Big government meets big business.

Muni money.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission has been on the defensive of late, fighting off claims from the real estate industry that it hinders development rather than helping it. But in givings its unanimous approval to the transformation of the Brooklyn Municipal Building—in the newly created, much maligned Downtown Brooklyn Skyscraper Historic District—the commission reasserted its role as a steward of both the city's history and economy.

“It proves again and I don’t know how many times we have to do it, that economic development and preservation go hand in hand and here’s a textbook example of it,” Commissioner Chairman Robert Tierney said in an email.

United American Land, a local developer active in the Fulton Market, plans to transform the first, second and below-grade floors of the building into roughly 48,000 square feet of retail space. Albert Laboz, United American Land's principal, confirmed plans for a restaurant within the building and noted that the company is close to signing a lease with Sephora.

While the commission has no control over tenants, Sherida Paulsen, the architect who presented the project at a hearing on behalf of Mr. Laboz, noted to commissioners that the retail space would not be used for banks, pharmacies or fast food.

The space is currently being occupied by the Department of Finance, which will relocate within the building to other city-owned space.

Elizabeth de Bourbon, a spokeswoman for the LPC, said there was no opposition expressed during the hearing and many commissioners expressed tremendous approval for the project. “Several of the commissioners noted it’s a great project,” she said.

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, whose office in Borough Hall looks out on the Municipal Building, said he looks forward to its transformation into a vibrant retail corridor.

“Downtown Brooklyn is in the middle of an amazing renaissance and this will only enhance our stature as a 24/7, live, work, play and learning city center,” Mr. Markowitz told The Observer in an email. “With the help of developer United American Land, we will soon be able to celebrate 210 Joralemon becoming an economic powerhouse and world-class destination for dining and shopping.”

Mr. Laboz said his company is eager to bring great retail to Brooklyn and is happy to have successfully gained the commission’s approval. The remaining process for the approval of the retail development of the building consists solely of authorization from the Department of Buildings.

“We have had a lot of interest from various retailers and we can now move forward with plans with a stronger sense of certainty,” Mr. Laboz said.

(Alexandra Dean Hitzler)

The crowd held its breath, holding sweaty drinks beneath burnished brow. Why were we braving the excruciating heat of a crowded rooftop? To witness the Castellers de Villafranca del Pendès’s attempted construction of New York’s first-ever castell, or human tower.

600 arms and legs twisted and turned their way into an eight-tier addition to the rooftop deck (on the 20th floor), a deck reinforced with steel beams and two layers of plywood to support the weight of the performance. The team’s performance, high atop 230 Fifth, was a way to introduce New York to the Catalonian region of Spain’s 300 year-old tradition.

“The performance originally started as a musical performance at a religious festival,” Ram Devineni, a producer and director of a documentary about the team called The Human Tower, told The Observer. “A bunch of people started to get together and jump on each other’s shoulders, and after a certain amount of time the towers just got higher and higher. They really loved what they were doing so they decided to change it from a music festival to sort of a tower festival.”

Mr. Devineni said his idea to create a documentary about human-tower building came about after coming across the human towers on YouTube.

“We filmed this team traveling all over the world, building towers and spreading the gospel and the philosophy of tower building,” Mr. Devineni said.

Mr. Devineni said the documentary has been released around the world and there will be a private screening of the documentary on Friday, June 22 at Goldcrest Studios in the West Village. The goal of those involved in the documentary is to get the film broadcasted on television in the near future. Having been deemed a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, we figure these soaring Spaniards might have something here.

The team will continue to hold performances in New York until June 24 at venues throughout the city, including two performances at Central Park and Battery Park on June 21 for the Make Music NY Festival.

(Getty Images)

We hate to admit it but what if Mayor Bloomberg is right? The smoking ban, the bike lanes, the soda ban, the mass force-feeding of cruciferous veggies—all of it may already be making us healthier.

The Lancet has provided a shot in the arm to the mayor's efforts to control every aspect of his constituents' lives. New research published in British medical journal indicates that New York City’s life expectancy rate is rising faster than anywhere else in the United States. Between 1987 and 2009, Manhattan’s life expectancy rose by 10 years, the largest increase of any county, and New York’s other four boroughs were all in the top percentile.

Manhattan’s city dwellers can now expect to live until 82, an age three years higher than the national average and the same average as Japan, the nation with the world’s highest life expectancy rate.

The report’s lead researcher, Ali Mokdad, said he largely attributes the change to the New York City health department’s crackdown on unhealthy behaviors.

“The health department mandated calorie labels for food sold in chain restaurants and banned trans fats,” researchers stated in the report. “It prohibited smoking in public spaces and ratcheted up taxes on cigarettes. It rolled out hundreds of miles of new bicycle lanes and papered subways with information campaigns about the risks of obesity and the benefits of preventive health services.”

As most New Yorkers are aware, this report has been published at a time when the city is considering further health regulation with the partial ban of large servings of sugary drinks.

“For way too long, public health departments have defined their responsibilities as essentially infectious disease control rather than improvement of health of the population,” Health Commissioner Thomas Farley told the Lancet. The scourges of New York City in the 21st century are tobacco and poor nutrition and inactivity, he added, so the health department has made them their new focus. “It's not a given that we're going to continue to have high rates of smoking and high rates of [non-communicable] diseases; those are as preventable as infectious diseases were 150 years ago.”