The Covid pandemic is exacting a horrible toll, yet history shows us perseverance and purpose. The pandemic has been a brutally difficult time, provoking much suffering and death, and it continues to do so. We each know of precious ones lost; a doctor, nurse, or other health care worker enduring deaths and illnesses among their […]
Entries Tagged as 'landmarks'
Slavery in Ulster County: A Fuller Story
February 21st, 2022 · No Comments · Beyond Gotham
Tags: Hudson Valley·landmarks·new york·women
At Risk: The McGraw-Hill Building’s Lobby
February 24th, 2021 · 4 Comments · Be a Mindful Activist
A gleaming Streamline Moderne lobby of New York City’s original McGraw-Hill Building is under threat of a renovation that could obliterate its historic character. Architect Raymond Hood, who designed some of the very finest, awe-inspiring Art Deco skyscrapers of the era, created the lobby as a perfect entrance statement that fit with the McGraw-Hill’s bold, […]
The Capitol: Desecration and Resilience
January 19th, 2021 · 2 Comments · Beyond Gotham
We have witnessed an attempted murder – of our democracy. We have watched the scenes of raging and violence, each worse than the one on view before. It occurred over hours of pain and chaos in a hallowed place, as Congressman Eric Swalwell termed it, the “sacred chamber” that is at the heart of democracy […]
Tags: landmarks·Presidents·Washington
Bill Aimed At Halting Trump Design Edict
July 20th, 2020 · No Comments · Beyond Gotham
The Trump Administration may soon order that all new major federal buildings look like 21st century renditions of Greek temples or the U.S. Capitol. But a new bill from a Democratic Congresswoman could head the Administration off at the pass. The news first came out in February that Donald Trump and his Administration were going […]
Tags: architecture·landmarks·Washington
A Time To Go To Historic Places – Virtually
June 5th, 2020 · No Comments · Beyond Gotham
Solidity. That is the message the IRT Powerhouse conveyed to someone who was very much in need of it during the spring of 1994, the very first times I walked near this mammoth building on Eleventh Avenue. Its massiveness, solidity, strength, and grace were awe-striking to a single person standing before it on the full […]
Tags: landmarks
Marking 55 Years of New York Landmarks
April 24th, 2020 · No Comments · Explore New York
This week is an anniversary worth honoring, yet one that is going by relatively quietly. Fifty-five years ago, on April 19, 1965, New York City Mayor Robert F. Wagner signed the city’s Landmarks Law. Groundbreaking at a time of widespread demolition and clearing of buildings and blocks in New York and elsewhere, it established the […]
Tags: architecture·landmarks·new york
Trump’s Bid To Dictate Architectural Style
March 16th, 2020 · 2 Comments · Beyond Gotham
Carol Ross Barney designed the Oklahoma City Federal Building to “let the materials” create a “strong and beautiful presence.” Indeed, it’s an agile structure that even at just three stories soars and opens in a graceful way to the surrounding green spaces that honor the 168 people who perished in the 1995 bombing at the […]
Preservation Triumphs of 2018
January 26th, 2019 · No Comments · Explore New York
The beautifully proportioned, sand-colored, two-story Beaux Arts building at 236 President Place in Brooklyn is not as grand as the larger structures of this style one finds in New York City. Yet its purpose was great and historic, in its own way, as those places, and its stateliness reflects that higher good. The late 19th […]
Tags: architecture·Brooklyn·historic preservation·Hudson Valley·landmarks·manhattan
Victory in Saving an Underground RR Site
June 3rd, 2017 · No Comments · Be a Mindful Activist
In a win for those seeking to preserve the history of an abolitionist’s house where escaped slaves found safe passage, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) decided early last week that the owner must abandon plans for a fifth-floor addition and restore the building to its original height. In a city of 8 […]
Tags: architecture·historic preservation·landmarks·new york·women
Stonewall: The Power in History’s Places
June 26th, 2016 · 4 Comments · Explore New York
If you ever for a moment doubt the importance of declaring a site as a landmark, preserving at least some part of it, or placing a sign at a spot of historical significance, go to The Stonewall Inn this month, in New York’s Greenwich Village. There, hundreds have converged in vigils and left remembrances such […]
Tags: historic preservation·landmarks·manhattan·midtown·new york
Sacred Sites Open for Exploration
May 20th, 2016 · 2 Comments · Explore New York
New York’s sacred places of worship possess countless life stories and historical chapters as well as inspiring and magnificent art, architecture, and design. Jacob Riis, the social reformer and photographer whose works brought to light the suffering of the poor living in New York City tenements, was one of the early parishioners of the Church […]
Tags: architecture·historic preservation·landmarks·new york·spiritual places
The Lessons of LG Sparing the Palisades
July 3rd, 2015 · No Comments · Beyond Gotham
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings,” wrote the pioneering conservationist John Muir in his 1901 book, Our National Parks. On Tuesday, June 23, the mountains – that is to say, the cliffs of the Palisades – were the focus of good tidings for all of us and for future generations. LG Electronics, the […]
Tags: historic preservation·Hudson Valley·landmarks·New Jersey·new york
Cleveland’s Streamline Station Survivor
March 6th, 2015 · 4 Comments · Beyond Gotham, Columns and Features
Let’s play word association: Think of the word “Greyhound.” Chances are, the terms “sleek,” “aerodynamic,” and “futuristic” are not likely to jump to mind. Decades ago, however, they may well have. Not too long after the automobile and road travel gained wider public acceptance, Greyhound was one of the forward-looking companies seeking to captivate those […]
A Message in a Lobby
January 26th, 2015 · 8 Comments · Columns and Features, Explore New York
It was just before Christmas, and thousands were in the mad rush and jostling along Fifth Avenue, with their cameras and shopping bags, to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. The shoppers lined up at the boutiques and gift shops in Midtown Manhattan. Just south, however, is a building that doesn’t make a list of […]
What You Can Do to Save the Palisades
August 16th, 2014 · No Comments · Be a Mindful Activist
Fast forward several years and picture that you are on the east side of the Hudson River, looking across at the steep ledges of the Palisades north of the George Washington Bridge. But where once over many years the cliffs stood out boldly, etched against the skies, now a large office tower protrudes above the […]
Tags: historic preservation·Hudson Valley·landmarks·New Jersey·new york
July Notes: Daylight, Towers, Prison Ships
July 17th, 2014 · 2 Comments · Beyond Gotham
For early summer, let’s skim the stones across the waters of several Mindful Walker topics. Honoring the First American Prisoners of War: The words “freedom” and “Independence Day” are inextricably linked, but how often on the Independence Day weekend did any of us think about those who gave their lives for the cause of American […]
Tags: Brooklyn·landmarks·manhattan·meditations·nature·new york
Joseph Mitchell’s Regard for Ornament
April 18th, 2014 · 6 Comments · Explore New York
Joseph Mitchell possessed a lifelong fascination with New York City’s survivors, both its characters and its buildings, especially ones that often escaped notice. For some 26 years, from 1938 to 1964, his essays in The New Yorker portrayed the city’s inhabitants from the bearded Lady Olga of circus sideshows and the stout Germans carrying their […]
Pennsylvania Station: Its Glory and Death
February 18th, 2014 · 9 Comments · Explore New York
If ever a hallowed place existed for the travel of the common man and woman, it was New York’s original Pennsylvania Station. Yet a magnificent, soaring station that Alexander Cassatt and the Pennsylvania Railroad built for the ages and opened in 1910 lasted barely over a half-century. Two days after workers started tearing down the […]
Tags: architecture·Beaux Arts·historic preservation·landmarks·manhattan·new york
The Enduring Wonder of the Rookery
December 30th, 2013 · 1 Comment · Beyond Gotham
One could be forgiven for thinking that one of the crows in terra cotta on Chicago’s Rookery building depicts a current leader of the U.S. Congress. Some of our greatest buildings possess an expressiveness that speaks not only of the time period in which architects and builders created the structure but also to today. The […]
Tags: architecture·Chicago·cities·historic preservation·landmarks
The Child Who Became Sojourner Truth
October 14th, 2013 · 2 Comments · Beyond Gotham
In her strong legs and the bare, vulnerable feet; in a long, deep gash on her back; in the upright posture and gaze; and in the sight of the two large jugs she is carrying are the visual reality that children lived as slaves in the United States. This statue is sure to inspire many […]
