The River has held services on the 40th floor of 7 World Trade Center since the fall of 2009. The church rents the space on Sundays from the New York Academy of Sciences. There are  double helixes of DNA on the carpet and a shrine to Charles Darwin near the entrance. The views stretch from Jersey City to J.F.K., and to ground zero right below, with all its fervor, religious and otherwise.

"When we came here, the view, it just allowed us to have fellowship even more," said Amos, who has been attending the River for three years with his wife and was wearing red chinos, a cardigan and a bow tie. "As New Yorkers, we rarely take the time to look up--we always look down or we look straight ahead. Being here helps us look up, it helps bring us closer together and bring us closer to God."

RELATED: The River Runs Through Him. >>

Besides, the skyscraper space is cheaper than the church's old digs in a bank building on Broad Street. Many of the parishioners appreciate the apparent irony of their nave in the sky, and to the academy they are just another rent check. "Pepsico, Pfizer, various alumni organizations, an Irish entrepreneurship group and the Israeli Consulate are among the many external groups, like the River, that rent our space for their own events with no connection to NYAS," the academy's director of public outreach wrote in an email.

The River was founded by Charles Park, an economics Ph.D. from M.I.T. who launched a similar church in Cambridge, Mass., before setting up shop in Greenwich Village. While that Boston parish, called the Vineyard, grew to more than 1,000 members in five years, Mr. Park has only reached a few hundreed here in the same span. Still, he says he sees even greater potential in New York, in no small part because God told him, afer he denied it repeatedly, that his duty was to preach at ground zero.

"There's more to life, and I think New Yorkers instinctively feel that," Mr. Park told The Observer over lunch at Petite Abeille on West Broadway, where he ordered the tuna salad sandwich and a Palm beer between services two Sundays ago.. "Why do people come to New York? I think they want more out of life than could happen in their hometown. I think they want to experience something bigger, more refreshing, a bigger dimension of life. That is what this city is about. It is a city of dreams." A city where an out-of-town pastor could hope to win converts with Zizmor-style subway ads, too.

A mix of tent revival and corporate boardroom, with a healthy dose of pop culture, Mr. Park's sermons move easily between St. Matthew, Bono and Schopenhauer. A band on the light side of indie rock opens and closes things, though there are no Bibles or hymnals--just a PowerPoint presentation, which then gets posted at TheRiver.org. The flock is drawn from across the city, particularly Wall Street, with attire ranging from the frumpy (baggy striped sweaters, khakis) to the fashionable (4-inch snakeskin stilettos, pageboy caps).

Call it the Gotham Gospel.

"I hated going to church growing up," Collin, a recent N.Y.U. grad who now volunteers as the River's youth coordinator, said. Dressed in a hoodie over a flannel shirt and jeans, Collin was cutting doughnuts in half to go with jugs of Dunkin Donuts coffee and cartons of Minute Maid for after services. "I had an agnostic mom and a lapsed Catholic dad, and we basically went out of this sense of guilt. Here, the sermons are tailored to life in the city."

In many ways, the church reflects its founder. Mr. Park emigrated from South Korea as a teenager, got into Stanford and then M.I.T. and made more than $40 million on the stock market. "I was living the American dream, I had everything, and yet I was still miserable," he said. That led him to attend church in Boston before founding his own.

Mr. Park sees much the same anguish in his fellow New Yorkers. His favorite parable is the one told by the comedian Louis C.K. on The Late Show with Conan O'Brien two years ago, "Everything's Amazing and Nobody's Happy."

"If everyone thought, 'My job is to bring fullness of life to those around me,'" Mr. Park said, "New York would be a much better place."

RELATED: The River Runs Through Him. >>

mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo

This must be Larry Silverstein's lucky day.

He's getting his very first tenant at 7 World Trade Center, and it's a smart little group: The New York Academy of Sciences.

H3 Hardy Collaboration will be designing the 40th floor for the NYAS. Architect Hugh Hardy has designed the Rainbow Room up in Rockefeller Center--plus, you may remember, Windows on the World.

The press release calls this "a major milestone in LoMa's revitalization."

LoMa?

More PR after the jump.

- Max Abelson

ALERT ALERT ALERT

The view into the 40th floor of 7 World Trade Center will be as impressive as the view out when the New York Academy of Science (NYAS) moves in in late September, the first new tenant of Silverstein Properties' much-publicized building.

H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture designed the Academy's 40th Floor offices. Principal Hugh Hardy is accustomed to designing attention-getting high places: Windows on the World, lost in the 9/11 attacks, and the renovated Rainbow Room atop 30 Rockefeller Center. The Academy's commitment to Lower Manhattan, shown by its upcoming move, represents a major milestone in LoMa's revitalization. H3's design is the latest step in the ongoing revitalization and reinvention of this prominent New York institution.

What You'll See
The new 28,000-square-foot home for the Academy, now located in a former upper East Side mansion, will better reflect its progressive mission and allow it to enhance its prominent position, locally and globally, as a builder of scientific communities and disseminator of scientific information. The new offices provide state-of-the-art office and conferencing facilities for groups as small as 30 and as big as 300. Design flourishes include custom-designed red carpet woven with a representation of the DNA double helix and photographic panels that contain enlarged images of the natural environment as seen through an electron microscope.

Background
H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, the third firm begun by renowned architect Hugh Hardy, provides architecture, planning, and interior design services in a collaborative studio environment. The firm designs commercial interiors, public spaces, performing arts centers, libraries, educational institutions, residential buildings, museums, retail facilities, and restaurants. H3 was founded in 2004.

The New York Academy of Sciences, a global organization committed to building communities and advancing science, is one of America's oldest scientific institutions. Founded in 1817, the Academy has some 25,000 members from 140 countries, including Nobel Laureates and leaders of some of the world's top academic and research institutions and companies.

Probably not.

Still, The New York Academy of Sciences, which is moving from its East 63rd Street mansion into the 40th floor of Larry Silverstein's 7 World Trade Center, is having a party in its new offices in May.

The press release is here; see a pdf of the postcard here.

- Tom McGeveran

-Matthew Schuerman

Though a spate of townhouses that used to house offices or charitable foundations have been sold to private families in recent years, this building won't be rehabbed for residential use. Access Industries would not say whether it intends to sell the property after renovation.

The buyers will "preserve as much of the history and character of the building as possible," a source with knowledge of the deal said, before adding: "It needs to be updated and renovated extensively."

The 75-foot-wide, four-story mansion at East 63rd Street was originally commissioned by William Ziegler, president of Royal Baking Powder, and built in 1919. In 1929, Norman Bailey Woolworth purchased the house and lived there with his family, before donating it to the New York Academy of Sciences in 1949.

The Academy originally put the building on the market in 2001, and the Emir of Qatar was reportedly going to purchase the property for $27 million that fall, but the deal eventually fell through.

The Academy hasn't yet determined where they'll relocate, according to Fred Moreno, the NYAS director of communications.

CB Richard Ellis represented the sellers. A spokeswoman for the company declined to comment.

NYAS president Ellis Rubinstein also declined to comment.

The chairman of Access Industries, Leonard Blavatnik, isn't restricting himself to investment purchases. The investor and oil-and-gas mogul, who was listed at No. 87 on the Forbes 400 in 2004 with an estimated worth of $2.5 billion, signed a contract for a property at the star-studded San Remo on Central Park West, according to real-estate sources.

If he's paying anywhere near the listing price of $23.5 million-as The Observer reported two weeks ago-it'll be the most expensive apartment sale in Central Park West history.

Fashion Week may be over, but you can still get close to Oscar de la Renta for about $12.5 million. An apartment in the exclusive 660 Park Avenue co-op has opened up, one floor below the style maven, according to real-estate sources.

Originally built in 1927, the 4,600-square-foot home has 11 rooms, including a master suite along Park Avenue, a cloak room and a powder room. There are approximately 12-foot ceilings, two wood-burning stoves and a library. French doors lead to a planting balcony.

"It's one of the grand buildings of New York, with great architectural detail," said Laurance Kaiser, president of Key-Ventures Realty.

The fashionable residence has had its share of famous faces inside, or trying to get in. Imelda Marcos reportedly attempted to buy into the building in the early 1980's, but was turned down. Last summer, Susan Bloomberg, the Mayor's ex-wife, split from the 13th-floor penthouse.

Listing brokers Cornelia Zagat Eland and Amanda Cannon of Stribling and Associates did not return calls for comment.

A few blocks north, the East 69th Street estate of Jim Henson, a prime piece of real estate, is now back on the market. A deal on the neo-Georgian townhouse went to contract a month ago, but has fallen through. The 16,000-square-foot home is still listing at $12.4 million with Massey Knakal Realty Services.

The 40-foot-wide mansion was built in 1929 for the family of Beekman Winthrop. In 1951 it was converted for the New York State Pharmaceutical Association as a space for offices and lecture rooms. Most recently, it became home to the Jim Henson Company.

"There is sufficient interest in the property, keeping with the high-demand market," said Paul Massey, founding partner of Massey Knakal Realty Services.

Albert Gottesman, the executor of the Henson estate, was unavailable for comment at press time.

accept a $27 million bid for its mansion on East 63rd Street off of Fifth

Avenue, that offer-from the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad

bin Khalifa al-Thani-was

rescinded in early October.

The Emir, the highest official of the nation of Qatar, has

come under fire recently for the apparent relationship of his government-owned

network, Al Jazeera, with terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden-airing unedited footage of Mr. bin Laden's statements and reportedly ferrying questions to him

on behalf of CNN. Spokesmen for the Emir and the Academy said they didn't know

why his offer for 2 East 63rd Street

was withdrawn, or whether it had anything to do with the events of Sept. 11.

"At the moment, there is no interest in that building," said

Robert W. Thabit, the legal advisor to Qatar's

permanent mission at the United Nations. "I prefer not to discuss it; this is a

matter that involves the security of the Emir."

The Emir made the offer back in May; employees of the New

York Academy of Sciences said it was for $27 million. Richard Ravitch, a member of the Academy's board of governors and

the head of a subcommittee working to sell the building, said only that the

offer was "well over $20 million."

Academy spokesman Fred Marino confirmed that the offer had

been on the agenda of the Academy's Oct. 9 board meeting until it was retracted

only days before. Several board members said the offer

would have been accepted at that meeting. "They've been negotiating for months,

and we had every right to assume that he was interested. And we finally agreed

on their price," said Mr. Ravitch. "I haven't the

vaguest idea why he pulled out of it."

Paul Massey of Massey Knakal

Realty, the Academy's broker, said that as of Oct. 16, the building was "still

on the market."

The 75-foot-wide, four-story mansion is laid out in a

20,646-square-foot sprawl that includes a basement, a sub-basement and a

penthouse. The mansion was built in 1919 for William Ziegler, a prominent

businessman, politician and then-president of the American Foundation for the

Blind, and it was designed by Stern and Wolfe in a neo–Italian Renaissance style.

The building is set apart from the run-of-the-mill town house by its stone

façade, round-arched entrance and large window with scroll cornices and

cartouches; the interior features ornate moldings, a grand central staircase,

fireplaces and large entertainment rooms, including a ballroom overlooking a

generous courtyard-all in the Renaissance style. In 1929, Norman Baily Woolworth, of the retail-store family dynasty, bought

the house and lived there with his family until 1949, when he donated it to the

prestigious New York Academy of Sciences.

According to Mr. Marino, the Emir was looking for a New

York residence, and would have returned the mansion

to its original single-family use had he bought it. Some speculated that recent

events had something to do with the Emir's decision. "I'm not sure what

happened; it may have something to do with the current situation in terms of …

terrorist problems or something," said Jacqueline Leo, a member of the

Academy's board of governors and the editor in chief of Reader's Digest.

But one source close to the deal surmised that it was just

business as usual in the high-end townhouse market. "We understand that they

were also dickering for another building," said the source, "so we suspect they

might have been playing one against the other for a while." That building is

the Lycée Français' Beaux

Arts–style residence at 9 East 72nd Street,

currently on the market for $25 million with the Corcoran Group.

When the Emir started looking for an extra-large residence

in the spring, word spread quickly among the handful of brokers who sell the

most expensive townhouses. Jed Garfield, a broker with Leslie J. Garfield &

Co., said he was contacted by a banker who was an associate of the Emir early

last summer. When Mr. Garfield found something he thought would interest the

Emir, he contacted the banker, but never heard back.

The nation of Qatar

already owns a 1,956-square-foot, eight-room condominium apartment in the St.

James Tower at 415

East 54th Street. City records show that it was

purchased in January 1999 for $1.15 million. But Mr. Thabit

would not respond to questions about the apartment's use by Qatar

or its dignitaries.

Meanwhile, the Academy-which in June made a much-criticized

financial decision to shut down The Sciences, an award-winning magazine with

big-name contributing editors like Stephen Jay Gould, Laurence Marschall, Rosamond Purcell, Robert Sapolsky

and Hans Christian von Baeyer-is unable to pursue its

consolidation plans until it finds a buyer for 2 East

63rd Street.

When the Emir withdrew his offer to buy the mansion, the

Academy was negotiating to rent a full-floor office in the Ziff-Davis building

at 1 Park Avenue, which

would have eliminated its current need for back-office space at Madison Avenue

and 59th Street. "We don't

have adequate meeting space here," explained Mr. Marino. "We had our annual

meeting eight months ago, and it was spread across several rooms in the

building …. Part of the thing was to find a space that allows us to have bigger

meetings."

Mr. Ravitch said the plan was to

sign a lease at 1 Park as soon as the board approved the sale of the 63rd

Street building. But after the terrorist attack

created a stampede for midtown office space and the Emir backed out, the

Academy eventually had to let the space go.

Now board members are hunkering down for a long wait until

the next serious buyer comes along. "There are so many of these upper-end

properties sitting on the market," said Kathleen Burns-Hoffman, director of

townhouses for the real-estate brokerage William B. May. "[The houses] are

quite nice, but there are so many fewer people that can afford to pay for that.

And even when they can, some are almost too big to live in comfortably."

Since the Academy's plans were objectionable to some of its

members, the fact that the mansion won't be sold-at least for now-is not seen

as a crisis. "I don't think there's anyone on the board who is going to say,

'This has to be done tomorrow,'" said Ms. Leo. "There's no reason to think

that."

UPPER EAST

SIDE

33 East End Avenue

One-bed, one-bath, 1,100-square-foot

co-op.

Asking: $505,000. Selling: $495,000.

Charges: $1,248; 50 percent tax-deductible.

Time on the market: six weeks.

MESSAGE IN A BARGE Some claim that

residents who live in this building near 81st Street

can actually tell what kind of boat is going by on the river by the sound it

makes. According to Michael Mansur, an Insignia

Douglas Elliman broker who has sold several

apartments in this building, it's a particular talent that comes from spending

lots of time on the terraces that look out directly over the river. But the

psychologist who sold this apartment probably didn't have that kind of time.

She lived here for two and a half years before getting married and moving to Seattle.

During that time, she redid the bathroom and kitchen and added new lighting

fixtures. On the other hand, the couple who bought the place were

immediately drawn to the river views from the large windows in the living room

and the dining room on several visits before signing a contract. (They closed

on the place on Oct.4.)  The place

clearly spoke to them.

MIDTOWN

465 Park Avenue

(the Ritz Tower)

1,200-square-foot, one-bedroom,

one-and-a-half-bath co-op.

Asking: $795,000. Selling: $770,000.

Maintenance: $2,700; 45 percent tax-deductible.

Time on the market: one week.

THE LITTLE DEAL THAT COULD On the morning of Sept. 11, on

her way out of the house for the law offices of Stroock,

Stroock and Lavan, broker

Terri Stone of Charles H. Greenthal got a phone call

from the buyer of this apartment. "'Turn on the TV,'" Ms. Stone said the woman

told her. "There it was: the first plane. I immediately called the attorney

representing the buyer, and I said, 'Well, gee, this is a terrible accident,'

and can they messenger the papers to the [law firm's] uptown office and make

the appointment a little later?" The sale of this apartment had been scheduled

for that morning. But when the second plane hit, the deal faded into the

background for a couple of days-until the buyer called again, still interested

and anxious to complete the deal. "Everything was a little bit upside-down in

terms of locating paperwork," Ms. Stone said. The law firm's offices, three

blocks away from the World Trade

Center site, were closed. "Ten days

later, we closed, and my buyers were thrilled," Ms. Stone said. A married

couple eager to settle down in the "heart of the city" (though they own several

properties elsewhere), the buyers wanted a full-service building, and the Ritz

Tower fit the bill, with a four-star restaurant exclusively serving building

residents and their guests, a full-time doorman and concierge, and a business

center, fitness center and cleaning service available. The sellers, an older

couple, were getting the same treatment, but down South.

GREENWICH

VILLAGE

260 West 11th Street

3,345-square-foot, four-story townhouse.

Asking: $3.2 million. Selling: $3

million.

Time on the market: six weeks.

UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS When an estate put this town

house-owned by the same man for almost 40  years-on the market for $3.2 million

with Jackie Vincent of the Corcoran Group, it was bucking a trend. Divided into

two apartments, the townhouse was marketed as such rather than as a potential

one-family home. The strategy made sense, since the two duplex apartments have

different styles: the lower one more contemporary, with a brand-new kitchen,

and the upper one almost entirely intact from the building's 1840 origins. But

the Harvard-educated young couple, both in banking, who bought the place after

six weeks will have it both ways: They'll occupy the

upper duplex until they have the time and capital to renovate the entire place

and take it over for themselves. In the meantime, their broker, Corcoran's

Scott Stewart, got a second job: finding a renter to pay $6,000 a month for the

lower duplex. Mr. Stewart said that the income will help ease the couple's pain

at having to be so far away from their "beautiful planted garden," which, at

nearly 30 feet long, is much bigger than is standard in the area-at least for

now.