Week in Pictures for Sept. 27

See the slide show

Here is a slide show of photographs from the past week in New York City and the region. Subjects include unlawfully painted bike lanes in Manhattan, oyster planting in the Bronx, and environmentalists in the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn.

This weekend on “The New York Times Close Up,” an inside look at the most compelling articles in the Sunday newspaper, Sam Roberts will speak with The Times’s Eleanor Randolph, Michael Barbaro and Javier C. Hernández. Also, John Burnett, Republican nominee for comptroller, and Sudhir Venkatesh, an author. Tune in at 10 p.m. Saturday or 10 a.m. Sunday on NY1 News to watch.

A sampling from the City Room blog is featured daily in the main print news section of The Times. You may also read current New York headlines, like New York Metro | The New York Times on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Big Ticket | A Hint of Europe for $13.579 Million

Ángel Franco/The New York Times The Touraine condominium building.

A four-bedroom penthouse, one of four that crown the Touraine, a new luxury condominium with distinct European overtones at 132 East 65th Street (at Lexington Avenue), sold for $13,579,371.82 and was the most expensive transaction of the week, according to city records. The listing price for the 3,695-square-foot simplex, PH4, was $13,675,990, and the monthly carrying charges are $6,631.

Toll Brothers City Living, the developer/sponsor, built 22 units and quickly accumulated a near sellout. Another penthouse, PH3, sold for $9,771,116.82, city records show. The only residence still available to those who crave an address at the 15-story building designed by the French architect Lucien Lagrange is the costliest one, PH1, a duplex on the 14th and 15th floors with an asking price of $19,995,990.

The six-room PH4, on the 11th floor, has a private elevator, an art-ready reception gallery, four and a half Calacatta marble baths, and a Gaggenau windowed eat-in kitchen with marble countertops.

The buyer of PH4 used a limited-liability company, NY Touraine PH4, as did the buyer of PH3, recorded as Ask Ventures.

The week’s second-highest-price sale, at $13 million, was downtown in a warehouse-to-loft conversion at 196 West Houston Street. Built in 1899, the property was reimagined as a private residence/entertainment mecca with a two-car garage, a basement recording studio â€" later converted into a yoga studio â€" and a roof deck with outdoor showers. Among those who attended parties there in its heyday were John Lennon and Norman Mailer.

The seller, represented by Stan Ponte and Vannessa Kaufman of Sotheby’s International Realty, was Draw Ventures, a limited-liability company based in Palo Alto, Calif. The buyer also used a limited-liability company, Shatter Scape Holdings.

Big Ticket includes closed sales from the previous week, ending Wednesday.

Full Disclosure, Theater District Noise

Dear Diary:

The following e-mail was sent by my husband in early August to someone interested in renting a “cube” in his office, in response to her question, “Is your office insulated from noise?”

One of the features of our space is our location in the heart of the theater district. We participate in that local soundscape, including the guide chatter from frequent tour buses, the weekly rush of Wednesday matinee traffic, the queues outside for “The Book of Mormon,” and the regular sound of horse-drawn carriages looking for tourists.

Depending on the season, we also sometimes hear faint strains of piano, singing and dancing as the theatrical companies in our building prepare for coming Broadway shows.

We regularly hear the bells from St. Malachy’s: the Actor’s Chapel right across the street (including a carillon performance of “There’s No Business Like Show Business” every Wednesday). We are also fortunate to be protected locally by F.D.N.Y. Engine 54 “Never Missed a Performance” and other fire engines very nearby, so we hear their activity and sirens every day.

Our windows can be opened, so we participate in those sounds more or less, depending on the season, but I would not call us insulated by any means.

- Dan

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New York Today: Baby Boom

Christian Hansen for The New York Times It is high season at the city’s maternity wards.

If the air seems to be filled with the cries of newborns lately, it’s not your imagination.

This is the time of year when the most births occur in New York.

The week ending Sept. 26 saw an average of 404 babies born per day over the last decade, according to the city health department.

That’s the highest figure for any week in the year.

It’s 14 percent more than the 355 births on an average day in the slowest week, the week of Nov. 28. (Who wants to be stuck in the hospital over Thanksgiving?)

All the dates with the lowest rates are around major holidays, led by Christmas Day, with an average of just 286 births. You and your doctor may thank the miracle of the scheduled c-section for that.

We’re not sure why the birth rate is so high this time of year.

Maybe it has something to do with the calendar event that falls 40 weeks before today: Dec. 21, usually the shortest day â€" and the longest night â€" of the year.

What’s your theory?

Here’s what else you need to know for Friday and the weekend:

WEATHER

Clouding over with a high of 70, but clearing overnight and pretty sunny on Saturday and Sunday, with highs in the low 70s. You are free to move about the city.

TRANSIT & TRAFFIC

- Mass Transit: Subways are O.K. But Metro-North’s New Haven line is still providing very limited service â€" see details. Click for latest M.T.A. status.

- Roads: No major problems. Click for traffic map or radio report on the 1s.

Alternate-side parking is suspended today for the Jewish holiday of Simhat Torah. Meters remain in effect.

COMING UP TODAY

- On the campaign trail, Bill de Blasio appears on the Brian Lehrer show and on “Pura Politica” on NY1 Noticias at 6 p.m. Joseph J. Lhota discusses his jobs plan at a restaurant in Jackson Heights.

- Mayor Bloomberg’s weekly appearance on the John Gambling radio show on WOR-710 AM. 8:05 a.m.

- Cycle for Survival, which raises money for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, takes over a plaza in Times Square with more than 100 stationary bike riders and loud music. 9 a.m.

- Intriguing-sounding thing you won’t be going to: the deputy agriculture secretary speaks downtown at a United Soybean Board workshop, “Country and City Connect for Sustainability: Bringing the Benefits of Bio-based to the New York Region.”

- Put on your tin foil hats, conspiracy nerds. Tickets go on sale at noon to see David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson at the Paley Center on Oct. 12, where they will speak of the 20th anniversary of “The X-Files.”

- Be serenaded at lunch by cast members of “Annie,” “Pippin,” “Newsies” and other shows at the “Broadway on the Hudson” concert at Waterfront Plaza downtown. 12:30 p.m. [Free]

- Roberta’s, Red Hook Lobster Pound, Calexico and others purvey their wares as Madison Square Eats, adjacent to Madison Square Park, opens for a four-week run. 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

- Free outdoor concerts at night in autumn? Yes. St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble plays brass music at Granite Prospect in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Bring a sweater. 7 p.m. [Free, also on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Snug Harbor in Staten Island.]

- Over 400 artists, 100 studios, 50 galleries and three days of art and performance as the venerable Dumbo Arts Festival returns for its 17th year. [Free]

- “For and About,” a show of art made in response to Hurricane Sandy by Brooklyn artists opens at the Brooklyn Arts Council Gallery, also in Dumbo. 6:30 p.m. [Free]

IN THE NEWS

- Who says industry is dead in New York? Companies are still polluting the Gowanus Canal. [New York Times]

- New York City’s air, though, is the cleanest it’s been in 50 years, the mayor says. [New York Times]

- A horse pulling a carriage bolted and toppled the carriage on Eighth Avenue near Columbus Circle. No one was injured. [Daily News]

- Yanks lose to Rays at Mariano Rivera’s last home game, 4-0. Mets lose to Brewers, 4-2.

THE WEEKEND

Saturday

- A discussion of Abraham Lincoln’s speeches at the Staten Island Museum. 11:30 a.m.

- Elvis Costello, Alicia Keys, Kings of Leon and Stevie Wonder perform at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park. All free tickets are accounted for, but some VIP tickets still remain. Or watch the live stream. 4 p.m.

- Take a night hike around Van Cortlandt Park with the Urban Park Rangers. 7 p.m. [Free]

Sunday

- The mountainous former landfill on Staten Island now known as Freshkills Park hosts a free afternoon of kayaking, biking and climbing walls. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. [Free]

- Jousting anyone? The annual Medieval Festival transforms Fort Tyron Park into a medieval town from 11:30 a.m. - 6 p.m. [Free]

- The Atlantic Antic street fair returns to Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. Noon to 6 p.m. [Free]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide. Also check out The Skint, where we read about some of this weekend’s events.

Joseph Burgess and Judy Tong contributed reporting.

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