Rem Kookhaas is responsible for the ultra-hip
    floating stairs, undulating walls, futuristic elevators and hi-tech
    dressing rooms.

    • 575 Broadway at Prince St

    • Open 11am–7pm Mon–Sat, 12–6pm Sun

  4. New York City Fire Museum

    A
    nostalgic treasure housed in a 1904 firehouse, this splendid collection
    includes the city’s fire-fighting engines, equipment, garb and
    memorabilia from the 18th century to the present. A moving photo display
    depicts the World Trade Center attack of September 2001 and honors the
    hundreds of fire-fighters lost there.

  5. Haughwout Building

    A
    cast-iron masterpiece, this structure was built in 1857 to house a
    fashionable china and glassware emporium. The design of colonnaded
    arches flanked by taller Corinthian columns was adapted from the façade
    of the Sansovino Library in Venice. This motif is repeated 92 times
    across the front of the building. A 1995 restoration removed grime and
    restored the elegant original pale color. This building boasted the
    first Otis safety elevator, an innovation that made the skyscraper
    possible.

    • 488–492 Broadway at Broome St




    Haughwout Building



    Haughwout Building

  6. “Little” Singer Building

    By
    the early 1900s, cast iron was giving way to steel-framed brick and
    terracotta. One notable example is Ernest Flagg’s “Little” Singer
    Building (to distinguish it from a taller tower also built for Singer).
    Influenced by Parisian architecture of the period, it has a charming
    12-story façade and graceful cast-iron balconies.

    • 561–3 Broadway, between Prince & Spring Sts




    “Little” Singer Building

  7. Canal Street

    The
    end of SoHo, the beginning of TriBeCa, and a world of its own, no
    street better shows the contrasts of New York. Canal Street is crowded
    with peddlers selling fake Rolex watches and Gucci bags, electronics
    that may or may not be new, and bargain stores offering sneakers, jeans,
    and flea-market finds. Keep walking east into Chinatown, and the
    sidewalk goods shift to vegetables and displays of live and dried fish.




    Canal Street

  8. Harrison Street

    This
    rare group of Federal townhouses, built between 1796 and 1828, did not
    exist as a row until 1975, when the houses were moved to this site to be
    saved from the urban renewal that razed much of the area. At the end of
    the block (No. 6) is the former New York Mercantile Exchange, a Queen
    Anne building dating from 1884 and in use until 1977 when the Exchange
    moved to the World Financial Center.




    Harrison Street

  9. White Street

    The
    best example of cast- iron architecture in TriBeCa is a sampling of
    several styles. No. 2 has Federal features and a gambrel roof; Nos.
    8–10, designed by Henry Fernbach in 1869, sport Tuscan columns and
    arches and use the Neo-Renaissance device of building shorter upper
    stories to give an illusion of height. There is a complete change of
    pace at No. 38, which houses neon artist Rudi Stern’s gallery, Let There
    Be Neon.

  10. TriBeCa Film Center

    A
    turn-of-the-century coffee warehouse has been converted into office
    space for the film and entertainment industry. The guiding spirit was
    Robert De Niro, whose TriBeCa Productions was founded in 1988. Miramax
    has set up offices here and the building is also home to the TriBeCa
    Grill, owned by De Niro and restaurateur Drew Nieporent. The restaurant
    has managed to maintain its appeal for two decades.

    • 375 Greenwich St