TRUMP CARD
It was a few days ago when a black Tahoe or Excalibure or one of those very large black, SUV's with tinted windows pulled up along-side the entrance to the construction site of the new Trump Soho, right on Dominick Street and between another parked car and a garbage container. The driver didn't know it but he was sure to be in an accident by way of a rear-end collision or a row with any other car wanting to make the same left-handed turn - because basically he was blocking the street and in stopping was much too close to the main drag, which is Varick Street. Placing the urging of his guests first to get as close to the dirt and clapboard entrance as possible, he disengaged his passengers and then drove 50 feet eastward and found a quick parking spot. You would be amazed, but the very site the Trump Soho defaces now was at one time an open-air parking garage to which you could safely pull in your car, far out of harm's way, and then get a quick bite at the iconoclastic, non-diner The Eureka Luncheonette, which used to serve some of the best French Toast this side of Broadway.
The best view of the Trump Soho, as the web-site shows, is actually from 75 Varick Street, a one-time fortress herself who's owners - Trinity RE - have spent considerable time and talent on making a switch from an old industrial hell-hole into Soho's premier office building. The former is a monstrosity that serves itself under the guise of "condo-hotel"; the latter, 75 Varick, houses at least two univeristies and the soon-coming Jackie Robinson Museum. What we have with the Trump building is a brazen attempt to make a neighborhood fit the bill of her new huate-occupants - and it's just not working. What is the definition of "monstrosity"? To many the word conveys an image made complete by the disasters in the old Soviet Union, or East Germany; there, monstrosities were cement tombs that lasted only a few years and gave the impression of heavy-handed government-dealing that supposedly clothed the tenant.The Trump Soho, however, is too a monstrosity - because the word also conveys a building out of sync with her surroundings. It seems the design of this behemoth by Handel Architects was rushed through - but you cannot really stick a piece of glass into a slab of excoriated cement and call it a building.
Two things continue to plague this project: it's neanderthal look from the street, to which no resident Trump Soho can say, "Look, I live there", lest he be sued for causing his guests to sprain their necks. The building is just too tall. The other problem is the persistent use of construction workers to patrol the streets on the outside of the site whenever heavy equipment is moved about. They may not know this, but that's illegal. Only police officers or citizens deputized can authorize the stopping of traffic and the re-initializing of it.
Hubris seems to flow from the top down in this project. Whenever heavy equipment is moved through or onto Varick Street, let's say from Spring to Dominick, the streets are usually patroled by construction workers from the site and not the police. However, it must be the reverse, so the public can adequately be protected and there is accountability from the City. Only when the police are present can construction workers from the site assist in stopping or "flagging" traffic. The halting of traffic is an official "policing" event, regardless of how beneficient the construction worker or team seem to be in "protecting" the public. (Really, the workers are only told what to do and the team leaders just want the heavy equipment on the other side of the building.) Design-wise, however, it either took a real tired Handel employee to draw this baby out or somebody with influence said, "The faster we put this together the better". You're led to believe that a "condo-hotel" carries lots of weight and therefore you really can't complain. In this case, "condo-hotel" can be sung to the tune of "jungle-boogie" because no one told these guys that the planned "garden plaza" in the back of the building is just going to be a nice public hang-out for all the pot-head teenagers that exit from the school across the street.
