Photos: Vacant Essex Street Market Building s Last Days | The Lo-Down : News from the Lower East Side thelodownny.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thelodownny.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
One of the things that makes New York City great is its classic neighborhood diners. On the Lower East Side, we’ve got our share of these old-school spots places that are so familiar some of us think of them as extensions of our own apartments.
Invader’s “Snow White” on the facade of the Essex Street Market. Photo by Victoria Reichelt.
Here’s an update on the saga over “Snow White,” the mosaic work by French street artist invader that was once prominently featured above the Olympic Diner on Essex Street.
The team building the Essex Crossing project intended to save the piece before the building, formerly part of the Essex Street Market, was demolished a few weeks ago. But someone broke into the construction site and stole about three-fourths of the tiles. Last month, local gallery owner John Woodward sent us a photo purporting to show a partially reassembled “Snow White,” with a blanket strategically placed over part of it.
The Essex Street Market building on the south side of Delancey Street; April 2014.
The developers of Essex Crossing have now filed pre-demolition documents for the old Essex Street Market building on the south side of Delancey Street. The site is one of nine former urban renewal parcels included in the nearly 2 million square foot residential and commercial project.
Previously, Delancey Street Associates, the development consortium, filed initial paperwork to tear down the former firehouse on Broome Street as well as 400-402 Grand St., twin tenement buildings. In the past, they have pointed out that demolition is still several months in the future; the city won’t officially transfer the property to the developers for some time. The first phase of the project, set to begin next year, is focused on development of sites 1, 2 and 5 (see map).