If you want to choose an exhibition to break out of the difficulty and isolation that the Covid pandemic has produced for more than a year-and-a-half, how about one where you can see the original umbrella connected with Mary Poppins, a tablet of cuneiform characters from the 3rd to the 1st millennia BCA, and a […]
Entries Tagged as 'manhattan'
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
Honoring the Landmark IRT Powerhouse
January 9th, 2018 · 10 Comments · Explore New York
It may be the most underappreciated major historic building in New York City. Finally, however, the magnificent powerhouse that generated electricity for New York City’s pioneering rapid transit subway system when it first opened in 1904 is a protected city landmark. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission’s (LPC’s) recent action to designate the IRT […]
Tags: architecture·cities·historic preservation·manhattan·midtown·new york·terra cotta
Spring Exhibits: Noguchi, Photography
April 22nd, 2017 · 7 Comments · Explore New York
In the middle of extreme inhumanity, some of us go more deeply and courageously into our humanity and act from this place. The Japanese-American artist and sculptor Isamu Noguchi brought the best of his humanity, dignity, and a sense of the capacity of beauty and art to elevate people during a horrendous time. He did […]
A Subway Powerhouse Speaks To Today
March 11th, 2017 · 4 Comments · Beyond Gotham
Sometimes a message of resilience can come in an instant, and often not predictably. The IRT Powerhouse on 11th Avenue isn’t giving a speech or waving a flag, and it’s not a talking head seeking to shout a point of view at passersby or boast of its strength. Yet, the sight of this 1904 building […]
Tags: architecture·cities·historic preservation·manhattan·midtown·new york·terra cotta
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
Goodbye to the Greenwich Street Tree
May 3rd, 2016 · 6 Comments · Explore New York
The tree wasn’t a towering oak on the rolling landscape of a New York City park, a magnificent elm with big-shouldered limbs, or a bright, showy dogwood welcoming the spring on a village street. It was, in fact, the most unlikely of survivors, sort of scrawny, alone, between city buildings and flanking some very inhospitable […]
Tags: manhattan·meditations·nature·new york
Art Deco’s Wisdom of the Ages, Part II
January 29th, 2016 · 4 Comments · Explore New York
How many schoolchildren over the decades glanced above the doorway to see a woman reading to a boy while a girl nearby is working on an abacus? It is a simple, beautifully sculpted panel, attentive to detail, as the architectural historian William Rhoads writes, “down to the shoelaces.” The scene is one of two on […]
Tags: architecture·art deco·Hudson Valley·manhattan·new york
Symbol and Story in Art Deco Panels
November 18th, 2015 · 2 Comments · Beyond Gotham
Buildings possess energy that can at times elevate or depress the people who view and inhabit them. Like other art, architecture can both be in and rise above its times. Talking about the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, bandleader and jazz singer Cab Calloway once said that people really needed entertainment […]
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 […]
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
A Peek Inside Dazzling 29 Broadway
June 20th, 2014 · 6 Comments · Explore New York
It’s hard to quantify the exuberance of Art Deco. Its energy can make an immobile decorative element feel like it’s about to move. Its images jump off of flat surfaces. Its zigzags, lines, and circles seem to dance. Such is the quality of the lobby of 29 Broadway, a lesser-known beauty in New York’s Art […]
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 Art Deco Pleasures of 29 Broadway
November 15th, 2013 · 6 Comments · Explore New York
Their names are unknown, but the fine results of their craftsmanship remain today. On an evening in late February, 1931, the New York Building Congress gave awards and gold buttons to 26 craftsmen for their outstanding work in constructing 29 Broadway. The awards went to William John Delaney, a stonecutter; Louis Materossi, a cement mason; […]
Roped In at Madison Square Park
August 12th, 2013 · 5 Comments · Explore New York
You cannot miss Orly Genger’s Red, Yellow and Blue art installation this summer in Manhattan. If people say this statement, they may mean, “You have got to see this!” Or, they may mean, “You cannot escape seeing this!” when walking through Madison Square Park. During the late spring and summer, this 166-year-old gracious park has […]
New York’s Dark Days: The Draft Riots
July 18th, 2013 · No Comments · Explore New York
On July 13, 1863, Chief Engineer John Decker of the New York City Volunteer Fire Department stood before a mob that had ransacked a building and were now intent on setting it afire. It was known as the Colored Orphan Asylum, a refuge for hundreds of black children located on Fifth Avenue between 42nd and […]
Tags: civil war·historic preservation·landmarks·manhattan·new york·women
What Is the Future of Midtown East?
May 31st, 2013 · 2 Comments · Be a Mindful Activist, Explore New York
One person’s “beautiful” is another person’s “dowdy,” and someone’s pronouncement of “architectural significance” is another’s “obsolescence.” These are the terms people are using in a clash over zoning and related plans that will likely shape a historic part of New York City for the future. Consider the character and skyline of Manhattan’s Midtown East, where […]
Tags: architecture·historic preservation·landmarks·manhattan·midtown·New York architecture·smart growth
Grand Central’s Gems at 100, Part II
March 27th, 2013 · 1 Comment · Explore New York
If children were to design and build a train station, it might well turn out to be Grand Central Terminal. It’s big, and it has all kinds of cubbyholes, caverns, and passageways; a magical ceiling full of stars; places with models, books, and toys; great food from hot dogs and chili to all kinds of […]
Tags: architecture·Beaux Arts·landmarks·manhattan·New York architecture
The Treasures of Grand Central at 100
January 31st, 2013 · 9 Comments · Explore New York
For many, it may be hard to grasp that where Grand Central Terminal stands today we could have had massive office towers and no magnificent train station. But it’s important to never forget. In the 1950s and 1960s on separate occasions, developers and Penn Central Railroad launched plans that would have destroyed Grand Central. Ultimately, […]
Tags: architecture·Beaux Arts·landmarks·manhattan·New York architecture
Splashy Art Deco on a Staid Block
December 6th, 2012 · 11 Comments · Explore New York
Some musical riffs can suddenly elevate the mood. So, too, can a jazzy building. It can bring your senses alive, make you perk up and pay attention, if even for a short time. Buildings aren’t passive entities; the very good ones generate an active engagement. The best architects know this to the core. In a […]
Tags: architecture·art deco·historic preservation·landmarks·manhattan
