MadParkNews.com, covering New York City's Madison Square Park & Flatiron

The first real snow of 2012 hit Madison Square Park in the Flatiron starting last night and continues into today. Here’s a photo:

We had heard rumors yesterday that the hawk in Madison Square Park had been seen eating a pigeon, and sure enough there’s video of the meal on Youtube.com. After earlier sightings of the hawk seemingly hanging out with squirrels and all the other wildlife in Madison Square Park, it was unclear what the hawk ate. But now we know…

(Warning! Not for the squeamish!)

The Madison Square Park holiday tree is now up with lights and all for the season. Many claim that Madison Square Park was the site of the first community holiday tree. Here is this year’s version. While the tree is technically non-denominational, note that there is also a large Menorah in the park right now as well.

We did a double-take this morning as we saw what appeared to be a large flat screen TV hanging from a tree in Madison Square Park. There was a film shoot nearby, so that seemed like a possible cause but in fact we think it may be part of the upcoming art installation from the Madison Square Art program curated by the Madison Square Park Conservancy.

Starting December 15th and running through March 12th, 2012, Dutch artist Jacco Olivier will have 6 stop-animations on display throughout the park and we suspect this will be one of them. The animations are based on him painting and re-painting a single work and photographing it at various stages.

“Mad. Sq. Art is pleased to bring Jacco Olivier and his richly colorful work to Madison Square Park”, stated Debbie Landau, President of the Madison Square Park Conservancy. “The subtle yet engaging quality of his animations will infuse an appreciated energy into the Park during the winter months ahead, drawing connections between scenes of natural landscape in his beautiful, painterly animations and the natural life of the Park that so commonly lays hidden beneath the snow each winter.”

Here is an example of his work called ‘Turning Point’.

It’s pretty late in the year, but the leaves are finally both changing colors and falling in Madison Square Park. It’s a nice time to walk through or hang out in the park before the winter comes. Enjoy it! Recommend on Facebook Tweet about it Tell a friend Related Posts:First real snow of 2012 hits [...]

The leaves are mostly still green (and are on the trees) but yet we had our first snow of the season today in New York City and over Madison Square Park. It’s even cold enough to stick. Real-time photo below.

The Real Estate Weekly reports that Marriott is the previously unnamed buyer of the historic MetLife Clock Tower building adjacent to Madison Square Park (5 Madison Avenue). Marriott reportedly will turn the building into one of their upscale and contemporary Edition brand hotels.

The deal is slated to close December 15th.

The building was owned by Africa Israel and has been the subject of several proposed plans in the past, including very large (4,000+ square foot) ultra-high-end condos designed by Donatella Versace, and then revised to be condos about half the size with a new designer involved, and then more recently a deal with a group including Tommy Hilfiger that intended to turn part of it into a hotel.

The Met Life Clock Tower was built in 1909 and was at one time the world’s tallest building.