Bye, Bye, Summer

The real estate world is still wiping a long weekend of sleep from its eyes. What Newsday architecture critic Justin Davidson sees in front of him is the city's $150 million plan to landscape the East River around Wall Street. He concludes: "Compared with the monstrous cost and difficulties of forcing towers, train stations, memorials and museums to bloom out of the bedrock of Ground Zero, beautifying the waterfront seems like a cheap and easy way to increase the area's allure, both for residents and corporate tenants." One of those projects with monstrous cost, the $2.2 billion Calatrava PATH station, breaks ground today, while Daniel Libeskind makes his pitch for $3,700 homes for Hurricane Katrina victims. Another big ticket item is Sen. Hillary Clinton's $1 million expansion of her Washington pad, the better to raise money.