Jamie Torres-Springer. Image Credit: NYC DDC

Torres-Springer, the former First Deputy Commissioner of the department, will be succeeding Senior Advisor for Recovery and outgoing Commissioner Lorraine Grillo. On March 23, 2021, Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Jamie Torres-Springer as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Design and Construction. Torres-Springer will be succeeding Lorraine Grillo. Former Commissioner Grillo left the position earlier in March to serve as the City’s Senior Advisor for Recovery.

The development team and agency officials break ground on Compass Six in West Farms. Image Credit: NYC HPD

The new affordable housing development will house 261 low-income and formerly homeless  families. On March 19, 2021, Mayor de Blasio and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development announced the groundbreaking of a new affordable housing building in the West Farms section of the Bronx. The building, named Compass Six, is located at 1923 West Farms Road. Compass Six is part of the Compass Resident Development, which will consist of eight buildings and be one of the largest-scale affordable housing developments in the area once completed. The groundbreaking of Compass Six marks the beginning of the final phase of development for the Compass Residence project.

On June 1, 1988, while I was commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation the underside of the elevated FDR Drive fell to the roadway below and killed a Brooklyn dentist who was driving into Manhattan to pick up his wife. The next day on Friday, June 2, 1989, the New York Times reported his death:

Panelists discuss options on how to organize and plan for Tribeca’s future post pandemic. Image credit: CityLand

Panel welcomed small business owners, residents, and other interested parties for a discussion regarding Tribeca and the neighborhood’s ongoing economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.  On March 4th, New York Law School’s Dean Anthony Crowell published an open letter in the Tribeca Citizen that discussed the economic impact of the pandemic on the Tribeca community and NYLS’s commitment to helping the neighborhood navigate its recovery following Covid-19. Dean Crowell wrote:

Holyrood Episcopal Church-Iglesia Santa Cruz, one of the three sites calendared by LPC on January 19th. Image Credit: LPC

Support for landmarking included a push for further preservation of the area south of Union Square. On March 23, 2021, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held public hearings on two proposed landmarks located in Manhattan. The Holyrood Episcopal Church-Iglesia Santa Cruz at 715 West 179th Street in Washington Heights and the Educational Building at 70 Fifth Avenue in Greenwich Village were two landmarks originally calendared as part of the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s new Equity Framework. The Equity Framework highlights the agency’s efforts for landmark designations that represent the city’s diverse and inclusive history. For CityLand’s prior coverage of the Equity Framework and calendaring, click here. 

Image credit: NYC Department of Parks & Recreation.

The $5.5 million project renovates athletic fields at Bloomindale Park in Staten Island. On March 11, 2021, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation announced the completion of athletic field upgrades in Bloomingdale Park in Prince’s Bay, Staten Island. The improvements include a brand new synthetic turf multi-purpose field as well as the renovation of a turf soccer field.