Queens Museum of Art/Facebook

The Panorama of the City of New York at the Queens Museum of Art was closed today for some spring cleaning. The QMA’s Facebook page posted some great photos of the Godzilla-sized caretakers vacuuming the Hudson River and dusting off the Palisades.

Built by Robert Moses for the 1964-65 World’s Fair, the massive 9,335 square foot architectural model includes 3D representations of every building constructed before 1992 in all five boroughs of the city.

You can check out the now-spiffy mini city at the 4th Annual Panorama Challenge taking place next Friday, March 11 from 7:00 to 10:00 P.M. The Panorama Challenge is the World Cup of New York City trivia, where teams gather around the model to test their knowledge of NYC history and geography. Beer and snacks will be available for purchase (suggested donation) and will benefit the City Reliquary. There’s also free trolley service from the Willets Point/Citi Field 7 train station to the museum (and back to the station when you’re done) so you don’t have to trek through Flushing Meadows Park in the cold and dark. You can catch the trolley at the station exit on Roosevelt Avenue under the el tracks.

The Parkchester housing development in the Bronx was built by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company–the same insurance giant that originally developed Stuyvesant Town, Peter Cooper Village, and Riverton Houses in Manhattan. Constructed from 1938 to 1942, this “city within a city” still thrives today and contains many artistic flourishes that distinguish it from its Manhattan cousins, including fanciful sculptures that adorn all the buildings.

The Center for an Urban Future’s third annual ranking of national retail chains in New York City found that despite the floundering economy, chain stores have expanded 4.1% overall in the city. The largest percentage of expansion occurred in Brooklyn (5.3%), while Manhattan housed the largest number of chain stores (2,746), followed by Queens (1,479), Brooklyn (1,333), the Bronx (742), and Staten Island (403).

For the most number of stores city-wide, Dunkin Donuts crushed the competition with 466 stores, up from 429 last year. Second place went to Subway, and the bronze went to Starbucks. See chart below.

Chains that significantly expanded their presence in the city included T-Mobile, MetroPCS, Starbucks, 7-Eleven, Chipotle, Walgreens, GameStop, Pret A Manger, and The Children’s Place. Those that closed a significant number of stores included McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Blockbuster, Nine West, Tasti-D-Lite, Curves, and Quiznos.

Download the full report and see all the winners and losers broken down by borough and ZIP code here.

And here’s a partial list of the chains with the most stores in the city:

The New York City Housing Authority’s Board recently voted to rename the Bronxdale Houses and the Bronxdale Community Center for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The Bronxdale Houses were built in 1955 and are composed of twenty-eight seven-story buildings housing 3,479 residents in the Soundview section of the Bronx.

Sotomayor moved into Building 24 at Bronxdale Houses with her mother and father when she was three years old. She lived there from 1957 to 1970, and moved away two years before she graduated as valedictorian from Cardinal Spellman High School.

On the renaming, NYCHA Chairman John B. Rhea commented, “From NYCHA’s perspective, the Justice has shown that growing up in public housing does not limit one’s possibilities. One of the most important actions the NYCHA Board can take is renaming the Bronxdale Houses for Justice Sotomayor to serve as an inspiration to others.”

The renaming came in response to a petition drive from residents of Bronxdale Houses and staff from City Council Member Annabel Palma’s office. A public renaming ceremony is expected to take place in June.

McGraw-Hill Building/Flickr

Raymond Hood’s terra-cotta-clad McGraw-Hill building is a pleasure to glimpse at any time of day.

After three years of construction work, the Sky View Parc mixed-use development in Flushing is getting closer to the completion of Phase One, which includes three of the planned six residential towers which sit atop the retail and parking base. The 14-acre site along College Point Boulevard will ultimately house 1,100 luxury condo apartments above the 800,000 square-foot shopping center and cost over $1 billion.

A few of the commercial tenants–which will include a BJ’s Wholesale Club, Best Buy, and Target, among others–have already opened for business. The retail portion is already over 70% leased.

It was recently reported by the Post that developers Jason and Joshua Muss, whose family owned the land, have had their equity partner Onex move to bring Related Companies in as a “consultant” for apartment marketing and retail leasing/management before any construction begins with the remaining three residential towers. Construction delays have left the phase one towers unfinished even though occupancy was scheduled for summer 2009. In March Muss Development asserted that 40% of the 448 Sky View Parc phase one apartments had been sold, but at that time none of the sales had closed.

View the full Flickr photoset here.

If the electricians only placed that light fixture two feet higher or lower, a charismatic little piece of 1940s commercial signage could have remained intact. Despite the interrupted sign, the storefront is still in use as a launderette on East Tremont Avenue in the Parkchester section of the Bronx. If its neighbor to the left is any indication, the seems like the launderette sign will soon be put out of its misery when it’s covered over in an all to common vinyl awning. I guess we can take comfort in the fact that the new awning will be back-lit thoroughly and with environmentally-conscious fluorescent bulbs.

No summer barbecues here/Flickr

In response to the tragic death of 24-year-old Connor Donohue in March, the Department of Buildings (DOB) has been conducting city-wide safety reviews of balconies and terraces. Donohue fell from his 24^th-floor balcony at 330 East 39th Street when the railing gave way. DOB’s recent investigations at hundreds of buildings have found dangerous conditions across the city.

Orders were issued prohibiting residents from using their balconies at sixteen buildings—failure to comply can mean fines for the building management and/or the physical sealing of balcony doors. The DOB also found that about 800 building owners have not filed the proper balcony and facade inspection reports, which are required every five years.

At Co-Op City in the Bronx, balconies on seven buildings within the complex were deemed off-limits. DOB says that the city-wide review is still in its beginning stages, so you can bet more closings will likely occur.

As with the spate of construction crane collapses and other accidents, it’s great that the DOB is taking some action to try and remedy systemic failures—it’s just sad that it always takes the loss of life to spur action. As heftier city budget cuts are sure to come down the pike (and it always seems that it’s the people doing the groundwork at any city agency—inspectors and the like—who get axed first) we’ll have to see what, if anything, really changes.