Walks in New York and elsewhere

Broadway to Church

2007-01-17T17:20:00.000-05:00

Back at Chambers Street, on the southeast corner, is the Broadway-Chambers Building, Cass Gilbert's first structure in New York, 1900.

Don't forget to look up It's a designated NYC landmark, although much less famous than his Woolworth Tower a block or two downtown.

The block between Broadway and Church has long been characterized by bargain stores and fast food restaurants catering to the many office workers in the area,
but it is undergoing rapid change and gentrification.

This is not the ony 19th century store-loft building undergoing transformation to residential.

Some of the upper stories are quite elegant.

A little detour

2007-01-11T19:05:00.000-05:00

Visitors to New York City can be excused for thinking that either the Municipal Building or the Tweed Courthouse is City Hall. In fact, City Hall is a much older and more modest building. I think it's one of the most most beautiful municipal buildings ever, and I usually laugh at New York City boosterism.

To see City Hall, which is directly to the south of the Tweed Courthouse, turn left at Broadway. You'll be able to peek into the windows of the Tweed Courthouse.

At the moment there are some Alexander Calder sculptures in City Hall Park.

Here's City Hall

The Mayor's actual office is in the building. City Hall was designed by Joseph-Francois Mangin and John McComb Jr., 1802-11. Although it has undergone various alterations over the years, it maintains the character of an eary Federal building. Its deteriorated original skin, Massachusetts marble in front and brownstone in the rear was replaced in the mid-1950s with limestone over a granite base. The building was designated in 1966 and its interior, ten years later. It is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Before the mayoralty of Rudolph Giuliani, it was much easier to see the interior. After the events of 9/11, security became even tighter, but the interior is still worth making an effort to see, especially the double flying staircase and the ten Corinthian columns that support the dome. There is a significant portrait gallery inside as well.

Chambers Street

2006-12-19T12:13:00.000-05:00

One would be forgiven for assuming that the name "Chambers Street" has something to do with the proximity of courthouses. The connection to lawyers' offices is only indirect; the street was named in honor of John Chambers, a pre-Revolutionary War barrister, alderman, corporation counsel, and justice of the colonial supreme court.

All the classically-styled buildings on the block between Centre Street and Broadway are designated New York City landmarks. The interiors of all but the Sun Building, (n. side of the street, at Broadway)are also designated interiors. The easternmost end of Chambers Street is at the heart of New York City's civic center. Years ago, it extended farther east. Now, Chambers Street begins at Centre Street.

McKim, Mead & White's Municipal Building, 1907-1914, has large arches through which traffic used to pass to what was called "New Chambers Street" on old maps before the construction of Police Plaza.

The sculpture, "Five in One," seen through the arch, on the plaza, is by Tony Rosenthal.

Looking up at the Municipal Building, one can see the sculpture, "Civic Fame," by Adolph Weinman. If you took the subway here and exited underneath the southern wing, you must have noticed the Guastavino tiles above. The building is massive, but New York's municipal government long ago outgrew the space.

The offices of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission have been on the ninth floor of this building since 2001. The windows of the hearing room overlook Chambers Street. I was standing at the window, looking down the length of the street, clear to the Hudson River, when I heard an earsplitting roar and, turning my head in the direction of the sound, saw the fireball near the top of the World Trade Center, six blocks away. If I had been looking 10 degrees to my left instead of straight ahead, I would have seen the airplane strike the building.

On Chambers Street proper, the first building on the north side of the street, is the Hall of Records, also Surrogate's Court, and the new home of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. It took a long time to complete. Work began in 1899, the building opened in 1905 and work continued unti 1911. The building was designed by John Thomas, a largely sef-taught architect, who died in 1901 and was succeeded by the politically well-connected firm, Horgan & Slattery, who had been hired by a newly-elected mayor as consultants.
Despite their promises to keep the costs down, by the time the building was completed, cost overerruns exceeded $1-million. The interior of the building is notable for its vast expanse of honey-colored Siena marble and a double staircase that brings to mind the Palais Garnier (the old Paris opera house.)

Even more notorious for grand fiscal excess is the Tweed Courthouse, (New York County Courthouse) on the south side of the block. Tweed Courthouse

It was built over a 20-year period from 1861-1881 primarily to a design by John Kellum, with additional work by Leopold Eidlitz. It is generally thought to be NYC's second permanent government building, the first being City Hall. (We'll take a detour to see that; it's right behind the Tweed Courthouse.)

Tweed was a political "boss," (never a mayor) whose "Tweed Ring" used the construction of the building as a deep pocket to embezzle huge sums of money. Justice eventually prevailed and Tweed was tried in a courtroom in this very building, which has never been able to shake his name.

After a lengthy and expensive restoration by John Waite -- there is no getting away from the fact that this building is a money pit -- the Tweed Courthouse reopened as the new home of the Department of Education and the City Hall Academy, a kind of model school housing short-term programs for teachers and students. There had been talk of its serving as a museum for a combined New-York Historical Society and Museum of the City of New York, or as headquarters for the NYC Landmarks Commission. (There was no way that the NYHS and MCNY would merge. Similar as they may seem, they are very different institutions.

On the north side of the street is the former Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, Raymond R Almirall, 1908-12. It now houses government offices.

At the n.e. corner of Broadway and Chambers is the extension of the former A.T. Stewart store, the earliest section of which is at Reade Street, 1845-46. The original architect was Joseph Trench & Co., whose design was followed for subsequent additions. This was New York City's first department store and it set the tone in style (Italianate) and materials (Tuckahoe marble)for decades after. After 1919, the store having moved uptown, the building became the office of a newspaper, The New York Sun. Most peope refer to the building as the Sun Building.

The offices of the New York City Department of Buildings are located in the building. There was a beautiful restoration by Beyer Blinder Belle a few years ago.

125th Street, 5

2006-09-03T17:47:00.002-04:00

St. Joseph of the Holy Family Church, 1860, Henry Engelbert, is probably the oldest church in the area. (n.b. The AIA Guide incorrectly attributes it to Herter Bros, 1889.)

We are now approaching Manhattanville, once a separate village between Harlem and Bloomingdale, centered on what is now 125th Street and Broadway. The section of 125th Street that goes off at an angle was originally known as Manhattan Street. Its direction was determined by topography. The street followed a valley between what is now Morningside Heights and Hamilton Heights. It became 125th Street only in 1920. The original 125th Street was renamed LaSalle Street at the same time. We will continue walking on the current 125th Street.

A large public housing complex fills the south side of the street for several blocks.

On the grounds is a small butterfly garden.

A nice branch of the New York Public Library is convenient, too, as well as a branch of Citarella, one of NYC's best fish stores.

On Old Broadway, which crosses 125th here, is another reminder that this area once had a large Jewish population. The congregation is older than its building, which dates from 1923, by Meisner & Uffner.

Old Broadway was originally known as Bloomingdale Road.

There are two steel viaducts spanning the valley, one for the IRT subway,
which was extended to northern Manhattan in 1904 and

one for Riverside Drive.
The building in the background was a Studebaker service center. The former car manufacturer's graphic motifs are still visible on the tower. The building was constructed in 1923, designed by an engineering firm from Cincinnati, W.S. Ferguson and incorporating the ioneering reinforced concrete construciton techniques developed by automotive architect Albert Kahn. Broadway, in Manhattanville, was a important auto row prior to WWII. The building is owned by Columbia University as is

the former Sheffield Dairy Building, now Prentis Hall. Columbia owns many buildings in this area and is in the process of acquiring more for its proposed expansion northward of its main campus at 116th Street and Broadway. The university has said that it is committed to relocating people who will be losing their homes, but many small businesses will no doubt disappear altogether.
Paste the following link into your browser http://neighbors.columbia.edu/pages/manplanning/index.html
to see the University's rationale and details of the plan. The 18 acres that Columbia plans to take over are not heavily populated by New York standards, nor is there much obvious charm. Nevertheless, there are understandable objections on the part of the community to the loss of its neighborhood and of historic fabric. Columbia is planning to maintain the old street pattern.

In addition to automobile-related businesses, the area was a meat-packing center. Not much remains

In the meantime, there's Dinosaur Barbeque

The Fairway store is several blocks north of here. Don't be fooled by the sign for it

or by a nightclub that calls itself The Cotton Club.

It has the same name, but is not related to the original club, which was at 142nd and Lenox Avenue.

125th Street offers the walker only a tiny taste of Harlem, one of the richest neighborhoods in New York in culture, history and architecture.

Sources for 125th Street

2006-09-03T17:47:00.001-04:00

To check dates and names of architects, these sources were helpful

White and Wilensky, AIA Guide to New York City
Historic Preservation Program of Columbia University, 1996-7
Preservation Plan for Hamilton Heights/ Manhattanville,
David Dunlap, Glory in Gotham: Manhattan’s Houses of Worship,
Michael Henry Adams, Harlem, Lost and Found
http://www.metrohistory.com
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/html/home/home.shtml

As always, any opinions are my own.

125th Street, 4

2006-08-13T10:50:00.000-04:00

The Blumstein's sign remains, but the store is long gone. The building was constructed in 1923, designed by Robert D. Kohn and Charles Butler, incorporating both Art Nouveau and Art Deco elements.
Here is a close-up of some of its copper colonettes.

This is a significant cultural, as well as architectural site. Despite the fact that most of the store's customers were the African-Americans who had recently moved into Harlem, the store refused to hire blacks for anything but menial positions. In the 1930s, a successful boycott supported by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., resulted in a change in that policy.

On the north side of the street is a closed 5-plex movie theater that was previously the Loew's Victoria, and originally a vaudeville house, designed by noted theatre architect Thomas W. Lamb in 1916.

A few doors to the west is possibly the most famous site on 125th Street, the recently restored and renovated Apollo Theater. The theater was built in 1913, as the Hurtig & Seamon's New Burlesque Theater, designed by George Keister. Black performers began to perform here in the 1930s and the list of stars who have appeared on its stage is very long and impressive. Some of those, including Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and James Brown, first came to the attention of the public at the theater's popular amateur shows. I saw James Brown here in the mid 1960s. The restoration of the building was conducted by Beyer Blinder Belle.

On Frederick Douglas Blvd, just to the south, is the Magic Johnson Theater
in a glassy, multi-use Skidmore, Owings & Merrill building constructed in 1999. Perhaps more than any other single enterprise, this building and its tenants symbolized what some have called the second Harlem renaissance. The building is a designated interior and exterior landmark.

At Mornngside Avenue is a little restaurant that was closed for the month of July. Its intriguing sign, "Old Fashion' but Good!" are an inducement for me to revisit, some day when I'm not dieting.

125th Street, 3

2006-07-22T14:42:00.000-04:00

The block between Fifth Avenue and Lenox (6th Avenue) is very lively and busy with shoppers and strollers. On one corner is a Body Shop, commonplace in most shopping districts and malls, but evidence here of economic revival.

This is central Harlem. Many of the stores reflect the heritage of the current population of the neighborhood. On another corner is a boutique selling African wedding clothes.

The late 19th-century red brick building named "Bertha"

houses a shop for African goods.

Contrasts abound. A lovely new store at 24-26 West 125th, "Carol's Daughter," that sells its own fragrant soaps and cosmetics

shares the ground floor with a not-so-lovely pawnshop.

On the street itself there are vendors galore, many of them selling the same items. Tubs of shea butter are very popular.

There is still plenty of opportunity for development.

The Abyssinian Development Corporation, an organization dedicated to the social, economic and physical improvement of Central Harlem, is located on this block.

The next block (between Lenox and Adam Clayton Powell (7th) has even more mall-type stores, including Cohen's Fashion Optical in a red brick building with some rather elaborate ornament.

This lavish building (132-140 W. 125th) was Harlem's main department store (Koch & Company) for 30 years after it moved here from lower Sixth Avenue in 1893. William H.Hume & Son designed the original building, since altered.

The Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building, (Ifill Johnson Hanchard, 1973) housing Bill Clinton's office, is here

complete with a striding Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. on its plaza. The bronze sculpture was created by Branly Cadet and cast in Brooklyn. (2005)

Powell was a charismatic and controversial politician who represented Harlem in Congress.

At the edge of the plaza is a mural featuring Harlem themes.

On the other side of the street is The Studio Museum in Harlem (major alteration by Rogers Marvel,2005)
The museum exhibits work by artists of African descent.

And on the southwest corner of Adam Clayton Powell is the former Hotel Theresa, (George and Edward Blum, 1912-13. Fidel Castro stayed here in 1960. It is a designated NYC landmark.

The monogram "HT" is still prominent on the 3rd story window surrounds.

125th Street, 2

2006-07-20T13:41:00.000-04:00

Just west of Park Avenue are the some visible signs of gentrification, like the scaffolding on "The New Corn Exchange Building" indicating that an extensive renovation is in progress that will incorporate the historic facade.

and a sign across the street announcing a new Marriott Hotel.
On the day the photo was taken (June 10, 2006) however, there were only puddles behind the construction fence and an impromptu sidewalk flea market in front of it.

On the corner of Madison Avenue is A Taste of Seafood, a takeout restaurant that must be good, if the length of the line at 4:30 in the afternoon is any indication.

On the northwest corner of Madison Avenue is the Promise Academy, a charter school operated by Harlem Children's Zone, housed in a new building. The school opened in 2004, with the goal of providing a full range of preventive, educational and recreational services to Harlem children and families.

Just to the south on Madison, are a West Indian Restaurant and a church (not to be confused with a synagogue, despite the name) housed in an old Pythian Hall, a reminder that this area was once the second-largest Jewish neighborhood in New York, the largest at the time being the Lower East Side.

An interesting building now housing a church was originally a medical office, as evidenced by the iconography.

There are nice rows of houses south of 125th. (North, too, but that's a different area.) We are very close to the edge of the Mount Morris Park Historic District, one of the very earliest districts to be designated by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission and one that needs to be expanded. The LPC in the early days, was very cautious about the boundaries of historic districts because the consequences of designation were still unknown. Preservationists were glad to see that a study by NYC's Independent Budget Office shows that designation is good for property values of the buildings as they exist, assuming that zoning in the area does not allow for a taller building than is already on the site. In that instance, all too common in New York, since the zoning laws pre-dated the landmark laws by many years and do not always reflect what has already been built, a rapacious developer can attempt to do a great deal of damage, unless the LPC succeeds in reining him in, or, wins in court.

125th Street

2006-06-18T23:18:00.000-04:00

125th Street is a major popular shopping and entertainment street in Harlem. It has witnessed some tough times and is now beginning to enjoy a revival. At its eastern end, it is just to the north of East Harlem, an ethnically mixed neighborhood that was once largely Italian. The blocks at the far western end are in Manhattanville, a different neighborhood altogether and one that will soon undergo some very drastic changes in style, use and character that I'll talk about when we get there.

At the eastern end of the street are entrances to the FDR (East River) Drive and the Triborough Bridge.

This rather distinguished-looking building was constructed in 1896. It's now classified for manufacturing, but was that it's originally use?

On the downtown side of the street is a salvage store, Demolition Depot, in a nice old loft building. (It's in two buildings, actually.)

Ghost signs on side of Demolition Depot's building

The same people also seem to own this jocularly-named antique/junque shop across the street.

I'll spare all of us a photo of the newish Pathmark that takes up an entire block at Third Avenue. It's great for the neighborhood, though, as is the boring new building across the street populated by chain stores that I'm sure are also very welcome in a neighborhood that has been underserved for decades.

The wares of the first of many street sellers of perfume oils

On the northeast corner of Lexington Avenue and 125th Street a Roman brick and brownstone building, almost Romanesque Revival, has some plaques with the dates 1886 and 1894. The buildings department has two new building permits for the building, one dated 1884, the other 1899. It may be safe to say that this is a late 19th century building.

Apple Bank used to be the Harlem Savings Banks, but changed its name when it wanted to branch out. This classical building is not far from where the bank started, when Haarlem, as it was spelled then, was still in rural village, in 1863.

Napoleon Le Brun was architect for the NYC Fire Department for 15 years or so, beginning about 1880. This is one of his. (So is that little chateau in Chinatown.)

At Park Avenue, the Metro North trains run above the street. These are not subways; they are regular commuter trains to NYC suburbs.

To get to the tracks, you have the aid of a beautiful railing.

Vernon Boulevard, 5

2006-05-18T09:41:00.000-04:00

We're now at the Queensboro Bridge, also known as the 59th Street Bridge, (1901-1908, Gustav Lindenthal, engineer, and Palmer & Hornbostel, architects) made famous by Paul Simon. The NYC Landmarks Commission designated it in 1974. A trolley used to cross the bridge and one could get to Roosevelt Island (then Welfare Island) by descending from it by elevator. The trolley station on the Manhattan side was preserved, more precisely, not destroyed and was moved to Roosevelt Island, where it will undergo restoration and serve as a visitor's center, or so rumor has it.

A dodgy-looking motel near the bridge is undergoing enlargement, and possibly, transformation. I will keep my eye on this and report back if anything interesting develops. The motel is directly opposite the promised Silvercup Studio site; is there a connection? A nice motel/hotel right here might be an affordable alternative to much more expensive lodgings across the river.

To the north of the bridge is Queensbridge Houses, a New York City public housing project that was once the country's largest such development. Across the street is a lovely amenity, Queensbridge Park. If the weather is warm, you can almost be guaranteed an enticing smell of grilled meats.

The next stretch of Vernon Boulevard is not as interesting as Hunter's Point, unless you have a taste for power of a certain kind. This is Ravenswood, home to a sprawling generating plant, including "Big Allis" on the west side of the boulevard

and one-story industrial building of various kinds on the eastern side.

The gray building may have started out as a stable.

At 36th Avenue, in the midst of the industrial landscape, is the Roosevelt Island Bridge.

It is long overdue for a painting, but it was a riot of of reds, blues and purples at one time. The center span of the bridge is an elevator that rises to allow tall ships to pass underneath, not used very often nowadays. Here is Big Allis, (Allis-Chalmers) with the 59th Street Bridge in the background, seen from the Roosevelt Island Bridge.

Opposite the Roosevelt Island Bridge is a tenement similar to many in the East Village. but, most of the housing along this section are more like this although there are signs of change just a bit farther north.

A neon sign fabricator has been here for ages. Years ago, I thought about having a sign made for my kitchen that advertised, "Mom's Eats."

Rainey Park has a view of the Octagon on Roosevelt Island. This is a recently restored designated landmark (called Octagon Tower) that is the only remaining part of the New York Lunatic Asylum, A.J. Davis, 1835-39. It now houses a fitness center for one of the newer residential buildings on the island. The complex recalls the original configuration of the A.J. Davis structure, two wings extending from the octagon, at right angles to each other.

The Noguchi Museum houses the work of the prominent sculptor in a building designed by Shogi Sazao in 1985 and recently renovated.

Those more interested in commerce than in art can visit Costco instead.

Socrates Sculpture Park was founded by Mark Di Suvero, with sweat equity from local artists. It is now a city park. At the time of my walk, preparations were being made for a new installation
and many of the familiar pieces I had expected to see were tucked away

Looking over the park is the former Sohmer Piano Company factory. (Steinway Pianos are still made not far from here.)
The building was constructed in 1886, designed by Berger & Baylies, but the clock tower and mansard roof were added in 1910.

Don't mistake this painted metal fence for graffiti.
It's a palette knife!

Many of the clients of metal fabricators here are artists.
And some fabricators think they are artistic, too.

And what's this? The Jersey shore?

Well, no. There's the Manhttan skyline from Hallett's Point, at the northern end of Vernon Boulevard.

Vernon Boulevard, 4

2006-05-08T18:43:00.000-04:00

Long Island City is still more industrial than any other part of the New York City, and that shows on the next stretch of Vernon Boulevard.

This big green building is the home of Paragon Paints. It used to be salmon pink and blue.

From 45th Avenue there is a good view of Citicorp Tower, to the west, in Manhattan, designed by Hugh Stebbins & Assocs, 1978

and, to the east, the tallest building in New York City outside of Manhattan, the Citicorp back offices, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1989

An unusally attractive traffic island is named Gordon Triangle, for a local boy who was a World War I casualty.

The red brick building beyond is in the process of being re-developed for residential use, according to Department of Buildings permits in a lower window. That is not to say that people haven't been living there for some time. It's the zoning that is being changed. Artists have long been permitted to live in loft buildings zoned for manufacturing in certain areas. Residential zoning will allow a wider range of tenants, cooperators or owners. There are some ghost signs remaining on the building from its earlier uses. The earliest alteration noted by the buildings department dates from 1900; it was registered as an interim dwelling (loft) in 1995.

Not quite on Vernon Boulevard, but hard to miss is Manhattan Cabinetry, manufacturers of many a paneled Park Avenue library.

Back on Vernon Boulevard is a large building with an art moderne feeling, dating from 1935-38. It’s a storage facility for the City of New York
.

If you look down, you'll see that the Cambridge Paving Stones company has set samples in the sidewalk.

Across the river, there's a view of the Manhattan skyline with both the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building in one frame.

The Con Ed Learning Center is a campus, of sorts, on the west side of Vernon.

On the east side is an ivy-covered building, dating from the mid-19th century, with the old street names incised in stone. It is enjoying an adaptive re-use with food-related business on the Vernon Boulevard side.

A ghost sign, mostly covered by ivy this time of year, shows that Mayflower ice cream (available on subway platforms) used to be manufactured here. Tom Cat Bakery was located in this building for a number of years.

In the back is an event space with a name that recalls the building's original function.

The Taxi Depot
rents out taxis for film production.

There are a number of studios nearby, including Silvercup, (named after the bread that used to be baked in its quarters.) Silvercup will be expanding into space just south of the 59th Street Bridge. The neo-Tudor headquarters of the New York Architectural Terra-Cotta Company, a designated NYC landmark, occupies part of the site.
The building was designed by Francis Kimball, 1892, to serve as a three-dimensional advertisement for the company's wares. Some of the ornament was removed and put into storage; some was covered up. Silvercup plans to restore the building as part of its expansion. Since the head of Silvercup is married to a member of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, I am actually hopeful that it will happen. Take a look at the chimney pots.

Vernon Boulevard, 3

2006-05-07T17:38:00.000-04:00

Restaurant row continues a couple of blocks north of 48th Avenue, with excellent pizza at Bella Via,

Masso, whose pedestrian Italian-American food doesn't live up to the restoration of the building, although the bar seems to have some appeal,

and Lounge 47, which offers a far more interesting menu of imaginative, well-prepared sandwiches and salads, as well as some American bistro specialities that can be enjoyed in its pleasant garden. I learned here that cider served the Irish way, over ice, is a good accompaniment to a grilled lamb sandwich on Tom Cat bread.

Communitea, an even more casual place, offers a wide selection of teas and coffees to youngish people who look like relative newcomers to the neighborhood. It's a Wi-Fi zone and many patrons bring their laptops and sit for a long time. A notice on the window tells a lot about the attitude of the owners, explaining how they turned some unexpungeable graffitti on the window into permanent artwork. The NYC buildings department records show that new building permits were issued in 1924 and in 1926, but also that an alteration permit was issued in 1907. There is no demolition permit in the record. The building looks older than 1924-26 to me. Perusal of maps and deeds might better pinpoint the date of construction.

The northernmost outpost of the Hunter's Point restaurant row is L.I.C.Bar. sometimes known as "Draughts and Cordials" to those who read the signs on the windows. (Ok, it took me a while to figure out what the bar's real name was.)

Some of the old places remain.

It's not only bars and restaurants. An upscale florist has opened.
Because of the reflections, it's hard to see the orchid plants, but, believe me, they are there.

Even the exterminator has made an effort to be appealing.
Those are wire sculptures of insects in the window.

Across the street from Communitea, a sign in the window announces that Hunter's Point Wines and Spirits will be opening on the ground floor of a recently renovated four-story building, originally, a one-story woodshop, built in 1923.

From 47th Avenue, there is a good view of the Chrysler Building.

Many artists live in this part of Queens, and the Art-O-Mat offers them an exhibition space, as well as a venue for lectures, poetry readings and workshops.

It's well worth dropping in.

There is more art at the northern end of Vernon Boulevard, but before we get to it, we'll see a lot more industry.

Vernon Boulevard, 2

2006-05-05T10:47:00.000-04:00

A parks department sign shows that the traffic island is named Vernon Mall, after Admiral Edward Vernon, for whom Mt. Vernon was also named. (George Washington's half-brother served under him.) Vernon was admired for capturing the Panamanian town of Portobello. His nickname, "Old Grog," for his grogram raincoat became associated with the traditional rum-and-water ration of the British navy. Now that this end of Vernon Boulevard has become a restaurant row, the street is finally living up to its namesake.

Vernon Wine & Liquor is better than you'd think.

A little detour to 50th Avenue and you can admire the green lanterns marking the 108th Precinct, 1903, R. Thomas Short (the Short in the partnership, Harde & Short.)

The building has a Queensmark plaque, given by the Queens Historical Society, in recognition of a building's architectural significance, even though the building has not necessarily been designated as a landmark by the NYC Landmarks Commission.

Nearby, on 47th Avenue, a block west of Vernon, is another exuberant municipal building, dating from the same year, the red-and white Dutch revival firehouse by Bradford L. Gilford.

The spire of St. Mary's Church (Patrick Charles Keely, 1887)
still dominates these few blocks, although not for long.

Development is proceeding apace on the streets just off the Boulevard. In a few short years, I predict that this stretch Vernon Boulevard will be unrecognizable. In the meantime, change is taking place on a smaller scale, as upscale stores, restaurants and businesses move into and transform the existing buildings and storefronts.

One example is Cafe Henri, in the red warehouse on the west side of Vernon Mall.

And that's not all that is going on in the same building, as these bas-reliefs on a black door signify, although exactly what they signify, I cannot tell.

Other new or new-ish business on the next few blocks that hint of changing times:
E & V Deli and Grocery, French butter and organic eggs as well as the usual staples.

Tuk-Tuk, a good Thai restaurant, opened its second location here, the first being on Smith Street, in Brooklyn. This was a store, probably a hardware store of some kind, to judge from the stained-glass transoms that the owners saved and incorporated into the new design. Opposite "Engineers," there's one that says "Paints."
This building and others like it date from the first wave of urban development of Hunter's Point, in the middle of the 19th century, after a ferry crossing was established linking to 34th Street in Manhattan.

Bicycle shop

Dog grooming

A bar with a fancy sign and live music some nights

An independently-owned (non-Starbucks!) coffeehouse, with Brazilian (and American) pastries.

What is driving this change is the QueensWest development. A detour toward the river at 48th Avenue gives some idea of the larger changes in store. The first buildings to have been completed (1997) was Citylights, the tall building that appears at night to have a comet on its roof.

There is a Greenmarket on 48th Avenue, Saturdays, from May through November.

This narrow recreational park was built shortly after Citylights.

Near the river, you are behind the Pepsi sign, which has been there since 1936.

Nearby, at the river, is Gantry State Park, a great place to see the July 4th fireworks if you can tolerate the crowds.

What's a gantry? A type of crane that unloads boxcars from barges.

Many other building sites in the immediate vicinity. The general idea is to develop a Battery Park City in Hunter's Point.

At the foot of Vernon Boulevard

2006-05-02T18:18:00.000-04:00

You can get to the foot of Vernon Boulevard a number of ways, including by train from Long Island. This is part of the Long Island Railroad, but it doesn't go to Penn Station

water taxi

or subway

Yes, the foot of Vernon Boulevard is one stop out of Manhattan.

Vernon Boulevard runs more or less parallel to the east bank of the East River, along the edge of Long Island City. From 1870 until 1898, Long Island City was an incorporated municipality, encompassing smaller entities like Hunter's Point, Ravenswood, Astoria, Steinway and Sunnyside. The street we'll be walking on starts at Hunter's Point, passes through Ravenswood and ends in Astoria. Roughly, Hunter's Point extends from Newtown Creek to the Queensboro Bridge; Ravenswood, from that bridge to just past the Roosevelt Island bridge and Astoria to the north and east. Vernon Boulevard itself starts at the railroad tracks, at a right angle to Borden Avenue and ends at Main Avenue, Astoria.

We are starting in Hunter's Point, an area that is undergoing rapid change, with high-rise residential development standing in contrast to the existing warehouses, light manufacturing facilities and modest single-family houses that have characterized the area for decades. The effect of change on Vernon Boulevard has been the sudden appearance of restaurants that offer more than breakfast specials, and shops offering more than the basics.

Long Island City has a high number of artists, galleries and art institutions and we will see some of them right on Vernon Boulevard. Well, maybe not the artists themselves, but their handiwork.

Remnants of an art installation in an otherwise empty storefront? in this building No, it used to be a shoe manufacturer.

A few steps away is Tournesol, a French bistro (the first in the neighborhood) that is packed every night. It's very good, especially considering the reasonable prices for both food and wine.
The building dates from 1921.

If you walk into the adjacent parking lot, you can see the back house (a structure on the rear of a building lot) behind the restaurant.

Looking north toward the west side of the street, we see the spire of St. Mary's Church, Vernon Mall (the traffic island) and a red building that we'll take a closer look at.

2006-05-01T22:58:00.000-04:00

Sources consulted

For dates and names of architects, the following books were helpful.

AIA Guide to New York City, White & Willensky

Guide to New York City Landmarks, 3rd edition, NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Encyclopedia of New York, ed., Kenneth Jackson

As always, any opinions expressed are my own.

Next walks

2006-05-01T11:22:00.000-04:00

I've completed the photography for the next walk, which will take us out of Manhattan, to the borough of Queens, specifically, Long Island City and Ravenswood, along the length of Vernon Boulevard. Long Island City is one of those NYC neighborhoods that have been the next hot place for (in this case) about 30 years. It finally seems to be happening, although much of the traditional character remains. If New York had succeeded in its recent bid to host the Olympics, this neighborhood would have been the site of the Olympic Village. We'll be staying on the main drag, Vernon Boulevard, with just one or two detours, and, of course, the tantalizing views of the Manhattan skyline in the background.

After Vernon Boulevard, back to Manhattan, to fabled 125th Street, where there have also been big changes in the past few years.

2006-04-12T10:12:00.000-04:00

I'm trying to decide what my next walk should be. I'm thinking about 125th Street, Museum Mile, or, more ambitiously, the periphery of Central Park. I'd be happy to consider any suggestions.

9th Avenue to the River

2006-04-09T20:28:00.000-04:00

At Ninth Avenue, we enter the precincts of the Gansevoort Market historic district. The designation report is available on-line on the LPC website. For substantive detail, paste this address into your browser: http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/html/forms/reports_man.shtml. In the blog, I just comment on what I see and what I think about it. If I can very quickly look up a date or a name, I include that, too, but not more than that. It's a walk...

This area was originally developed for mixed uses in the mid-19th century. Before the current wave of gentrification it was largely a wholesale meatpacking district. There were four waves of development over the course of about a century. Tremendous change has occurred over the past few years. Landmark designation, one hopes, will preserve a bit of the gritty traditional character while permitting appropriate development. The area was in danger of becoming a high-rise residential neighborhood.

At the confluence of Ninth Avenue, Hudson Street 14th Street is a triangular building, sometimes called the "Little Flatiron," that was built in 1849 for the Herring Safe & Lock Company. It is the oldest purpose-built industrial structure in the area, dating from the time of the earliest development of the district. There are a couple of restaurants in the building as well as some other businesses on the upper floors, all rather tame compared to the notorious clubs, gay and straight that used to be located here.
The cornice is being restored.

Currently the area is fashionable, even chic, with restaurants and shops catering to all segments of the hip, would-be hip and used-to-be hip communities.

The Old Homestead Resaurant, sharing the ground floor with a diner, has been serving steaks in this building since 1868.

Much newer is Markt, for moules frites and Belgian beer. The building itself dates from the 1920s.

Western Beef is a supermarket in an old meat-packing plant. Marquees like this one

and this one are an important physical feature of this district and the LPC encourages references to them in new design.

Well, I guess it's a marquee.

Here and there are buildings that have not yet been restored or renovated and convey the character of the old market.

But, change is inevitable. Here's the Little Pie Company

To say nothing of chic stores like

Alexander McQueen

and Jeffrey.

There are many other equally fashionable shops on the block, includng La Perla and Stella McCartney. A flagship store for Diane von Furstenburg looks as if it will open soon.

Another remnant of the industrial past is the above-the-street High Line railroad that used to run --sometimes through buildings --from 35th Street to near the Holland Tunnel. It remained in use until the 1960s, when part of it was torn down. The remainder stayed up, and became a beloved ruin and attractive nuisance. It is soon to be turned into an aboveground park, similar to one in Paris created from a similar rail line. I can't wait.

Outisde the western boundary of the history district is a playground and sitting area. In the background is a new high rise building that shows what might have happened if the Gansevoort Market historic district had not been established.

The Hudson River Park's walking and bicyle paths are here

adjacent to what remains of a pier in the Hudson River.

From Eighth Avenue to Ninth Avenue

2006-04-04T12:23:00.000-04:00

Two classical revival former bank buildings, both landmarks, flank 14th Street at Eighth Avenue. On the n.w. corner is the former New York Savings Bank, designed by R.H. Robertson, 1896-7, a designated interior as well as exterior NYC landmark. It underwent a major renovation in 1994, prior to housing Central Carpets, with a touch-up last year before it became, more or less, Balducci's. Balducci's was a highly-regarded food emporium in Greenwich Village whose illustrious name was bought by a much larger corporation. They are trying to live up to the new name. The interior of this building is spectacular, with columns, stained glass windows and a coffered ceiling under the dome.

The symbol of the bank, not of Balducci's, although not inappropriate, was a beehive.

On the south side of 14th Street is the former New York County National Bank, by DeLemos & Cordes, 1906-7. A very visible addition, containing a theater and apartments was designed by Hudson River Studios and John Reimnitz in 1999.
I did not hear the discussion at the LPC when this project was reviewed, but I find it difficult to reconcile what I see with the typical LPC demand that a rooftop addition be "minimally visible." Most of the the addition is to the south of the main part of the building and is therefore, possibly, not strictly a rooftop addition, although it appears to be. That being said, the glass and metal are not incompatible. I am reminded of I.M. Pei's glass pyramid in the courtyard of the Louvre.

Here's where Our Lady of Guadelupe moved. This brownstone Gothic Revival church was built in 1875 for The Church of St. Bernard, designed by Patrick Charles Keely.

Most of the buildings on the block are four and five-story walk-ups, similar to those on the block between Seventh and Eighth avenues, but these two, 315 W. 14th, with some art deco details

and 317 West 14th, seem to be trying harder. Someone should tell the owner of 317 that shutters, even if they are purely decorative, should look as if they would, in fact, cover the entire window as if they were functional.

From 6th Avenue to 8th Avenue

2006-03-31T14:39:00.000-05:00

The next block is mostly a continuation of typical low-end shopping, but with local stores rather than chain stores. It's possible to make a detour here to Hoboken, Jersey City and Newark, N.J. by taking the PATH train, reachable through the subway station at 14th and 6th. Round-trip fare: $3.00

From 6th to 7th Avenue it's mostly low-priced shopping, local stores rather than chains. But there are a couple of interesting buildings. The Salvation Army has a sizable complex on the south side of the block. Here's the entrance to the Centennial Memorial Temple at 120 West 14th. The whole Art Deco shebang was designed by Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker in 1929.

At 144 West 14th, Brooklyn-based Pratt Institute has its Manhattan outpost in an impressive Roman Revival building dating from 1899.

You can't miss the terra cotta frosting on the southeast corner of Seventh Avenue. The building dates from 1913, designed by Herman Lee Meader. It uses both Art Nouveau and Art Deco vocabulary.

Across the street is an old row, altered often and badly. How much longer will this last?

At the s.e. corner of Seventh Avenue is a Papaya King. I can attest to the fact that the ambiance and quality of the food are identical to the original location at 86th street.

While crossing Seventh Avenue to get to Papaya King, if you look downtown you'll see the former building of the National Maritime Union, now a part of St. Vincent's Medical Center. It's idiosyncratic design, undeniably nautical, although as appropriate for the nursery as it was for a rather radical union, was designed in 1964 by Ledner & Associates. It shouts "1960s."

At the uptown corner, 201 and 203 West 14th, 6-story buildings with mansard roofs that were probably added at the time they became smart. One of them retains its cresting, the lacy ironwork that is supposed to be the crowning glory of the mansard roof, but which has not usually survived.

The building at 203 still sports a stained glass window (in very bad condition, to be sure.)

There is an alterations permit from the buildings department on the doorway, so it may not be here for long.

Across the street, at 200 W. 14th, is a red brick tenement with an odd classical statue on the facade.

On the north side of the block is a residential row from the mid-19th century, with much altered ground floors.

The building at 229 West 14th was Our Lady of Guadelupe, a Spanish-speaking Roman Catholic congregation. The Spanish-looking facade seems to have been applied to the brownstone-front house some time in the past, but what is that dollar sign under the topmost arch? Was this a bank before it became a church? Some research is necessary.

A few doors away is the headquarters of the Spanish Benevolent Society. Clearly this was and still is, a largely Hispanic neighborhood.

At 241 West 14th, between two similar, but not quite as nice buildings is a true historic structure, the Andrew Norwood House. For $10.9 million, you can own the 21-room Greek Revival row house with 13 fireplaces that banker and developer Norwood built in 1845. The house was restored 30 thirty years ago, and it is a designated individual NYC landmark that is also listed on the State and National registers of historic places. This house and the two adjacent ones were the first masonry houses on the block. Regretably, the contents of the house, including neo-classical and Regency furniture fro 1770-1856 were auctioned in June, 2005.

There's another grand house across the street, this one Italianate, attesting that this block was fashionable at one time.

At 249 there's an interesting cornice.

Such is the luster of the "Village" that the owner of this deli has made up his own neighborhood, that exists only in the mind of the owner.

Union Square to Sixth Avenue

2006-03-28T11:30:00.000-05:00

Walking westward, we are now at the northern edge of Greenwich Village. Just to the north is an edge of the Ladies Mile Historic District. Farther west we will be on the southern boundary of Chelsea. (The neighborhoods extend beyond the technical boundaries of the designated historic districts.) West of Ninth Avenue, 14th Street goes through the Gansevoort Historic District.

14th Street, at Union Square and for the next block or two, has long been a destination discount shopping area. Only the names change. Old-tmers will remember S. Klein's On the Square (where Zeckendorf Tower is now), Ohrbach's and May's. Today they have been supplanted by newer stores Filene's Basement and others.

On the northwest corner of Union Square West stands the Lincoln Building, constructed in 1890, designed by H. R. Robertson.

This part of 14th Street was home to a number of retail dry-good stores toward the end of the 19th century, in the wake of the construction of the 6th Avenue El.

Across the street is an impressive cast-iron building designed by D. and J. Jardine in 1880 for the Bauman's Carpet store. Think of the impression these windows must have made in 1880.

If Trader Joe's, the Greenmarket or Whole Foods don't have what you want, maybe the Garden of Eden will.

My favorite building on the block is this one: It was built in 1896, designed by William Schickel, for Macy's, which occupied a group of buildings in this neighborhood before moving to 34th Street.

There are a number of union headquarters in the neighborhood. This building this union is in has a unique decorative scheme (The Little Prince,) that regrettably has been overlaid with graffiti.

On the s. e. corner of 14th and 6th is a building now housing an Urban Outfitters store on the ground floor that was built in 1904 by Henry Siegel as a low-to mid-price department store. It was designed by Cady, Berg & See. Siegel was a partner in the more upscale Siegel-Cooper department store a few blocks north in the Ladies Mile Historic District.

Across the street, on the s.e. corner is a sign that always brings The Great Gatsby to mind.

From Third Avenue to Union Square

2006-03-26T18:43:00.000-05:00

NYU began making over this area with dormitories (at least one built notoriously, in this neighborhood, with non-union labor.) NYC's very first Trader Joe's has opened on the ground floor of one of them, on the south side of the street.

There are times when there is a line not just to pay, but just to get in to shop. The next few blocks are mecca to foodies, with a new (but not well-liked) Whole Foods,

a Garden of Eden store,
and the Union Square Greenmarket,

the flagship of the Council on the Envionment's initiative to support local farmers while supplying high-quality, often organically-produced fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy products to New Yorkers. These cheeses are from Cato Corners, my favorite.

The NYU dorms were designed by Davis, Brody, Bond, who were also responsible for the nearby Zeckendorf Towers (1987),
the reddish brick building in the foreground.

The clock tower in the background is an addition to the massive Con Ed building on the north side of the street. It was designed by Warren & Wetmore, better known for Grand Central Terminal, the Heckscher Building, Steinway Hall and many others, but those are buildings I've commented on earlier, on the 57th Street and 42nd Street walks. The earlier part of the building dates from 1915 and was designed by Henry Hardenbergh, best known perhaps for the Dakota apartment house and the Plaza Hotel. (Warren & Wetmore also designed an addition to the Plaza.)

The Con Ed clocktower is built on the site of the Academy of Music, an early and significant cultural institution, later supplanted by the Metropolitan Opera.

Union Square is a park named for the junction of streets that meet and would cross in the area were it not for the decision of the city fathers when they were laying out the grid to leave open space here and name it "Union Square." It has long been a place for political gatherings, protest, and expression.

New Yorkers spontaneously converged on the square to express their shock and mourn collectively immediately after 9/11.

In between political protests, and sometimes during them, the southern end of the square is often used by skateboarders. (note sign)

A subway kiosk is not old, but part of the restoration and renovation of the park in the late 1980s.

Across the street, visible in the background of the subway kiosk photo, is the upper part of a sculpture on the facade of one of the new buildings. I've yet to find anyone who has a good word for it. It seems to me to be an abstract and pretentious version of the fondly remembered Camel billboard in Times Square that puffed out cigarette smoke. Maybe that's not a bad thing, after all. The sculpture dates from 1999, by Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel.

More traditionally, a statue of Gandhi by Gautam Pal, strides into the Square.

Looking north, one can see the finest mansard roof in New York, on what is now the W Hotel. (This is really a variation of a true mansard roof, which more often is associated with the French Second Empire style, popular during the 1860-1880s. A true mansard roof has a double slope on all four sides, the lower sloped being steeper than the upper. This roof seems to have only one slope, but everyone refers to it as a mansard.) It was the Guardian Life building, originally the Germania Life Insurance Company, built in 1910-11, designed by D'Oench & Yost. The name of the company was changed at the time of WWI to something less inflammatory that re-used as many letters as possible. The building is a designated landmark and the landmarks commission insisted that the W sign retain the character of the original.

From First Avenue to Third Avenue

2006-02-20T11:40:00.000-05:00

Near First Avenue on the south side of the street is the beautiful Immaculate Conception Church. It is now Roman Catholic, but was originally Episcopal, a Grace Church Chapel and Dispensary. It is a designated NYC landmark, built in 1894-96, designed by Barney & Chapman, in a vaguely Francois I style, not something you would expect to see on East 14th Street.

Town and Village Synagogue is on the next block.
(That's Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. (Peter Cooper Village is a development similar to Stuyvesant Town, a bit more upscale, just to the north, also developed by MetLife, but privately.

Nearer Third Avenue is a building, named "Rose Hill"

with an interesting cornice.

There is a neighborhood actually named Rose Hill, bounded by 23rd and 32nd streets and Madison and Third avenues, but that is almost 10 blocks away. This building was named for its developer, Rosehill Realty, when it was built in 1905.

Sometimes people wonder if cornices serve a purpose, like keeping excess water off the facade of a building. The answer is, probably not, but there is no question about their aesthetic function. Take a look at this denuded row, on the north side of the block of East 14th Street, between Second and Third avenues, on the uptown side of the street.

At 231 E. 14th is a building that used to house the Italian Labor Center. Much of the elaborate carving and other fine stonework one sees in New York was done by Italian immigrant labor, as the ornament on this building suggests.

The Union Square Inn is a small hotel almost at Third Avenue, part of a row that does not have a new building permit listed at the buildings department. Sometimes, lack of a new building permit means that the building was constructed before the establishment of the buildings department, in 1865. Other times, it just means that the document has been lost or misfiled. A look at historic city maps may suggest a construction date. Guests here are staying near the heart of the East Village. 14th Street in many ways is the dividing line between downtown and uptown, the hip and the square.

14th Street, east to west

2006-02-09T15:16:00.001-05:00

I can't quite call it river to river, because a big Con Ed plant blocks access to the East River, so we'll say that our walk starts at Avenue C. "Losaida" on the street sign is a phonetic spelling of the Hispanic pronunciation of "Lower East Side." Avenue C and 14th Street is one of the boundaries of the storied location.

On the uptown side of the street, from here to First Avenue, we'll be walking past Stuyvesant Town a massive housing project that replaced a area of gas storage tanks and tenements.

The bulky towers
have played an interesting role in the social and cultural history of New York. They were built as a public-private partnership between the city and MetLife, immediately after World War II (although planning had begun earlier) and at first housed mostly veterans and their families. It goes without saying that Robert Moses had his hand in the effort. Stuyvesant Town was and is reviled and loved in equal measure.

A population of melanistic squirrels inhabits Stuy Town's grounds.

The view opens up at First Avenue.

14th Street sources

2006-01-23T16:30:00.000-05:00

As always, any opinions expressed are my own. I consulted the following sources for some details.

New York 1880, Robert A.M. Stern et al
Streetscapes, Christopher Gray
AIA Guide to New York, White & Wilensky
New York Songlines http://www.nysonglines.com/
"The Architecture of the Greenwich Village Waterfront," Regina Kellerman
Halstead Property http://www.halstead.com/detail.aspx?id=1051582
NYC Department of Buildings

Bleecker Street VII

2006-01-17T10:48:00.000-05:00

One side of the block between Perry Street and West 11th Street is almost entirely residential.
The other side of the street has shops on the ground floor, including Robert Marc Opticians, Double RL western clothing and Lulu Guiness women's clothing. Most of the houses on this block were built in the 1850s.

One of the most unusual shops features home furnishings --
but not for the average home.

In the early part of the 20th century, Greenwich Village became popular with artists, who sometimes added studio windows, like these, to the top floors of buildings where they lived and worked.

One of the few remaining independent bookstores left is the Biography Bookshop.

Not to be missed is Magnolia Bakery.

You can buy one of the bakery's famous cupcakes

and take it across the street to a little park/sitting area/playground, where there is a 1979 bronze sculpture by Chaim Gross. It was a gift from the artist to the city in honor of Mayor Koch.

This horizontally striped building, the westernmost on Bleecker Street, marks the end of the walk.

Bleecker Street VI

2006-01-15T17:42:00.000-05:00

On the corner of Charles Street is a red brick building with a slate mansard roof and multi-paned windows. It is unlikely that this building would have received such a careful restoration if the building had not been in an historic district. The building was constructed in 1868, designed by Henry Englebert. The pipe railing at the top of the mansard is scheduled to be replaced by a decorative railing set back a bit that will suggest the metal cresting that was normally the icing on the cake, so to speak, of a typical Second Empire roof of this type.

Les Pierre Antiques occupies the ground floor of the building.

The adjacent building (constructed at the same time as the one at the corner has great dormers and what looks like some original cresting left.

Other stores on this block include two Ralph Lauren boutiques, one for men and, across the street, one for women

A hairdresser on the block displays some beautiful branches.

Across the street in a four-story row, is Cynthia Rowley

White brick seems to have turned up a lot a few decades earlier than the mid-1950s. Here's one (whitish, anyway) on the corner of Perry Street, proudly dated 1914.

Be sure to look up. There are some interesting roofscapes and cornices on the adjacent blocks.

Bleecker Street V

2006-01-13T13:51:00.000-05:00

After crossing Seventh Avenue South, we enter the Greenwich Village Historic District, the second historic district so designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the first in Manhattan. (Brooklyn Heights was the first.) It's fascinating cultural and social history has been documented in many articles, books and films. For every cliche and stereotype, there is another in contradiction. It has been home to the highest and lowest members of society, the most conservative and the most radical. It continues to defy easy categorization, but its low-rise, informal atmosphere is perhaps more conducive to casual strolling than any other neighborhood in New York. This Greek Revival row predates the buildings department, which began keeping records in 1866. These buildings were probably constructed between 1830-1850. The ground floors are much altered.

A look down Grove Street shows a typical Greenwich Village block.

Across the street is a much more recent yellow brick tenement with some nice terra cotta ornament.

The commercial streets in the Village are still lined with charming stores, like this one, Davis & Gardner, that offers a selection of antique globes.

An Aromatherapy Bar is at 321 Bleecker.

Across the street, Blue Nile has hookahs and other smoking paraphernalia in the window.

In older neighborhoods, you can find the street names directly on the buildings.
Looking up Christopher Street, one can see a row of four buildings in various states of preservation and restoration.

This was the Gessner block, constructed in 1872, it says proudly under the cornice.

Between Christoper and West 10th Street, one side of the street is not in the historic district.

But the other side is.

The nondescript building houses Satya, a store that sells "yoga-inspired" jewelry

as well as Marc and Max, a lingerie and accessories shop.

There is a beautiful flower shop on the block.

But this is the store everyone remembers.

Bleecker Street IV

2006-01-10T16:21:00.000-05:00

Our Lady of Pompeii, on the corner of Carmine and Bleecker, was built in 1926, designed by Matthew W. Del Gaudio in the Italianate style, appropriately enough, to serve the Italian community in Greenwich Village.

The block from Leroy to Morton has become a food-lover's row. The current line-up is Amy's Bread, Lobster Place Fish, Murray's Cheese and Faicco's Pork Store.

Three Federal houses remain on this side of the street, too, one of which houses Aphrodisia, a store selling oils and herbs. Look for Risotteria, a restaurant on the corner of Morton Street that specializes in risotto. It's good in its limited way, but for carb-eaters only.

On the other side of the street, there is no shortage of Italian pastry and coffee shops.

Signs like this one, so common a generation ago, have practically disappeared.

This famous guitar store has been selling new, used, acoustic and electric instruments since 1965.

The original John's pizzeria is on this block of Bleecker, between Morton St. and Seventh Avenue South.

After your pizza, you can get dessert at Cones, whose gelato is second only to that at Otto, a few blocks away, on Fifth Avenue, at 8th Street.

Ottomanelli's has been cutting up meat since 1935.

Bleecker Street III

2006-01-06T16:45:00.000-05:00

Crossing Broadway takes us into NYU (New York University) territory. A entire square block is taken up by by Washington Square Village, one of its many residence halls, this one for graduate students. It is difficult to get a definitive answer to the question of who owns the most real estate in the city, but general agreement seems to be that the contenders are the City itself, NYU, Columbia University, and the Roman Catholic Church.

In a very real sense, Greenwich Village is the NYU campus. Residents of Greenwich Village not connected with the university (and even some who are) often vociferously protest what they perceive as further land grabs.

The next few blocks are in Greenwich Village and are filled with small stores, restaurants and clubs that cater largely to students.Pictured here is part of the block between LaGuardia Place and Thompson St. with the Peculier Pub (spelling intentional) and The Bitter End.

At 159 Bleecker, between Thompson and Sullivan is an odd building that was built in 1917 as a movie theater. It was originally only two stories high and only later were the additional floors added to turn it into a multiple dwelling.

Across the street is a deli beer bottle display that verges on found art.

Looking downtown at the middle of the west side of Sullivan Street

and the east side of MacDougal Street, (the next block) you are seeing the edges of the tiny MacDougal-Sullivan Gardens Historic District. The 22 Greek Revival buildings were constructed between 1844 and 1850. In the 1920s, they were altered to the appearance they have today, with the stoops removed, the ornament changed and the backyards merged to form a community garden.

I loved this door, which looks as if it may have been there since the building was constructed in 1901. It's at 192 Bleecker. The building also has some nice terra cotta ornament.

This part of Greenwich Village once held a large Italian population. Here and there are remminders of that community, like the Perazzo Funeral Home at 199.

There was plenty of good coffee to be found in the Village, long before anyone connected with Starbucks was born.

At 6th Avenue are the Little Red Schoolhouse and Elisabeth Irwin High School, progressive private schools since 1921.

At the complex intersection of Bleecker and Sixth Avenue, pre-dating the grid,Bleecker veers to the right.

The Minetta Brook still runs underground here.

Bleecker Street II

2005-12-20T16:57:00.000-05:00

Walking west, there is to the left, a little triangle with what has to be NYC's, if not the world's, thinnest building on it. The triangle is the result of the confluence of Mulberry, Lafayette and Bleecker in a configuration that would have been impossible if the 1811 grid had been imposed here. A little snack bar named "Bite" occupies the tip of the triangle.

On the north side of the street is The Culture Project Theatre, where the plays are more concerned with social and political issues than with entertainment. This marks the western boundary of NoHo East.

At 65 Bleecker, past Lafayette Street, at Crosby, is the Bayard-Condict Building, dating from 1899. This is the only building in New York City designed by Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright's "lieber Meister." Underneath its lavish ornament, the building reveals its structure. It may not be that tall by today's standards, but it meets Sullivan's demand that a syscraper be "a proud and soaring thing."

The angels spreading their wings beneath the cornice were a design element that the building's owner insisted on, presumably as a blessing for those who worked inside. The building is an individual landmark within the boundaries of the NoHo historic district.

On the northeast corner of Bleecker and Broadway is another impressive building, a contrasting chocolate brownstone and brick to the Bayard-Condict's vanilla terra-cotta. This was originally the Manahttan Savings Instition, designed by Stephen Decatur Hatch in a vaguely Romanesque revival style, built in 1889-90.

The letters MSI are still visible in the pediment.

Sources for Bleecker Street

2005-12-20T16:55:00.000-05:00

The Street Book - Henry Moscow
AIA Guide
New York City Landmarks - Dolkart
NYC LPC Designation Report - NoHo
New York 1960 - Robert A.M. Stern et al

Bleecker Street

2005-12-16T13:39:00.000-05:00

Bleecker Street begins at Bowery and ends at Hudson. The street follows a path that originally ran through the farm of the family of Anthony Bleecker, a writer who would have been completely forgotten had he no ceded the land to the city for a street in 1806. His generous act made it worth his while to sell parcels of the farm for development. The 1811 grid was not superimposed over this area, and Bleecker Street retains a curve.

Bleecker Street passes through three NYC-designated historic districts. From from east to west, they are NoHo East, NoHo and Greenwich Village. There are mixed uses along its entire length, giving the street great vitality, day and night.

The western boundary of NoHo East is the west side of Bowery. Standing at the foot of Bowery, and looking across the street are two small-scale but beloved cultural institutions, the Amato Opera, which has to be the world's smallest opera house

and CBGB's, the home of punk rock, which has received a great deal of press lately because it is threatened by eviction by its landlord. It is not safe to assume that the audiences don't overlap. This is New York, where anything is possible.

On the ground floor of 2 Bleecker, on the south side of the street, is bar named "Mannahatta" after the poem by Walt Whitman,
presumably because the building dates from Whitman's time. It was designed by Nicholas Whyte and constructed in 1868.

Across the street are a row of buildings ranging from the second decade of the 19th century (with later alterations) to the 1880s, conveying an idea of what the street looked like immediately after it ceased to be part of the farm.

7 Bleecker (the green ground floor) was built in 1816-17. The third floor was added later.

9 Bleecker has been the home of the Yippies. I'm not sure how to describe them -- zany political activists known for distinctively theatrical antics.

Next door, 11 Bleecker, is the wine bar, Quartino.

The Margaret Sanger Center and Planned Parenthood's executive offices are at 26 Bleecker.

Graffiti on #41:

Grand Street in SoHo

2005-11-19T13:37:00.000-05:00

On the northeast corner is the French Culinary Institute, a cooking school headed by Jacques Pepin that has a restaurant on the ground floor where student can practice on the public.

Across the street, and going through the block to Mercer Street, a large new building is going up. If memory serves, it will be a hotel.

A glance downtown on Mercer Street offers a glimpse of the Woolworth Building (with the vaguely triangular roofline) in the background.

Grand Street does not have the most interesting buildings, nor the best stores in SoHo, but it does convey a sense of what the area was like before rampant gentrification took place.

Alterations to any building in an historic district are subject to review by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Certain changes may be approved by a staff member. If the work is more extensive, the applicant may need to appear at a public hearing and present the plans to the appointed Commissioners for their approval. Once the plan is determined to be appropriate, a permit will be issued. It must be displayed, along with similar permits from the Buildings Department.

The building at 93 Grand

has a plaque. Not all landmarks have them. This building was one of many in SoHo designed by John B. Snook, who also designed the large brownstone building opposite the old Police Headquarters building. Click on the photo to read more.

At Wooster Street there is a colorful parking lot across the street from a colorful, red brick building with some unusual Tudor-style lintels.

Some buildings have the date of construction emblazoned near the roof, in this case, within the rounded section of the cornice/parapet. Others may have the a metal plate with the name of the foundry, usually near the ground.

Sometimes the cast-iron really looks like stone.

On other buildings the masonry and terra cotta are unmistakable.

At the top of the same building (60 Grand) are two ghosts -- that of an ad for Coca-Cola and the armature for a Rachel Whiteread cast resin sculpture of a water tower that was in itself a "ghost" of the original object.

Nearby is
restaurant, atmospheric, regardless of food.

This is at the boundary of SoHo. The remaining portion of Grand Street is in the South Village. At Thompson Street, there is an odd stucco building, constructed in 1940, Mediterranean in its applied details.

Grand Street ends at Varick.

On to SoHo

2005-11-16T21:58:00.000-05:00

Crossing Crosby Street, we enter the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District. You can always tell when you are in a NYC-designated historic district in NYC by the brown street signs. In the picture, you can see the brown Crosby Street sign. If you visit the website of the New York City Landmarks Commission (sorry, the links aren't working) you can see maps of the historic district.

Keep in mind that cast iron is a structural, not a stylistic term. The various styles are the same Victorian revival styles that could be and were executed in other building materials during the same period. Because of the nature of cast iron, larger windows and more open floor plans were possible. Because the parts of the building were fabricated off-site, construction could proceed quickly and efficiently. They were especially popular for retail establishments, warehouses and light industry, which are the original uses for the buildings in SoHo.

In addition to the cast iron buildings (and not all the buildings are cast-iron) distinctive features of this district are granite sidewalks,

paving stone streets,

vault lights,
counter-weighted fire escapes
and heavy steel window shutters. Its mid-19th century commercial character is perhaps even more evident now that it has morphed into a significant retail center than it was when it was the art gallery district. An entire generation came to think of SoHo in connection with art and artists living in lofts there, but the area's connection with art lasted only about 20 years. Many of the current retail establishments still try to allude to that period in their selection of goods and displays. It doesn't feel like midtown. If it did, it would not have been designated as an historic district, which must have a "sense of place."

What's Left of Little Italy

2005-11-14T13:16:00.000-05:00

Before leaving Chinatown, it's possible to visit the Museum of Chinese in America, at 70 Mulberry Street, for the time being. The museum will be moving in the near future to larger quarters.

The Italian families who lived on the nearby blocks have, for the most part, moved away although some restaurants (catering to tourists) and food shops remain. Of these, Di Palo's, at Mott Street, is the best, as indicated by the long snaking line inside the store. There is no place in the city with a better selection of Italian cheese and olive oil.

Ferrara's, across the street, between Mott and Mulberry, can satisfy anyone's sweet tooth with its southern Italian confections.

There is still evidence of an old family-run bank on the southwest corner of Grand and Mulberry.

Little Italy is always ready for a party. There are two "feasts" (street fairs) that still take place in the spring (St. Anthony) and fall (St. Gennaro) but the decorations stay up long after the event comes to an end.

At Centre Street there are two notable buildings. The former Police Headquarters building, designed by Hoppin and Koen, 1904-1909, was converted to luxury apartments in 1988. Can you imagine the height of the ceilings? It is a designated landmark, no surprise.

The Police building is so large and so spectacular that is easy to overlook the distinguished brownstone structure across the street from it. Trench and Snook designed the building in 1847-47. The rooftop addition dates from 1881-1882. The building was originally the Old Fellows Hall. It, too, is landmarked. The AIA Guide calls it a "high-rise in brownstone second only the Cooper Union."

Border of Chinatown and Little Italy

2005-11-11T00:38:00.000-05:00

The eastern edge of Little Italy used to be Bowery, but that is no longer the case. With the exception of Capitale, a club/catering hall with an Italian-sounding name,

it's still Chinatown for the next couple of blocks. (Yes, there are Vietnamese and Thai food stores and restaurants in Chinatown.)

The restaurant with the ducks hanging in the window is is OK 218, not unsurprisingly at 218 Grand Street. Peking duck is a specialty.

Capitale is located in the Bowery Bank Building, designed in 1894 by McKim, Mead & White. It is a designated interior and exterior landmark. The address is really 130 Bowery, (note the number in the doorway) but there is a facade on Grand Street, so its inclusion on a Grand Street walk is fully justified.

Eldridge to Chrystie

2005-11-10T13:54:00.000-05:00

Food shopping can be an adventure for those who do not speak or read Chinese, although in recent years, there is more English in evidence than there has been in the past, even as the foods on display are more and more exotic (at least to New Yorkers, who can be very provincial.)

Where Sara Delano Roosevelt Park is now there had been blocks of deteriorated tenements, torn down in 1929. It's not uncommon for people to set up little businesses like this one, a shoe repairman working in the open air.

At the corner of Chrystie Street is a particularly elaborate (as well as tall) tenement building dating from 1901, the year a new law was passed regulating the construction of tenement buildings, with the goal of providing better sanitary facilities and more light and air to the apartments.

The history of tenements in NYC is quite complex, but fascinating. A visit to the Tenement Museum, at 97 Orchard Street, is worthwhile for anyone who is interested in the architecture of the city and the social history of the life of its poorest inhabitants. This building was designed by C.B. Myers, a prolific designer of tenements. Many architects who went on to distinguished careers, George Pelham and Emery Roth, to name two, designed similar buildings when they started out. The ornament on this one is particularly exuberant. At seven stories, by law, it was supposed to have an elevator. The implication is that the owner was trying to attract a more upscale tenant than usual.

Allen to Eldridge

2005-11-09T19:04:00.000-05:00

Among the old-time stores in this part of Grand Street are a number of fabric and linen shops, like this one. The goods are often quite respectable, at good prices, although the style may be from the previous season or earlier.

Allen Street, you will notice, looks a bit strange. That's because we are looking at the rear of houses, not the fronts, on the eastern side of the street. Allen Street was widened in the early 1930s by the simple expedient of demolishing the houses on the eastern side.

The western side is more normal looking.

If you look uptown when crossing Allen, you can seen the silhouette of the Chrysler Building.

The street takes on a decidedly different character now. We are most definitely in Manhattan's Chinatown -- the Chinatown of the current generation, which has spread in all directions from its original few blocks near Chatham Square. The end of restrictive immigration policies in the mid-1960s led to a population explosion that greatly stretched the boundaries. The tenements that line these streets are among the oldest left in the city, although there are newer buildings squeezxed in here and there.

This being downtown, there are even some buildings left that are older than the tenements, like these little Federal houses on the north side of the street between Allen and Eldridge.

It may not be possible to get an accurate count of the number of restaurants in Chinatown, so quickly do they open, close or change hands.

Essex to Allen

2005-11-06T15:06:00.000-05:00

Look downtown on Essex Street. This is what the entire area that we've walked looked like 100 years ago -- only teeming with people. On a weekday or Sunday, it is still lively, but this picture was taken on a Saturday, and the block is still part of what remains of the Jewish lower east side.

On the northwest corner of Grand and Essex is Seward Park High School, Walter C. Martin, 1929. Basketball has always been considered an urban sport: note the court on the roof of the school building.

The cast-iron building on the south side of the street between Essex and Ludlow was constructed in 1887, but painted blue (a very contemporary building color) very recently.

This little building, on the southeast corner of Grand and Ludlow looks ripe for restoration to me.

On the southwest corner of Grand and Orchard is a building whose most notable feature today is its pinkness. It was the E.S. Ridley Department Store, one of the city's most fahionable toward the end of the 19th century. It did not choose its location well and went out of business in 1901.

Orchard Street and environs were given the soubriquet "Bargain District" a few years ago.

The surrounding streets still have scores of discount shops that have been there for decades, and have been joined by stores, restaurants and clubs catering (mind-bogglingly-so to those with a sense of history) to the young and hip.

Between Clinton and Essex

2005-11-03T11:32:00.000-05:00

On the south side of the street, between Clinton and Essex, there is a row of food stores, mostly kosher, including a pizzeria and a Chinese restaurant. The two notable places are the Doughnut Plant

and Kossar's Bialys.
A bialy is a flat onion roll made more or less the way they were in Bailystock, Poland (remember the synagogue? -- there is also a Bialystoker home for the elderly right around here, too.) I took my walk on a Saturday, so the kosher establishments were closed for the Sabbath. Otherwise, even though I'm not generally recommending restaurants or food stores in these walks, except to point them out, but I urge anyone who has not had a Kossar's bialy to do so at the earliest possible moment. Bialys are made by a few other bakeries, but they are not the same. The business is no longer owned by the family and there is no telling when "improvements" will alter the bialy beyond recognition, a la the fate of the bagel. A few years ago, the new owners made the roll larger, the better to accomodate sandwich fillings, and now I see that there is a new sign. I fear for the tenants of these one-story buildings, as real estate values continue to increase and Manhattan property, even on the lower east side, becomes too valuable to warrant such a small building.

The Doughnut Plant would not allow pictures to be taken inside the store, but some of its wares can be seen here, through the window. These puffy beauties are sold in many high-end establishments uptown and are actually worth the calories.

Henry Street Settlement and beyond

2005-11-02T20:18:00.000-05:00

Henry Street Settlement occupies several buildings in the immediate area, some of them among the oldest in Manhattan. They have been very good stewards. The modern building shown here was designed by Prentice Chan Ohlhausen in 1976 and contains a theatre and space for programs in the arts.

The adjacent colonial revival structure that housed the original Neighborhood Playhouse
is a National Historic Landmark.

St. Mary's Church was built in 1833, around the same time as the Bialystoker Synagogue, but it has always been a Roman Catholic church, first serving a very small group of parishioners, then successive waves of immigrants. The facade was renovated in 1871 by Patrick Charles Keely, a designer of many churches.

But, these streets remain, just for the time being, primarily Jewish.

Just a little farther west, we get a hint of the neighborhood coming up.

Walking westward

2005-10-31T20:22:00.000-05:00

Wherever there is a place to sit, people will be sitting. This is a little triangle near the place where East Broadway intersects with Grand Street. These people have probably lived in the nearby Seward Park development since the beginning.

On East Broadway, across the way, is a very impressive building that was designed in 1904 by Sass & Smallheiser as a settlement house along the lines of the YMCA, although, to be sure, not with a Christian program in this heavily Jewish neighborhood. It is now a mikveh, (the sign on the door says "Ritualarium") a place where ritual baths are taken by Orthodox Jews. It is a sign that there are also young Orthodox Jewish families in the neighborhood.

Take a detour to the right, onto Willett Street, to see the Bialystoker Synagogue.

This fieldstone building, dating from 1826, was originally the Willett Street Methodist Episcopal Church. The style and character of the building suggest the kind of quiet, upscale neighborhood this was immediately following the Revolutionary War. The church became a synagogue in 1878, when a group of Jewish emigres from the town of Bialystok, Poland bought it for that purpose. The synagogue is still very active. This is not the only federal era building we will see on Grand Street, but it is the one in the best condition. The building is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Sources for Grand Street

2005-10-31T00:22:00.000-05:00

For dates, names of architects and occasionally, other tidbits of information, I consulted the following: As always, any opinions exressed are my own.

Books
The Lower East Side, Joyce Mendelsohn
New York, A Guide to the Metropolis, Gerard R. Wolfe
AIA Guide, White and Willensky
Cast-Iron Architecture in New York, Margot Gayle and Edmumd V. Gillon Jr.

Websites
http://newdeal.feri.org/gellert/murals.htm
NYC Department of Buildings

src="http://www.blogtopsites.com/tracker.php?do=in&id=7154" alt="Travel Blog
Top Sites" />

Grand Street, starting from East River Drive

2005-10-30T17:43:00.000-05:00

Grand Street was laid out in 1766 by James de Lancey Jr. as the road between Corlears Hook, a piece of land that juts out into the East River between the Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges and what was then de Lancey Square or the Great Square (now Essex Street). It was named for its great width relative to other streets of the period. Grand Street runs from the East River Drive to Varick Street, not quite river to river.

The street begins at the East River (aka FDR) Drive. To the north is the Williamsburg Bridge

This part of Manhattan Island was owned by the de Lancey family, who were fervent loyalists during the American Revolution. At the end of the war, the de Lancey land was sold and the area was developed in a few decades for low-income housing, i.e., tenements primarily for new immigrants.

By the 1930s, the old tenements had become uninhabitable and block upon block of them and the streets on which they were located, were razed for the superblocks and high-rise, high-density buildings that one sees at the eastern end of Grand Street. These buildings were orginally sponsored by clothing workers unions for union members.

Some of the buildings are named after prominent figures connected to the lives of the people who lived in the area, usually with a leftist slant

...although it's not "this land is your land..."

There is attractive brickwork on some of the older buildings.

One of the most famous of the co-ops is Seward Park. Its lobby has some murals dating from 1959 that the buildings' owners tried to paint over at the time a few years ago when they decided to attract market-rate buyers. An effort by the NYC Municipal Art Society and others saved the murals. The artist who painted the pictures of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln and Albert Einstein was Hugo Gellert, who had been far more prominent a generation earlier. See the murals at http://newdeal.feri.org/gellert/murals.htm

Along the Appalachian Trail in Tyringham

2005-10-11T14:05:00.000-04:00

Along Main Road

2005-10-11T13:31:00.000-04:00

Union Church, Tyringham

2005-10-11T12:46:00.000-04:00

Historic Union Church, a Greek Revival building, was built in 1844.

Walk in Tyringham, MA.

2005-10-11T08:22:00.000-04:00

Tyringham is my favorite town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Almost completely devoid of tourist attractions, it offers a taste of what the Berkshires used to be even before the area became a resort for the rich a hundred years ago and the summer home of the Boston Symphony some years after that. I've taken many photographs of the town over the years, but last summer was the first time I visited with a digital camera. Until I am able to scan slides, I can't post pictures of the Cobble, the ruins of Ashintully (one of the great "cottages," destroyed by fire), or what is left of an interesting Shaker settlement. Maybe next year.

We stay in the Cobble View Inn, an unpretentious bed and breakfast in the heart of town, near the corner of Main Road and Jerusalem Road. The front part of the inn is the original house, over 200 years old. Over the years, there have been many alterations and additions, none of which are entirely sympathetic and some of which are downright awful (through the narrow lens of historic preservation) but the place is comfortable.

The name of the bed and breakfast refers to Tyringham Cobble. http://www.thetrustees.org/pages/370_tyringham_cobble.cfm

Across Main Road is the post office.

On Jerusalem Road is my favorite little gingerbread house.

Farther up the street is a garage that looks as if it shoud
be in a painting.

East of First

2005-10-07T13:35:00.000-04:00

Below Tudor City, 42nd Street continues to First Avenue and beyond. Just to the south is the United Nations headquarters. That is the Secretariat building pictured to the right. The UN buildings are located on a sizable, parklike plot of land donated by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. A international team of architects, including Le Corbusier were responsible for the planning and design of the complex, under the chairmanship of Wallace K. Harrison.

Visiting the UN is a very touristy but worthwhile activity for anyone who is interested in art and architecture.

On the south side of the street is the rather desolate Robert Moses Playground, named in 1982 for an active and notorious parks commissioner (although that title does not begin to describe his activities) although the park opened in 1941. A good chunk of its space is taken up by the Queens-Midtown tunnel's ventilating tower.

The fence at the far eastern side of the park lists the names of some of Moses's achievements. A plaque at the entrance provides a paean to his accomplishments. Robert Caro's tome, The Power Broker, tells a rather different tale.

Between Second and First

2005-10-02T17:21:00.000-04:00

The Ford Foundation building caused a sensation when it was built, in 1967, designed by Kevine Roche John Dinkeloo & Assocs. This was the first planted atrium and remains the best. It is still open to the public, although it must be entered from the 43rd Street entry. The building is a designated landmark.

Across the street is a little church that is probably the oldest building on the entire street, the Tudor Revival Church of the Covenant, designed by J.C. Cady, and standing here since 1871.
I like to think it was the inspiration for Tudor City.

Walk up the stairs at this point, take a look around Tudor City and see if you agree.

There are two little private parks on the Tudor City level.

This entire complex is a designated historic district. It was a urban renewal effort by the Fred R. French Co. and H. Douglas Ives and was conceived as middle-class housing at the time it was built between 1925-28. The 12 original building exteriors are lavishly ornamented in a fanciful interpretation of the Tudor style. Tudor City remains desirable, if not fashionable, and a quiet enclave (literally) above the urban fray.

L'Impero, a high-end Italian restaurant is located here.

This is the door to the local pre-school program. You get the idea.

The rear facades of the buildings were left plain and relatively windowless, to allow the new tenants to avert their eyes from the slaughterhouses, power plants and nondescript tenements below. New windows were added in recent years.

Between Third Avenue and Second Avenue

2005-10-02T17:03:00.000-04:00

At 202 East 42nd street is this remnant of the past, a five-story
Romanesque Revival building.

Another Raymond Hood Art Deco beauty is at 220 E. 42, the Daily News Building, complete with the revolving globe in the lobby. It was built in 1930. Both the exterior and the lobby are designated landmarks. The newspaper has moved elsewhere.

Between Lexington and Third

2005-09-28T10:05:00.000-04:00

There are only three buildings on this entire block. The south side is occupied in its entirety (and through to 41st Street) by the stainless steel-clad, landmarked Socony-Mobil building, designed by Harrison & Abramowitz, completed in 1956.

I've always found it amusing that the curve of a typical NYC street phone echoes the curve over the entrance to the building across the street from it, as if it had been designed for that specific
site.

On the north side of the street is the Chrysler Building, an interior (lobby) and exterior landmark, designed by William Van Alen and built in 1930. A peek inside at the multi-colored marble and stainless steel lobby is a must. A pair of binoculars is needed to truly appreciate the wealth of automotive ornament that graces the tower. It comes as a surprise to read the contemporary architectural criticism of the building, which was less than enthusiastic.
This is my favorite NYC skyscraper.

Cooper Union, the art, architecture and engineering school located on Astor Place, owns the ground under the building; the rent it collects pays for the tuition of its students.

This is the re-worked (1998) Chrysler Building extension. It is attributed to Philip Johnson.

Eastward to Lexington Avenue

2005-09-26T14:54:00.000-04:00

Park Avenue is elevated at this point to skirt Grand Central Terminal. The beautiful overpass, known as the Park Avenue Viaduct, was designed by Warren & Wetmore, and is a designed NYC landmark. There is a restaurant underneath with an outdoor cafe, weather permitting.

Cipriani has a magnificent catering space in the banking hall of the Bowery Bank building, designed by York & Sawyer, and built in two stages in 1921-23 and 1931-33. The building is described in New York City Landmarks as Italian Romanesque-inspired and inspired it is, in its proportions and wealth of detail.

Next, on the south side of the street is the Art Deco Chanin Building, the base of which is bejeweled with bas-reliefs in terra cotta and bronze. The landmarked building was designed by Irwin S. Chanin, with Sloan & Robertson, in 1927-29. The artwork is by Rene Chambellan.
Across the street is Grand Central Terminal, a designated landmark inside and out, designed by Reed & Stern and Warren & Wetmore. The former were the designers of the plan, the tunnels, ramps and concourses, while credit goes to Warren and Wetmore for the facades and interior spaces. The fight by the owners of the building against designation went all the way to the Supreme Court, which upheld NYC's landmarks law. The Terminal underwent an appropriate restoration by Beyer Blinder Belle in the mid-1990s.

It is definitely worthwhile to duck inside for a look around and maybe, something to eat. You have the choice of sit-down restaurants like Michael Jordan's Steakhouse or Metrazur on the great balconies, and the Oyster Bar, a drink at the Campbell Apartment bar, snacks at the moderately-priced food court, or take-home from Grand Central Market, where you can find branches of Murray's Cheese and Wild Edibles, a fine fish store.

Be sure to look up at the ceiling, which displays twinkling constellations, backwards, since the artist who painted them was working from an inside-out globe.

Reflected in a window of the former Bowery Bank is the looming MetLife, originally Pan Am building, north of Grand Central, terminating the view south down Park Avenue.

From 5th Avenue to Vanderbilt Avenue

2005-09-20T11:09:00.000-04:00

Before crossing Fifth Avenue, after looking at the library, take in the long view eastward.
The Chrysler Building dominates, as it deserves to. I'll say more about it when we're in front of it. In the meantime, admire its curving crown, seen to even better advantage at night when it is illuminated by radiating fluorescent lights.

From the sublime to the ridiculous (a New York mantra) this poster was in the window of a storefront on the north side of the street.

Not that much to see here; scurry along to Madison Avenue.

On the south side of the street is the Lincoln Building (one of at least two by that name in NYC), , designed by J.E.R. Carpenter and built in 1928-29, during a skyscraper boom.

Further east is the oddly named Altria building, so-called after the company changed its named from Philip Morris, a major public relations move designed to hide the fact that the company has made its fortune from cigarettes and to suggest, perhaps, that its primary business is...altruism?

To be sure, it is a major funder of all kinds of cultural endeavors and it is not surprising that there is a branch of the Whitney Museum off the lobby. The building was designed by Ulrich Franzen and built in 1982.

The north side of the street is a little more complicated. Vanderbilt Avenue, a very short street, really a driveway for dropoffs, skirts the west side of Grand Central Terminal.

At the northwest corner is Modell's sporting goods store, with some amusing bas-reliefs.

From 6th Avenue to 5th Avenue

2005-09-18T13:43:00.000-04:00

The building going up, the excavation for which was shown in the previous entry, will have the formal address of One Bryant Park. (No one will ever use it, I can assure you, any more than anyone says "Avenue of the Americas" rather than 6th Avenue.)

The real Bryant Park is diagonally across the street from the hole in the ground. The park has been there since 1871, but has undergone some redesign over the years, the last one in 1992 by landscape architects Hannai Olin and Hardy Holzman Pfeifer. It is named in honor of William Cullen Bryant, poet and editor of the Post, who called for the creation of what later became Central Park. Bryant Park has had it ups and downs, and those seeing it for the first time now might find it hard to imagine as a drug dealers haven. It is now one of the most pleasant open spaces in Manhattan and the only large-ish spot of green in midtown. There is a fairly serious restaurant in the par, the Bryant Park Grill. Snack stations are brances of 'wichcraft. An added attraction is the fact that the park is a free WiFi zone.

Library stacks are underneath the ground. New York's version of London's Crystal Palace stood here from 1853 until 1858, when it was destroyed by a fire.

Bryant Park is a designated scenic landmark.

Looking downtown through the park, you can see Raymond Hood's 1924 American Radiator Building, converted to a hotel a few years ago.

If any building can be called passionate, it's this one. The black and gold Art Deco cum Gothic building suggests coal and fire, appropriately, for the company that commissioned it.

On the north side of the street is the sloping-fronted W. R. Grace Building, designed by
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. We've had since 1974 to get used to it.

Much more pleasing is 11 West 42nd Street, whose Art Deco/Romanesque entry is graced by bas-reliefs and a Guastavino tile ceiling.

Not pictured is the State University College of Optometry, originally Aeolian Hall, designed by Warren and Wetmore in 1912 and redesigned in 1970 by Carl. J. Petrilli and Associates. Its marquee is a heavy presence on the street.

Coliseum Books, a beloved independent bookstore, was forced by rising rents to move from its original location near Columbus Circle to 42nd Street.

If Coliseum doesn't have enough books for you, the building across the street will. It's the New York Public Library, designed in 1911 by Carrere and Hastings in the Romanesque Revival style and magnificently restored and renovated recently by Davis Brody Bond. Of course it is a designated landmark, including some of the most important interiors. The main reading room on the third floor is worth a detour. Be sure to look up at the fluffy clouds.

New York City's reservoir once occupied this site.
The lions who guard the library were named Patience and Fortitude by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. They were sculpted by E.C. Potter. Every year around Christmas, Patience and Fortitude wear wreaths. This is Patience, on the south side.

The library is a popular spot for the film and tv shoots. Here's Carson Kressley and the crew of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy on the steps. I think he's giving the crowd his impersonation of the lions.

From Times Square to 6th Avenue

2005-09-15T10:30:00.000-04:00

The 42nd Street facade of the Conde Nast building is more conservative and conventional than the Times Square facade. We are leaving the amusement park architecture
and atmosphere appropriate for a popular entertainment district for
more serious pursuits and buildings.

This block is very short, but there is something important going on at the northeast corner. It's going to be a big building -- you can see straight through to 43rd Street. There may be a sign on 43rd that has some information about the new building, but I didn't take the detour to find out because I was eager to get to the next block. The low building on the far side of the building site is Town Hall, built by the League for Political Education in 1921 and
designed by McKim, Mead and White in the Georgian Revival style. It is a concert and lecture hall rather than a theatre, and highly regarded for its fine acoustics. Marian Anderson made her New York debut here in 1935; she is only one of many distinguished artists and other public figures who have had engagements in the auditorium.

Times Square

2005-09-14T10:03:00.000-04:00

Times Square is the triangle formed by the intersection of Broadway and Seventh Avenue. Broadway is an exception to the NYC grid and runs at a diagonal. As it crosses major avenues, it forms triangular traffic islands that New Yorkers call "squares."

This one received its name when the New York Times moved its offices from Park Row, near City Hall, to Longacre Square, taking up residence in the 25-story, Italian Renaissance Revival terra cotta-clad building you see here today, or would see, if it had not been stripped of all ornament and re-clad in white marble when Allied Chemical moved in. Now, even that is mostly gone, replaced by huge billboards. The building dates from 1904, designed by Cyrus I. W. Eidlitz and Andrew C. MacKenzie. Many hands have contributed to its subsequent obliteration. The Times occupied the building for only a decade, but the name stuck. This is the building from the top of which the ball drops at the stroke of midnight, New Year's Eve.

The electric news "zipper" remains.

The newspaper's current office building, a designated NYC landmark, is at 229 West 43rd Street, until 2006, when the new building is scheduled for completion.

While the dominant features of Times Square remain the bright lights, electric signs and supersized, over-the-top advertisements, a number of new buildings have been constructed, in connection with the "New 42nd Street." No matter how staid or refined the occupant, the buildings get into the 42nd spirit with loud, and in this neighborhood, appropriate signage.

It would have been inconceivable, say, 15 years ago, that Conde Nast would have its headquarters in these tawdry precincts. (4 Times Square, Fox and Fowle, 1999)
I like to think that the rounded corner is a nod to Raymond Hood's McGraw-Hill building a couple of blocks to the west.

Below is the Reuters Building, 3 Times Square,
also by Fox Fowle, 2001, getting into the act.

The subway station would look out of place anywhere except maybe Coney Island.

The subway entrance is protected not by the ordinary concrete barriers one might find elsewhere, but by the brass balls, er, globes.

Is there another accounting firm that announces its presence

the way Ernst and Young does here?

On the southeast corner is a remnant of the turn of the century, the former Knickerbocker Hotel, dating from 1901-1906, a red brick and terra-cotta Beaux-Arts confection designed by
Marvin & Davis, much altered, but a cultural, as as well as an architectural, designated NYC landmark. The building remained a hotel only 15 years, but during that time was home to Enrico Caruso and George M. Cohan.

The mural in its fashionable bar was saved when the hotel was converted to other uses and now graces the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis hotel.

From 8th Avenue to Times Square, con't.

2005-09-12T20:48:00.000-04:00

A sober, white, terra-cotta office building, albeit with a McDonald's on the ground floor, appears mid-block. It is the Candler Building, dating from 1914, designed by Willauer, Shape & Bready for a prosperous Coca-Cola salesman. It was renovated in 1999 by Swanke Hayden Connell.

Farther east, there are three more theatres rescued from ignominy. On the south side of the street,

are the Hilton (formerly Ford) Center for the performing arts and the New Victory.

The Hilton (home for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for the moment) was originally the site of the Apollo (19200 and Lyric Theaters (1903). The two theaters were artfully combined in 1998 by Beyer, Blinder Belle to create the current incarnation. Next door, the New Victory was restored to its 1899 glory by Hardy Holtzman Pfeiffer. These two firms are arguably New York City's finest restoration architects. The original New Victory was designed by Albert Westover for Oscar Hammerstein. It had many names and uses over the years, Minsky's being, probably, the most recognizable.

Across the street is the New Amsterdam Theatre, where The Lion King has reigned for many years. The bulk of the theatre is on 41st Street. Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer restored the 1902 creation of Herts and Tallant in 1995-97, The latter firm was largely responsible for many of the theatres in the district. This one, and many others, is a designated exterior and interior NYC landmark.

This theatre was the venue for the Ziegfeld Follies from 1913 - 1927.

From 8th Avenue to Times Square, part 1

2005-09-11T18:21:00.000-04:00

Port Authority, the New York City bus terminal, is on the southwest corner of 8th Avenue.

Look downtown as you cross the street to see the new New York Times building going up, designed by Renzo Piano, with Fox and Fowle. It is scheduled for completion in 2006.

This part of Forty-second Street (from 8th Avenue to 7th Avenue, including Broadway, which crosses at a diagonal to form Times Square) became the popular entertainment section of New York at the turn of the last century. Dozens of theaters sprang up on the adjacent streets, as well as restaurants and related businesses that catered to the theatrical professions and to the audience. By the mid-1960s, the area had declined and it took years and a couple of false starts before city planners came up with a viable alternative to the all-encompassing sleaze. For a good review of the street's contemporary history, click on http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/issueoftheweek/20050829/200/1544.

On the northwest corner is the colorful cubism of the Westin Hotel, replete with an assortment of chain restaurants. Can someone explain why tourists come to New York, the city which may have the widest assortment of restaurants in the world in terms of types of cuisine at all price points, and eat at the same chains that they have in the mall at home?

The Westin Times Square (it's really a block away) was built in 2001, designed by the Miami firm, Arquitectonica. It is an exuberant expression of the revitalized (some say Disney-fied) neighborhood, in which light, color and popular entertainment are the defining characteristics.

Call it Disney-fied, if you must, but this notorious neighborhood is certainly friendlier to tourists and to locals who sometimes visit the movie theaters, than it was when it was "the deuce," ground zero for drug dealers, prostitutes and the full range of petty and not-so-petty crime that accompanied them.

The lavishly decorated Loew's multiplex cinema in in the Westin complex.

On the south side of the block is another large complex that incorporates a number of theatres, combined and renovated to form the AMC 25 multiplex, stores, a branch of Madame Tussaud's, and the Hilton Times Square hotel. The architects involved in the complex (2001) were Beyer Blinder Belle and the Rockwell Group.

This block is one of the difficult in NYC to walk, so densely packed it is with pedestrians and sidewalk vendors. Nevertheless, a certain number of locals wend their way to this theater despite the inconvenience because it charges lower-cost senior citizens prices beginning at age 55. At the left, an old sign with the theatre's original name (Empire) has been left on the building. The theatre is not in its original location. but was moved nearly 200 feet west to become part of the complex. Two other old theatres, the Liberty and the Harris are part of the complex as well. The architect of the original Harris and Empire theatres was the great Thomas W. Lamb, 1912 - 14. Herts and Tallant, equally and deservedly well-regarded theatre architects, were responsible for the Liberty,
1904.

The entrance to the Hilton is graced by some amusing Tom Otterness sculptures.

This is a detail of Madame Tussaud's facade.

From 9th Avenue to 8th Avenue

2005-09-07T20:24:00.000-04:00

On the southeast corner of 42nd Street and 9th Avenue is a holdout group of five-story buildings, 568-578 9th Avenue, dating from about 1897.

Empire Coffee and Tea is located in 568 and notes that it has been in the neighborhood since 1908.

Across the street, on the northeast corner or 42nd and 9th Avenue, a very tall tower is set on a base about the same height as the low-rise buildings, out of respect to their scale.

The red brick Holy Cross Church, by Henry Engelbert, 1870, was described as "Byzantine" when it was built. Not far from Times Square, to the east, is a traffic island with a statue dedicated to Father Duffy, whose parish this was.

Still known as the McGraw-Hill building, although the publishers are long gone, one of Raymond Hood's masterpieces has faced Holy Cross since 1930. This is a close-up of the distinctive banding at the entry of the striped Art Deco building.

This is what the body of the building looks like.

The impression from a distrance is of blue-green horizontal stripes, a shocking use of color at the time the building was constructed.

We'll see another of his buildings farther east. Actually, we'll see two, but one of those is not right on 42nd Street.

Near the corner, on the north side of the street, is this colorful row, dating from 1901, by Jason Cole. One can assume that #319 was not always red, white and blue.

From 10th Avenue to 9th Avenue

2005-09-06T17:08:00.000-04:00

Playwrights Horizons is another important off-Broadway theatre. It's at 416 West 42nd Street. The new building, designed by Mitchell Kurtz, is not quite complete, yet.

Next door is Chez Josephine, a bistro owned by one of Josephine Baker's adopted children.

Across the street is Bistro du Vent, yet another restaurant in the Mario Batali et al empire.

This restaurant had some unusual press coverage in late August, 2005, when a security camera captured a frolicking foursome of (now former) employees passing the time. Bistro du Vent is in the huge Manhattan Plaza complex, David Todd & Associates, 1977. The entrance to the building is on 43rd Street, but it occupies an entire block, so we see a whole side of it on 42nd Street. The building was constructed to provide housing for people in relatively low-paying theatrical professions, this being the theatre district.

On the southwest corner of 42nd Street and Ninth Avenue is a nearly mustard-color hotdog stand.

Between 11th Avenue and 10th Avenue

2005-09-05T23:20:00.000-04:00

Crossing 11th Avenue, look downtown to see the Michael J. Quill MTA bus depot, named after the feisty founding president of the Transit Workers' Union, who is best remembered by old-timers for telling the judge who ordered an injunction against the 1966 transit strike that he could drop dead in his black robes.

Click here to read more about Mike Quill.

Theatre Row, a couple of blocks specifically named that (although there are many theatres on many blocks in the theatre district in midtown west) refers to a group of off-Broadway houses on far west 42nd Street, including Signature Theatre, pictured.

Here's an unusual exterior stairway at 534 West 42nd (also the address of the Jose Quintero Theatre.)

Between 11th and 10th avenues are cars parked at an angle to the curb, a sure sign in NYC that there is a police station on the block, even if the cars are unmarked vehicles. Midtown South is right here.

Starting at 12th Avenue...

2005-08-29T14:58:00.000-04:00

It seems fitting that the Circle Line tour boat leaves from a pier at the foot of 42nd Street.

(A larger image will be generated if you click on the picture)
Look uptown at 12th Avenue to see the Intrepid (a floating sea-air museum on a de-commissioned naval vessel) and maybe catch a glimpse of any ocean-going ships that may be in port.

On the uptown side of the street is the massive Chinese consulate and just behind, its residential tower.

The building went up in 2002, designed by Lin + Associates, on the site of an 8-story former factory. It is one of several very tall residential buildings that have recently been constructed, or are under construction on the far west side. The area used to be low-rise, mixed use.

Across the street from the Chinese consulate is One River Place, on the s.w. corner of 42nd and 12th, perhaps even larger. It was developed by Larry Silverstein, designed by Costas Kondylis & Partners.

It will be joined by a second, similar tower following the completion of the clean-up of the brownfield directly to the east.

There are several other construction sites in the immediate vicinity, west of 9th Avenue.

42nd Street River to River

2005-08-29T11:31:00.000-04:00

Going west to east, as opposed to the the east to west direction of the 57th Street walk --

Say "Forty-Second Street" to most out-of-towners, and Times Square comes to mind, and to those who haven't kept up with developments over the past 10-15 years, perhaps an aura of sleaze and danger that is no longer part of the experience the way it used to be when the area was known to some as "The Deuce."

But, 42nd Street is far more than shorthand for popular entertainment. Some of the finest buildings in the city are to be found lining this fabled street: the New York Public Library's signature building, the Chrysler Building and Grand Central Terminal are only the most well-known.

Between 10th Avenue and 12th Avenue

2005-08-24T11:08:00.000-04:00

Between 10th and 11th, it gets more industrial.
A peculiar little building at 515 W. 57th sells serious audio equipment.

Across the street, CBS holds sway, with its broadcast and production center taking up the south side of the block.

On the north side of the block, the long black glass building (re-cladding of an older building by Der Scutt) is the home of International Flavors and Fragrances, the people who make your dishwasher detergent smell the way it does.

On the n.w. corner is one of the remaining auto dealerships, BMW.

Between 11th and 12th:
On the s.w. corner is the Tasos Cafe, a standard coffee shop so close to New Jersey that there's Taylor Pork Roll on the menu.

The n.w. corner (actually half the block) has a big, bulky blue glass apartment building, of all things in this neighborhood, nearly finished

East of an Infiniti dealer and a Nissan dealer some construction work has begun on a site owned by the Department of Sanitation.

On the s.w. corner of 12th Street is the location of signmaker ArtKraft Strauss.

Beyond a large vacant lot on the north side of the block, it is impossible to miss the magnificent original power station for the IRT, located on 59th Street. The exterior was designed by Stanford White in 1904. It is not a designated landmark, although a number of the original subway stations designed by Heins & LaFarge are. The building is now used by Con Ed.

Finally, at the far western end of 57th Street, the Hudson River and New Jersey beyond.

Between 8th Avenue and 10th Avenue

2005-08-24T10:27:00.000-04:00

Crossing 8th Avenue, look to the right to see a bit of the Time-Warner Center, housing some very upscale restaurants: Per Se, Masa and Cafe Gray.

The Time-Warner Center was designed by Skidmore, Owings, Merrill (SOM). The design took years to accomplish and represents a compromise between the desires of the developer for bulk and those of the public, which, for some reason, didn't want a building that would block sunlight from reaching Central Park. There was a memorable demonstration involving massed black umbrellas that illustrated the impact of the shadow of the proposed building.

On the n.w. corner of 57th and 8th is a newish, very tall blue glass apartment building. Blue glass is enjoying some particular popularity lately. In the future, it will be possible to date these buildings quite precisely because of it.

On the s.w. corner, a singular building is going up. This is the new tower designed by Sir Norman Foster for the 6-story base of an unbuilt tower of the Hearst Building, which was designed by Joseph Urban, 1927-28. It is not possible to see the base at the moment, because of construction, but a large sign shows a rendering of it with the new tower above.

The tower

Rendering showing the base

This was to have been Foster's first structure in NYC, but Asprey hired him to design a new window for its store in the Trump Tower at Fifth Avenue between 56th and 57th street. That job has been complete, to good effect.

The rest of the block between 8th and 9th is lined mostly with apartment buildings from various periods. The south side of the street is taken up by the Parc Vendome buildings.

The Parc Vendome was the site of a proposed Metropolitan Opera House. If it had been built, the high-culture strip of 57th Street would have extended to 9th Avenue. The new opera house was finally built as part of Lincoln Center, decades after it was first proposed.

The back of the Hudson Hotel (oh-so-trendy a very few years ago) is at 353 West 57th. A little garden connects two parts of the hotel, above eye level.
The Hudson is a redesign by Philippe Starck of the Henry Hudson hotel, in which Channel 13 (PBS) had its offices for many years. The entrance to the Henry Hudson was on 57th. The current incarnation is entered from 58th.

On the s.e. corner is a little plaza where there is a Greenmarket on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Between 9th and 10th:
On the s.w. corner of 57th and 9th is a boarded-up rather derelict building that, despite its neglected appearance is a newly-designated landmark, just waiting to be turned into expensive residences by a developer with just a little bit of vision.
The brickwork is extraordinary for New York, with some very fine corbelling. It was built in 1880-1881, the design attributed to Theophilus G. Smith. It is the oldest apartment building in the area. There used to a pretty good Jewish-style deli on the ground floor.

On the north side of the street is the lavishly ornamented (with terra cotta) Church of All Nations, originally the Catholic Apostolic Church, designed by Francis Kimball, 1885-86.

On the south side is Trinity Presbyterian Church. In the basement of what was probably the rectory is

In contrast to Hudson Hotel is

Here's a row of brownstone-front houses left from 1883. Brownstone was such a ubiquitous facade material in New York that row houses here are often referred to as "brownstones" regardless of material. There used to be block after block of nothing but these before apartment living became the norm. This row has been altered by the removal of some of the columned porches for the installation of fire escapes when the buildings were converted for use as multiple dwellings.

From 7th Avenue to 8th Avenue

2005-08-23T14:13:00.000-04:00

After crossing 7th Avenue, look over your shoulder to catch a glimpse of Alwyn Court, a designated landmark on the southeast corner of 58th Street and 7th Avenue. It was designed by Harde & Short to suggest Francis I (with lots of terra cotta salamanders) and built in 1907. Originally, each apartment took up either a half or whole floor, the rooms having a view of an interior courtyard. The apartments have since been sub-divided. An outpost of Petrossian, a French purveyor of caviar and smoked fish is located in this building, as well as a quiet, grown-up, in not exciting, restaurant by the same name.

On the southwest corner of 57th and 7th, at 200, is another designated landmark studio building, designed by Cass Gilbert, 1916-17. Gilbert designed this after he completed the Woolworth Building.
The windows are the thing on all studio buildings, of course, but in this one,l they are especially striking. The style recalls French Gothic.

Across the street is designated landmark, The Osborne, by James E. Ware, 1885, an early apartment building in one of the earliest apartment building districts and still one of the city's best, in my opinion, in a melding of Romanesque and Renaissance Revival. Traditional American building style names are quite fanciful and sometimes relate only superficially to the styles from which they were derived.
I was not able to take a picture of the lobby, and that's too bad. This building has always been popular with musicians.

Just west of The Osborne is the Art Students League, a French Renaissance confection designed by Henry Hardenbergh and built in 1892, for the American Fine Arts Society, the Society of American Artists and the Architectural League. It is a designated landmark. Judging from the art in the windows, a conservative, traditional kind of art is taught here.

At 221, the Hard Rock cafe still sports a pink Cadillac canopy, but isn't it going to be moving to Times Square?

The Morton Williams Associated Supermarket to the west has free wi-fi at the tables in the window and Hero jam 2 for $5.

I almost forgot the Brooklyn Diner, another Shelly Fireman restaurant.

Also on the south side, is Lee's Art Shop in a building that is not designated. I'm sure that it received careful consideration and was probably rejected because it has undergone too much alteration.
It was the clubhouse for the American Society of Civil Engineers and later, a Schrafft's restaurant. It was built in 1897, designed by Cyrus Eidlitz and expanded a few years later by the same architect.

Broadway slices in here and at the s.e. corner of the intersection, 224 West 57th St., are two adjoining buildings designed by Francis H. Kimball, 1909, that were originally built for the automobile industry, which was centered on this part of Broadway.

If you look to the right as you cross Broadway, you can catch a glimpse of 240 Central Park South (a designated landmark apartment building in a simplifed art moderne or functionalist style, notable for its massing), the Trump building that houses Jean-Georges and the highly-controversial building at 2 Columbus Circle that will be the home of the American Crafts Museum, now known as the Museum for Arts and Design. The landmarks commission has unequivocally stated that it will not consider designating 2 Columbus Circle, over very vociferous objections from some preservationists. The Dahesh Museum wanted to buy the building and restore it, but the better politically-connected (and more well-established) Crafts Museum got the nod, even though it is planning a major renovation that will obliterate many of the building's characteristic features. The building was originally designed by Edward Durell Stone to house Huntington Hartford's art collection. The interior is very luxuriously appointed, but has been allowed to deteriorate over the years.

At the n.w. corner of 57th and Broadway, where a Bank of America branch and Daffy's are now, was Coliseum books, relocated on 42nd Street between 5th and 6th in a much smaller space. It remains, in its new digs, one of the few general interest independent bookstores still standing.

From 6th Avenue to 7th Avenue

2005-08-23T14:10:00.000-04:00

The street signs still say "Avenue of the Americas" but not even tourists call it anything but 6th Avenue.

This stretch has eight New York City-designated individual landmarks...and they are not the only interesting buildings on the strip. Beginning with the last decade of the 19th century, these two blocks (it would have been three blocks, but we will get to that a little later) became associated with cultural, primarily musical, pursuits. Some of the sites are still in existence.

On the south side of the street is Shelly's New York, in a building that was built in 1937-38 to house a Horn & Hardart Automat. At one point, the current incarnation had a sign in red neon proclaiming "since 1937." Yes, the building has been there since 1937, but the tourists who patronize the restaurant were supposed to infer that the restaurant had been there that long, too. The sign came down in response to various complaints. Old-time NY-ers will remember that some time between the Automat days and the present-day restaurant, the building held Marboro books, a vast emporium selling remainders at the very deepest discounts.

Across the street, on the north side, at 107 W. 57th, was the Ritz, for used fur coats. The one-story building has been there for 63 years, although you can tell by the markings and the window patterns on the adjacent buildings that a taller building had been on the site earlier. (The earlier bulding was a 5-story clubhouse for the Freundshaft Society.) The Ritz building originally contained two stores, one a lingerie shop and the other a music store. The name of the latter, "Orpheum," can be read on the terrazzo floor of the entrance. Inside the store, there is a balcony rail in the form of an oversize music stand. The building is scheduled to be torn down for a taller building.

Next door to the Ritz, at 109-111 is Steinway Hall, a designated landmark designed by Warren and Wetmore and built in 1924-25. There is a recital hall inside. The building has a deeply concave window that allows the viewer to look inside without the annoyance of reflections. In the basement is a sea of pianos, often being played by a talented musician.

The Gothic revival ground floor of Calvary Baptist Church is deceptive.

Here's the rest of the building.

Angelo's Coal Oven Pizza at 117, is surprisingly good for this area. It claims an impressive pedigree.

Across the street is the Director's Guild of America, with its own movie theater.

At 118 W. 57th is the Parker Meridien Hotel, noted most notably on food boards as the site of the Burger Joint. The little restaurant is fun, one time, as theater, but is ultimately disappointing for food. It's tucked away at the 56th Street end of the lobby, marked only by a neon hamburger. You can keep walking all the way through to 56th Street.

Coin collector's heaven may be Stack's Rare Coins, at 123 W. 57th.

130 and 140 West 57th are two similar studio buildings, designated landmarks. A plaque says they were built in 1907 as co-ops for artists, designed by Pollard & Steinman. 140 has undergone a nice restoration, with metal anthemia (a classical ornament) running across the tops of the windows. Its neighbor still suffers from an overly large window, put in before designation. Childe Hassam and William Dean Howells lived in 130.

Window too big.

Properly restored window.

Next comes a an enormous black glass building, the Metropolitan Tower (we're supposed to be impressed) with a Starbucks and Body Shop as retail tenants. Ho-hum.

Even more depressing is the husk of the Russian Tea Room.
This design is what is left of restaurateur Warner LeRoy's disaster. After the restaurant failed completely following his death, the building was supposed to become some kind of sport museum -- golf? tennis? I don't remember -- for which it was totally unsuitable. The original restaurant occupied two floors of a five-story house, similar to those across the street. It was always Christmas at the RTR and a celebrity hangout. The food was an afterthought.

Carnegie Hall Tower, Cesar Pelli, 1986-90, is another tall building wedged in between the Russian Tea Room and Carnegie Hall proper. Somehow, it avoids being oppressive on the street.
On the north side of the street is the (former) Chalif Normal School of Dancing, G.A. and H. Boehm, 1916, now Columbia Artists Management. This building was constructed to house a school that taught teachers how to teach dancing. It, too, is an NYC-designated landmark.
All the ornament on the building relates to music and dance.

Carnegie Hall, another designated landmark related to music, on the southeast corner of 57th and 7th, was designed by William B. Tuthill in 1889-91, and the original studio wing by Henry J. Hardenbergh a few years later. The building has undergone a fabulous restoration by James Stewart Polshek and Partners that can't be fully appreciated at the moment because of scaffolding that is up for some minor facade work. It's hard to believe, but this building was one of the first, perhaps the very first, to have some kind of primitive air-cooling system.

It's hard to believe that this beloved hall came close to demolition 40 years ago.

Between 5th Avenue and 6th Avenue

2005-08-23T13:55:00.000-04:00

Two other tenants in the Crown Building are Smythson of Bond Street and Bulgari Jewelers.
At 6 West 57th Street is a Club Monaco. Elegant retail establishments are to our backs, now, as confirmed by the presence of a Sharper Image where Henri Bendel used to be (or was Bendel's where Brookstone used to be?) Bendel's may have been in both. Do not confuse the original with the store of the same name now around the corner on Fifth Avenue, altogether a lesser entity.
And try to remember look up occasionally. There are sometimes interesting occupants on the upper floors.

A few steps west and you're in front of Mackenzie-Childs, purveyor of over-the-top accessories and hostess gifts much appreciated by many, I'm told.

24 West 57th Street still has some galleries, as do some of the other buildings on this block. Usually there is a sign stating the names of any galleries inside. Across the street, at 29 W. 57th, is the vaguely gothic Chickering Hall, Cross & Cross, 1924, which is really an office building and never held a concert space. There used to be a showroom for Chickering pianos (no longer manfactured.) At the top of the building is a faded representation of the French Legion d'Honneur medal won by the company in 1867.

Next to Chickering is the quiet and calm Rizzoli bookstore. The interesting building that Rizzoli is in was designed by Randolph H. Almiroty, in 1919. There have been alterations, I'm sure, but without a trip to the Buildings Department (which I'm not going to do for this project) I can't tell exactly what or when. There must have been a truck blocking the building the day I passed by. Here's a picture on the store's website: http://www.rizzoliusa.com/bookstore.html

Here's what remains of a Beaux-Arts style house from the end of the 19th century, rather elegant quarters for the American Health Bar restaurant on the lower floors.

Nearby on the north side of the street is a store (one of many in this neighborhood) selling "antiques." Who buys these? No one whose eye has been trained by the windows of the stores to the east will be fooled by this.

At 40 West 57th, you can use a passageway to walk through to 56th Street, passing the newest incarnation of Nobu and an interesting piece of sculpture on the way. The Marlborough art gallery is in this building, and it is likely that the sculpture was done by one of its artists. It has the look of a Botero, but I didn't see a signature.

There is some elegant tailoring available on this block. Here's Fioravanti and others in one building. Yes, that's a MacDonald's on the ground floor. If that doesn't suit, right across the street there's Mangia, an upscale cafeteria and sandwich bar, with good cookies.

On the southwest corner is the red-awninged brasserie, Rue 57

and a Staples across the street.

Intersection of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street

2005-08-23T13:50:00.000-04:00

On the northeast corner of 57th and Fifth, where Louis Vuitton is now, Edith Wharton's aunt, Mary Mason Jones, hired architect Robert Mook and built Marble Row in 1869, a group of 7 houses, one of which she lived in. This is the development that began to make 57th Street fashionable. The Jones family, by the way, are the people we're always trying to keep up with. It was a bold move for old money to move uptown. Across the street from Mrs. Jones, Cornelius Vanderbilt II built his mansion on the northwest corner, in 1879-82.

It stood until the end of the 1920s when Bergdorf Goodman went up. In one building designed to look like several smaller buildings, Bergdorf's was the major tenant. Van Cleef and Arpels still occupies the corner space.

On the south side of 57th St. and Fifth Avenue is the Crown Building, originally the Hecksher Building, by Warren & Wetmore, 1921. When this area was the prime art dealer location, there were many galleries in this building. Glassy, slanted-front 9 West 57th Street

(Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, mid-1970s) makes it easy to see the top of the Crown Building without neckstrain.

Madison Avenue to Fifth Avenue

2005-08-23T12:13:00.000-04:00

South side of street:
The south side of the block is dominated by the (former) IBM tower, (Edward Larabee Barnes, 1983) and its bamboo-planted atrium.
The building is distinguished by its large cantilevered corner that hovers over the street. Under the overhang is a bright red Alexander Calder stabile.

IBM's art collection was housed in the building's gallery space on the ground floor and lower level. After the company sold off its art, or most of it, the space served for a while as a museum of photojournalism. It is now the home of the Dahesh Museum, a collection of 19th-century academic art. The museum mounts temporary exhibits that relate to its permanent collection, a recent one being "First Seen: Photographs of the World's Peoples 1840-1880." A gift shop is on the premises and well as a restaurant that serves lunch and afternoon tea. A museum brochure shows two upcoming programs of particular interest to food lovers: Bitter/Sweet: Tales from the World of Spice on Thursday, Aug. 4 and Dining Customs of Ancient Greece on October 6.

A Tourneau watch store is the other tenant on the ground floor. You can see what time it is almost anywhere on the globe: The Nike store to the west also has an entry to the atrium. The building can't decide if it's a railway station or a high school. It was built in the mid-1990s, designed by Nike in-house architects, Gordon Thompson III and John R. Hoke III

This was the site, briefly, of Galeries Lafayette and before that, Bonwit Teller. There were beautiful bas-reliefs on the Bonwit Teller building that were supposed to be preserved when Donald Trump took the building down in connection with the construction of Trump Tower. (The stores are connected, wrapping around Tiffany's.)

On the southeast corner of 57th and Fifth is Tiffany's. This building dates from 1940, when the store moved uptown. The front facade is under wraps as some work proceeds:

The side windows (among the best-decorated in the city) are still visible at the side entrance.

North side of 57th Street between Madison and Fifth:
There's more variety on the north side of the street. The pale, broken planes of the LVMH Building, 19 East 57th (Christian de Portzamarc, 1999) are a vivid contrast to the somber black right angles of the IBM Building across the street.

If I had been able to take the picture at night, you would have seen the changing colors of its vertical neon tube.

Chanel is next door. The storefront looks much like all Chanel stores everywhere, so powerful and compelling is the simple Chanel logo. This building was designed in 1996 by Platt Byard Dovell.

Burberry recently combined its existing building with Escada. The architects Richter +Ratner, with the in-house design team came up with a building that puts one in mind of the most famous Burberry pattern. It may be too cute. Time will tell. With LVMH, too.

Walking past Bally and Yves St. Laurent, we come to the corner and the interesting opacity of Louis Vuitton. Jun Aoki, the architect responsible for the look of the retail Vuitton stores in Japan, designed a new facade for the building, which dates from 1930. It was originally built for the New York Trust Company, but until Vuitton moved in was the Warner Brothers store, with a cartoony, over-the-top design that, along with the establishment of (I'm skipping ahead to the next block) a McDonald's I felt marked the end of 57th Street as I'd known it. I'm happy to say that Warner's is gone. The opacity is due to a coating on the inside of the glass.

A gigantic crystal snowflake is suspended above this intersection for the winter holidays. I've gotten used to it, but generally, I feel that the lavish window displays provide enough festivity, far more elegantly.

Park Avenue to Madison Avenue

2005-08-23T11:53:00.000-04:00

Park Avenue is much wider than other avenues to accomodate the railroad tracks leading out from Grand Central Terminal. The little islands are graced with seasonal plantings, a program brought to fruition many years ago by philanthropist Mary Lasker, who did not live on Park Avenue, but on Beekman Place, to the southeast. The Avenue is at its best during tulip season.
On the southeast corner, in a black, glassy building you can find Sherle Wagner, This luxury bath design store filled the needs of the very rich for eye-popping fixtures a generation before Waterworks (see earlier post) This store still produces alabaster sinks and gold faucets for those who can pay for them. Here's a typical (can you really call it a) "sink," in the window.

In the same building, a few steps to the east, is Suarez handbags. And there's another slot of "open" space with a few benches.

Tod's shoes is currently occupying temporary space at 50 East 57th Street, behind a wooden-framed display window.

A row of 5 houses, much altered, appear to date from the time that this part of 57th Street began to be developed as an elegant residential area. Bucellati, a jeweler at #46 whose creations I imagine appeal to those whose bathrooms are by Sherle Wagner, is renovating, but there is plenty of bling to be looked at in Jacob & Co., at #48.

The building has been undergone a sleek, stripped-down renovation, in contrast to its neighbors, #44, a Gothic Revival structure housing Dalva Brothers antiques and the Italianate fantasy at #40 housing Audemars Piguet.

Turnbull and Asser, the famous English tailor and shirtmaker, is at #42 in this row.

And then there's Victoria's Secret, one of many branches, whose catalogue has replaced Playboy in the hearts, minds and hands of adolescent boys. The store is a bit low-end for this stretch of 57th Street.

On the northern side of the street is the Four Seasons Hotel, designed primarily by I.M. Pei, built in the 1990s and soon to house an iteration of Joel Rebuchon's Atelier, his first venture in NYC. This is an impressive, but cold building.

If you want warmth, look further east to the Fuller Building, at 41 East 57th, a designated NYC Landmark, including the ground floor lobby. Coach is renovating its store. (There is quite a bit of renovation going on at this end of 57th Street, an indication that the economy is good, at least at the high end. When you start to see empty stores on 57th Street or Madison Avenue, it's already too late to worry. It means that times are tough, even for the rich.)

So much of the building is under wraps that it is difficult to appreciate it at the moment, but it is a beauty.
If there can be such a thing as Baroque Art Deco, this is it. The 57th Street entrance: It was built in 1929 to the designs of Walker & Gillette. This building used to have so many galleries that it was possible to spend an entire afternoon just going from floor to floor. A few remain. In the 1970s, many galleries decamped to the fomer light manufacturing area that became known as SoHo, a designated NYC historic. district. (Before that, it was an important shopping area, in the mid-19th century.)

By the 1920s, this part of 57th Street was well-established as an art and interior design district, the galleries, studio buildings, antique stores and interior designers having followed the extremely rich people who had started building mansions nearby, on Fifth Avenue. The pattern was the opposite of what we are now used to seeing -- poor artists moving into a cheap, run-down neighborhood, followed by galleries to display their work, followed by other stores to sell to people who can afford to buy the art and other merchandise, finally followed by rich people who have decided they like the artistic neighborhood.

From Lexington Avenue to Park Avenue

2005-08-23T10:59:00.000-04:00

Look to the left as you cross Lexington Avenue to catch a glimpse of Central Synagogue, beautifully restored after a disastrous fire.

On the southwest corner of Lexington Avenue and East 57th Street, 130 East 57th, is an interesting brick building with a Kenneth Cole shoe store on the ground floor. It appears to have a six-story building set into a 17 story building. The smaller "building" is capped by an impressive cornice. The newish, and reasonably priced, especially for the neighborhood, Habitat Hotel, is in this building.

Across the street, at the northwest corner, you can't help noticing a granite skyscraper, with what's that in front? That's a tempietto, friends. Normally, it is considered a good thing for a building to follow the line of the street. Curved facades have long been considered artful. Here, since there was no curve to follow, Kohn Pedersen Fox (1987) constructed the tempietto, and curved the building around it -- on the corner of Lexington and 57th Street. Pretentious and overblown, made worse by the choice of polished granite. This is one of the last gasps of post-modernism. That is not to say that it might not look a lot better a generation from now.

The book, New York 1930, by Robert A.M. Stern, et al, which has a chapter of 57th Street, notes that the n.w. corner of Lexngton and 57th Street is a difficult site because there is an underground stream traversing the corner. If that is the case, an argument could be made to justify the jets of water flanking the tempietto as an aboveground expression of what lies beneath, but I'm not going to make it. There is a picture on p. 365 of New York 1930 of the truly innovative, technologically advanced building that was there earlier. It was, unfortunately, much smaller than the zoning allows.

Next door is Alice Kwartler, another one of the many antiques dealers on 57th Street. This store specializes in small goods, mostly silver. If you need a set of distinctive shirt studs and cufflinks, look no further.

Next to Alice Kwartler is a very bad "public space" that builders construct in exchange for being allowed more height than the zoning would allow otherwise. This one appears even worse than it normally would, since there is some construction going on that requires a corrugated metal roof hung with flourescent lights instead of the usual open sky or clear skylight. There are tables, chairs, benches and the inevitable "water feature" to drown out street noise. On one wall is a self-congratulatory plaque lauding the Cohen Brothers, developers.

On the south side of the street is a much-altered row, 116-124 East 57th Street. These buildings all have new building permits from 1875, when the street was beginning to develop into an fashionable residential area, beginning at Fifth Avenue and working eastward, in descending degrees of elegance the further east one got.

At 124 East 57th is the Wally Findlay Gallery. Was Findlay (and there are several) ever taken seriously? I point it out because I walked this block on one of the hottest days in memory, ducked inside to cool off and stayed a while to enjoy some serious air-conditioning. The paintings on the wall were colorful, decorative, representational paintings by artists whose names did not ring a bell. I did like these two small pastels.

At 116 East 57th I noticed a cusom tailor and shirtmaker, Barchi Designs, as well as a dignified harberdashery, H. Herzfeld, at 118. If you prefer china and glass baubles to shirts and ties, just move right along to 114 East 57th, where you can gaze into Leo Kaplan's crystal balls, well, paperweights.

Between Leo Kaplan and the silver at S. J. Shrubsole on the ground floor of a nondescript white brick building wishfully called "The Dorchester," is the restaurant, BLT Steak. On the north side of the street, you'll notice that 115 East 57th Street, a building that has a slanting first story or two. This was supposed to be an elegant shopping "Galleria." Judge for yourself.

At the southeast corner of Park and 57th is a large Borders bookstore. This particular store has been known to have a surprisingly good history section. Borders is in the Ritz Tower a designated NYC landmark designed by Emery Roth and constructed in 1925-27 as an apartment hotel. That meant it could be built, as of right, higher than a regular apartment building. At the time it was constructed, it was the tallest residential buildings in the city. Some of its tenants were William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davies and Greta Garbo.

Emery Roth, one of my favorite pre-war architects, loved ornament. His beautiful work has been referred to contemptuously by some as "cartouche architecture" and Central Park West would not be the same without him. His sons, naturally, turned their backs on ornament, and produced some very good, and some not-so-good buildings in the more or less International Style.

Between Third Avenue and Lexington Avenue

2005-08-23T10:51:00.000-04:00

Just another block mostly tallish buildings from mid-20th century.

Here's an IRT power station, located at 152-54 East 57th, dating from 1917.

Crush Wine Company, at 153 East 57th is a Myriad Restaurant Group (Drew Nieporent et al) venture. The store is beautifully designed. Unusual featured wines are displayed as if they are floating. There's also a tasting room that looks like a hugh barrel. (It looks better than it sounds.)

Next door is "Gotta Have It," an autograph store that always seems to have a letter you want to read right in the window.

Take a look at the nice spandrels on the brick building nearby. The block is not completely without archtiectural interest.

Hammacher-Schlemmer, the store with the attractive bronze signband, is at 145-157 East 57th. It's impossible to predict what there will be in the window, but it's safe to assume that for every 1000 or more people who find the goods to be ridiculously over the top, there's at least one who must have it at any cost. The place has been in business a long time.

Across the street, at 140 East 57th, is the new Juan Valdez cafe, serving, naturally, Columbian coffee. It's not the first time Columbian coffee has been a feature of the neighborhood. During the late 50s and early 60s, this neighborhood, specifically, the blocks near Third Avenue between 57th Street and 60th Street, became the center for first-run movies, Hollywood and foreign. Columbian coffee was introduced to New Yorkers at coffee bars in these theaters. The first was at either the Baronet and Coronet (destroyed, now an Urban Outfitters) or at Cinema I and Cinema II. The latter theater now with a third screen added, has been sadly stripped, not only of its Columbian coffee bar, but of its first-rate decor, which included copper-finished artichoke-lamp chandeliers (new at the time, long before they became a cliche) and an Ilya Bolotowsky mural on the interior as well as its facade of blue Venetian glass. The owners picked the theater clean to avoid designation as a landmark. But I digress, (gnashing my teeth.)

An Italian restaurant, Teodora, much praised by Jonathn Reynolds in the New York Times magazine, is at 141 East 57th. Reynolds felt that this is as authentic a Bolognese restaurant as exists in NYC.

We are now approaching the most interesting blocks.

2005-08-23T10:32:00.000-04:00

The block between Second and Third avenues is lined mostly with tall, nondescript mid-20th century buildings with retail establishments of various types on the ground floor. The High School of Art and Design on the south west corner and McDonald's on the northwest corner signal that we've entered into different territory.

At 251 East 57th Street is Extraordinary, a gift shop that carries attractive moderately-priced things for the home, including unusual, but tasteful picture frames and tabletop gew-gaws. Nothing you can't do without, but worth a look if you are passing by. A superior dry-cleaning establishment, Meurice, is at 245 East 57th. A certain fastidious tie-wearer swears that they make ties look new.

At the time that many buildings in midtown and the Upper East Side were being built with glazed white brick facades, there was also a tiny fad for buildings clad in glazed blue brick. Over time, most of those have been altered in conformity with today's tastes, but 220 East 57th Street is still blue, if otherwise undistinguished. What sets this building apart from all others is Lillian Nassau, part store, part gallery, part museum. Lillian Nassau sells only Tiffany lamps and French art nouveau furniture. Here is a picture of part of the window display. (My little camera has no way of dealing with reflections and I was not permitted to take a picture inside...) Imagine what these beauties cost. No, they cost more. I was relieved to learn that because the glass is quite thick, the bronze mountings are strong and the bases are so heavy that it's almost impossible to lift the lamp off the table, they are quite sturdy, despite their delicate appearance. The Brooklyn Museum of Art has a wonderful collection of these and MoMA has some too, but in the store, you can examine the lamps much more closely to truly appreciate the fine detail.

Across the street, at 220 East 57th, is Waterworks, for fine bathroom fixtures and accessories. How about a copper tub? Too much trouble to keep it shiny? How about a spa in your bathroom instead?

To furnish the rest of the home, take a look at Maurice Villency, on the south east cornoer of 57th and Third, but only if you have love contemporary design and have very deep pockets.

At the corner, look to the right to see a corner of a new building designed by Cesar Pelli that takes up the entire square block between 59th and 60th Streets and Third and Lexington avenues.

Between First and Second avenues

2005-08-23T10:27:00.000-04:00

This is a block mostly of mid-rise buildings -- 15 to 18 stories high, still mostly residential, with some businesses on the ground floors. There is a very nice bas-relief door surround at 345 East 57th Street. (Schwartz & Gross, 1928). 322 East 57th Street is a 10-story building (originally 8 stories) stretched out to occupy the height of a 16 story building. It's one of several studio buildings on the street. These buildings have a distinctive appearance with double-height windows to allow light into the double-height rooms. This one was also built in 1928. Some time recently a very visible two-story rooftop addition was added. If this building had been a designated landmark, the Landmarks Commission might have permitted a rooftop addition, but would have insisted that it not be visible from the street.

Looking uptown at the crosswalks at Sutton Place, First Avenue or Second Avenue, you may see the Roosevelt Island tram, here approaching its docking terminal at Second Avenue between 59th and 60th streets. For several years after Roosevelt Island was developed as a residential neighborhood, the tram was the major means of pubic transportation. The island was also reachable by bus or car via a bridge that connects to Queens. After the subway began service, the tram became primarily a tourist attraction until it began accepting metro cards and transfers from the MTA system. It is worth a ride at dusk, to see the lights of the city spread out below as you silently cross above the west channel of the East River. If you do take the ride, look downtown and you'll be able to catch a glimpse of the hidden gardens of Sutton Place. There's nothing much to do once you reach your destination except go back, unless you've been invited to someone's home for dinner.

2005-08-22T17:52:00.000-04:00

East 57th Street begins at a cul-de-sac east of Sutton Place. Sutton Place (really an extension of Avenue A) was developed in the early 1920s. The area immediately to the south was occupied by warehouses, piers, slaughterhouses and some very modest dwellings. In a very short time, it became one of Manhattan's priciest and most exclusive neighborhoods. One Sutton Place, (Mott B. Schmidt, 1920), on the right, if you are standing with your back to the East River, was built for Mrs. William Vanderbilt. It is entered from East 57th Street. If you look to the right you will see 3-5 Sutton Place, designed by Schmidt at the same time as #1. This is the home of the Secretary-General of the UN. Mr. Annan and his family share the rear garden with his neighbors. Like the neighborhood? Here's a house for sale. It belonged to the late Cy Coleman, perhaps best known as the composer of "Sweet Charity."

This little building is probably one of the oldest on the street.
I'll check others as I go along, but this one was built in 1868.
It was greatly altered over the years, with the major change ocurring in 1920.

I liked the brickwork on this 15-story building. It dates from 1926 and was designed by George and Edward Blum. The bricks are a dark red, very rough, and set with recessed mortar joints in English bond. The surface is very lively due to the use of clinkers --bricks that didn't come out so well in the firing, but that can be used for decorative purposes, as they are here. You see more of this kind of brickwork in London than you do in NYC. Next: from First to Second Avenues.

57th Street - River to River

2005-08-21T16:56:00.000-04:00

When the city fathers created a street grid for Manhattan early in the 19th century, they had in mind ease of development and not aesthetics. Hence, an unintended, but welcome result is that Manhattan is hard to get lost except in certain areas that pre-dated the grid. Looking at a map, one would not think that it's a city for casual wandering or ramdom discovery. The grid looks boring. But, there are surprises, even as one walks the straight and narrow. Neighborhoods did not form along strict lines. One of the best ways to experience the variety is to choose a street, walk its length and observe the change in character. In Manhattan, the north-south streets are the Avenues, some of which have names like Park Avenue, or Broadway, while the east-west streets are usually numbered, although there are exceptions, like Houston and Canal Streets. For most of the borough, Fifth Avenue is the dividing line between east and west. One of my favorite streets is 57th Street. I am going to walk its length, with the camera in hand, beginning at the easternmost end, east of Sutton Place all the way to 12th Avenue and report on some of the things I see.

Opinions expressed are my own, but I have fact-checked for dates of construction and names of architects and occasionally on a building style. There is no one source in which data on all the buildings is located. The following sources have been useful: Websites: Office of Metropolitan History, NYC Department of Buildings, NYC Landmarks Commission, New York Times, NY Songlines and Emporis.

Books: AIA Guide to New York City, by Norval White and Elliot Willensky; New York City Landmarks, 3rd edition, text by Andrew Dolkart and Matthew Postal, New York 1880, New York 1900, New York 1930, New York 1960 (4 separate vols.) Robert A.M. Stern, et al.