Tag Archives: New York

Save the Frick Music Room

Posted on November 18, 2019 by

Boards of institutions always seem to want to do more for the institution than the institution needs. And whenever a board proposes to do something, it is normally more than is judicious, often a lot more – a unwitting attack … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

For one- or two-way streets?

Posted on July 22, 2019 by

On a recent sojourn in (and above) Manhattan, Steve Mouzon sparked a Facebook conversation about the merits and demerits of one- and two-way streets. It unfolded at such a high level of thoughtfulness about streets (of either ilk) from so … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

More for my groaning shelf

Posted on April 14, 2019 by

Here is the UK Guardian architecture critic Oliver Wainwright’s critique of Hudson Yards, the “largest and most expensive private real estate project in U.S. history.” His article is called “Horror on the Hudson: New York’s $25bn architectural fiasco,” and it … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

HQ2 twofers and Providence

Posted on November 14, 2018 by

Two major eastern cities have won the HQ2 sweepstakes, and you have to wonder whether the twofers – Long Island City and Crystal City, outside Manhattan and D.C. – both realize they got half a loaf. How soon will it … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Corbu’s rant at Neimeyer

Posted on June 21, 2018 by

Oscar Niemeyer, the Brazilian architect who died in 2012 at age 104, is best known for designing Brasília, the sterile über-modernist new capital city that arose in the Brazilian outback in something like three years in the late 1950s. Its … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The battle of the Frick

Posted on June 17, 2018 by

The question of how to expand the Frick Gallery, on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, without threatening its architectural integrity continues following a May 29 hearing of the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission. Four hours of testimony for and against the … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Steampunk vid of New York

Posted on May 15, 2018 by

Came across this film, “The Old New World,” of New York and bits of Boston and Washington, D.C. (the Capitol), in about 1931, on the Kuriositas website. It is the Old New World Project run by Alexey Zakharoff. It is … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Old Video | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Stern’s 250 W81st tops out

Posted on February 5, 2018 by

Robert A. M. Stern’s latest Manhattan apartment building at 250 West 81st St., on a corner of Broadway, recently topped out. That means the top of the building’s steel structure of girders has been achieved. It is 209 feet tall, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Stuart Little, Gramercy Park

Posted on December 30, 2017 by

Here is another sketch by Garth Williams from E.B. White’s Stuart Little.  The lovelorn mouse is about to leave the Little residence in search of Margalo, a lady bird who has fled. A pigeon (“the weird pigeon,” my little boy … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

“Shabby little old walkups”?

Posted on September 7, 2017 by

Today at 7, Books on the Square, 471 Angell St. on Wayland Square, will host a book event for Lost Providence. But you already know that, so what about this: The landscape of New York in fact is filled with … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Lost Providence, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments