Sewage Plant Art; White Elephant Slaughter; Kauffman expansion

Long Island City view of the Sewage Treatment plant at Newton Creek

1) Catching up on some linkage this morning. It seems they’re turning the orbs of the sewage treatment plant at Newton Creek into an art installation. That’s new. A nearby resident of the plant remarked that it ’smells suspiciously like spoiled Chinese food’. Hmmm…

2) In more local news:

“Long Island City residents are looking forward to bidding farewell to a local eyesore. The “white elephant” municipal parking garage at Bridge Plaza South and Jackson Avenue will soon fall to a wrecker’s ball, if city officials sign off on a multi-million dollar deal for private development at the site.

Developer Tishman Speyer is continuing negotiations with the city for the right to build an 800,000-square-foot tower at the site, which may house offices for the city Health Department and offer retail and commercial spaces. They are also negotiating with the Modells’ family, which holds a long-term lease on the property. Modells also holds an interest on an adjacent property that housed the “Q.P. Marketplace” flea market in the late 1980s.” -Queens Gazette

3) Last but not least, Kauffman Studios is finally getting around to that expansion plan that’s been in the works for 9 years:

“The studio, in the Astoria section of Queens, will break ground this fall on a $20 million building, with an 18,000-square-foot soundstage and 22,000 square feet of support space, on a plot of land diagonally across 36th Street from its current building, which is between 34th and 35th Avenues.”

• Decorating the sewage treatment plants at Newtown Creek? [Brooklyn Eagle]

• LIC ‘White Elephant’ headed for slaughter [Queens Gazette]

• Kauffman Studios in Astoria expanding turf [NY Times]