NEWS: MTA to transform Fruit Stand
From the New York Sun
MTA Plans To Transform ‘Honest Boy’ Fruit Stand Into Glass, Steel Building
BY DAVID LOMBINO – Staff Reporter of the Sun
July 25, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/36633
While the MTA mulls the city’s $500 million offer for development rights to the 26-acre Hudson rail yards, it is moving ahead with plans to transform a tiny fruit stand on Houston Street into a more permanent fixture.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission will hear a proposal today from the MTA and the owner of the “Honest Boy” fruit stand at the corner of Broadway and Houston in SoHo, Pan Gi Lee, to allow the construction of a two-story glass, steel, and aluminum building. The new structure, which would incorporate one of the entrances to the Broadway and Lafayette subway station, has been submitted to the commission for an advisory opinion because it would sit within the SoHo cast iron historic district.
For decades, and through several successive operators, the triangular corner site has housed a fruit stand that has served as an “urban orchard,” the project architect, Tobias Guggenheimer, said.
The MTA owns the land — about 1,000 square feet — and leases it to Mr. Lee. The agency has encouraged the proprietor to fix up the place, according to Mr. Guggenheimer and a source at the MTA.
In the last decade, the corner has exploded with foot and vehicular traffic, as well as billboards that now line the brick facades around one of the busiest shopping corners in the city.
In the mid-1980s, before SoHo transformed, community groups saved the previous operators, Louis and Carmen Arenas, from eviction. In 1992, following community protests, the MTA backed away from plans to clear the stand to erect an electrical substation. In 2000, the agency wanted to expand its parking lot and storage facility immediately to the east, threatening to squeeze out the fruit stand.
FYI….we objected to the deisgn finding it inappropriate for the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District.