Good morning. Wrap up warm if you are heading out today. Snow is forecast from 11am and then wintry rain from 8pm into the night. Send pics… I’m not sure that I will be venturing out!

Today, “The Spiral” — Pfizer’s new HQ — tops out at Hudson Yards. The Bjarke Ingels Group building will have gardens spiraling around its glass and steel tower. Should be quite a sight when it’s finished next year.

My question today… Have you been hearing things? In all this construction, one reader reports from her lofty home on 10th Avenue in the 40s: “Over the past weekend, we were plagued by a mystery sound in the air most of the day and night — a high pitched noise from afar that sounds like a tuning fork. It’s quite loud (I’m hearing it now as I write this email), it seems to appear only when it is a windy day, and it is loud enough to wake one up in the middle of the night.

“We’ve lived here for 15 years and only started to hear this sound during the winter in the past few years. I assume it’s a result of some new construction and how the wind hits the buildings. Do you also hear it? Do any of your other readers?”


Actor Stephen Carlile plays Scar, the loathsome baddie in The Lion King. His opening line in the hit musical — “Life’s not fair” — is a phrase of our times. Stephen is making the most of the COVID-19 furlough in Hell’s Kitchen. Here’s his West Side Story…


What we’ve been reading

The pain (and complications) of closing a restaurant. (Gothamist)

What happens to honeybees in the winter? Here’s the buzz… (NY1)

Manhattan Theater Club has signed a 31-year lease. (Real Estate Weekly HT Frank)

Vestiges of the old Times Square still remain… if you know where to look. (Untapped Cities)

Take a look at some of the earliest color footage of NYC — it’s over 100 years old! (Old Films & Stuff)


Freeze Frame

Thanks to Tom Zuback for this photo on W51st Street. Remember this is a day to tip your delivery folks big #therealsnowangels