Meatpacking District, Washington Street at Little West 12th

Mary Sargent © 2009 ………………….…………… ………………….. click to enlarge

Tomorrow a turn down Little West 12th.

Meatpacking District, Washington Street between Gansevoort and Little West 12th Streets

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Old building, new stores.

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Meatpacking District, Gansevoort Street Between Washington and West Streets

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On November 6, three weeks ago, I went down to the Meatpacking District to get my hair cut at Red Market Salon.  If you follow the link, you will see that this is a very trendy, happening salon for meatpacking types to get haircuts and drinks at night, just the kind of salon a girl like me does not willingly set foot into.  I prefer a low key sort of place for a haircut.  I'm fond of haircutters who confine their talking to matters of hair.

I went there all unknowingly because I had gotten a discount at LifeBooker, and I had neglected to visit Red Market's website.  I gotta tell you, it was one of the pleasantest haircutting experiences I've ever had.  Up three flights of stairs to a pretty room with wooden floors painted white and red chairs and sun coming through the windows.  One other customer.  A lovely, quiet haircutter.  Good coffee.  70's music on the soundtrack.  When is the last time you heard Creedence Clearwater whilst getting a haircut?  And a good haircut.  Perfect.  Except for the price, of course.  Yes, even with a discount, a bit pricy.

But all of that is neither here nor there concerning these photographs.  After I left Red Market, I decided to check the progress at Gansevoort Street where the Whitney is going to be building a branch.  I guess they're not in a hurry.  Compare to five months ago.




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Here at the end of the block is a phone booth.  Do they still call them that?





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The other side of the street.


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Chelsea, 23rd Street Between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues

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Here at 23rd Street, just around the corner, is The Half King.  I am COLD and ready for an Irish coffee.  The bartender made a really delicious one and when I complimented him, he said, rather unnecessarily, they're good because they're hot.  And they have alcohol.

The Half King, is a literary bar, being half owned by Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm, and they have readings on Monday nights. 

See the construction right next door?


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Here's a view from across the street.  Yet another fancy schmancy building going up in Chelsea; this one called HL23 (for High Line, 23rd Street), by so-called avant-garde architect Neil Denari.  Read all about it in Curbed.  I think it's pretty homely myself, but Curbed is very excited.  However, Denari's website is surprisingly ugly.  Doesn't that tell you something?

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Chelsea, Tenth Avenue Between 24th and 23rd Streets

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The next block is very different.  For one thing, instead of street level tenants like 10th Avenue Pizza and the former Joe's Tavern Bar, the tenants here are the U.S. Postal Service and Chase Bank.




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For another, the building is way taller.  This is London Terrace, begun in 1929, partly completed in 1930, and covering an entire city block, from 23rd to 24th Streets and Ninth to Tenth Avenues.  This photo shows one of the corner towers.  At the time it was built, it was the largest apartment building in the world. 

I recommend you follow the above link to London Terrace as it gives some history and historical photographs.  Henry Mandel was the developer, "the Donald Trump of his day," but the Great Depression did him in and he killed himself by jumping off his building.

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Chelsea, Tenth Avenue at 25th Street

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We've finally turned off 25th Street onto Tenth Avenue.  This whole block is low rise; the building on the far right is the tallest on the block.

If you enlarge this, you can see what look like fire escapes except there's no way to escape.  There's no ladder, and on greater enlargement, there's no indication there ever was one.  So what are they?  You have to climb out of a window to get to them so you can't call them, uh, terraces, balconies.  Another Manhattan mystery.

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Chelsea, 25th Street Between Eleventh and Tenth Avenues

Here are three more photos from this Chelsea block on this cold gray day, pictures of quite ordinary, unremarkable, yes, scruffy things, and yet . . . well, I confess, I love them. 

If you want to know what I mean, you will have to enlarge them and really look at them for a few seconds.  Especially the last one.




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Chelsea, 25th Street Between Eleventh and Tenth Avenues

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Chelsea, 25th Street Between Eleventh and Tenth Avenues

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The very next day, October 30, I went back down to do data entry for OHNY, planning to take another walk afterwards. It was warmish when I left my house and NY1 predicted another nice day, but when I left the office, it was no longer nice. It looked like this. And I only had a jeans jacket. Therefore, armed with my new knowledge of the Half King's location, I limited my walk to this one block of 25th Street, and the two blocks it took to get to it (the Half King). Where I figured they knew how to make an Irish coffee.

This is looking east.


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Chelsea, 30th Street at Tenth Avenue

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And now this walk comes to an end (at last!) on an anticlimactic note.  As I mentioned earlier, I had run out of camera space by the time I got to Tenth Avenue (except for one, see above), so I didn't record my unsuccessful search for The Half King.  I had remembered it as being on 25th and Tenth and when it wasn't there, I kept walking north.  I later learned, to my surprise, that it's on 23rd and Tenth, but that's a story for the next walk.

Chelsea, 24th Street Between Eleventh and Tenth Avenues

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This building is known only as 245 Tenth Avenue.  We're on 24th Street, so we're looking at it from the side. 

This is a hell of a photogenic building.  I worked on some other views of it and I was going to put three shots up, but then I decided to use just this one.  Because it's so stunning.  Well, I think it is.

That's the Highline on the left, this part not yet developed as part of the park.

Chelsea, 24th Street Between Eleventh and Tenth Avenues

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Here is a symbol of urban lonliness, a man walking alone on a desolate street, head down, pondering the misfortunes that have befallen--But wait!  Never mind, he's just texting on his cell phone.

I left the enlargement extra large so you can see I'm telling the truth.

Chelsea, 24th Street Between Twelfth and Eleventh Avenues

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I promise this is the last photo I'll show of the Post Office vehicle maintenance facility.  For now.

Does anyone know what that tree is?  I thought it had red berries on it, but upon enlargement discovered they were leaves.  How wonderful to have a tree with mostly green leaves and just a few red ones.

In other news, I was in Union Square today, coming back from my opthamalogist on East 14th Street.  There was unfamiliar music down there in the subway.  Opera singers!  Two tenors with recorded music were taking turns singing arias.  They were good and it was quite wonderful and, in fact, felt like an opera with hundreds of extras rushing by.  There is so much talent in this city that it just overflows.

Chelsea, 24th Street Between Twelfth and Eleventh Avenues

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What are they playing?

Chelsea, 24th Street Between Twelfth and Eleventh Avenues

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Now, walking back on 24th Street alongside the post office facility, two moving objects arrange themselves so as to form a primary colors triangle with the USPS.

Chelsea, Twelfth Avenue Between 23rd and 24th Streets

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All right, so this isn't the most interesting shot I've put up here.  What I should have done was use a slow shutter speed so the cars would be going by in a blur and you'd have a good idea of the danger I was putting myself in for the sake of the blog.  Damn.


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As I was walking along here, I was admonishing myself to notice more.  Next thing I know I see this post noticing me.

Chelsea Waterside Park at 23rd Street and Eleventh Avenue

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The park is lovely with landscaping and winding paths where one may come upon a young couple engaging in-- yes, couple.  There is a girl back there.




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But this may be my favorite spot.  A quiet alcove with benches carefully placed so that one may contemplate the dumpster.

Chelsea Waterside Park at 23rd Street and Eleventh Avenue

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I learned a new word tonight:  demapped.  Use in a sentence:  ". . . 23rd street was demapped between 11th and 12th Avenues . . ."  You are looking at the now demapped 23rd Street.  This quote is from our Parks Department on their page about Chelsea Waterside Park, which was expanded and renovated in 2000.

Since my map was published prior to the demapping, I walked this former street, came home and colored it in.

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Chelsea, Eleventh Avenue Between 24th and 23rd Streets

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Chelsea, Eleventh Avenue Between 24th and 23rd Streets

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Last night we saw the block between 25th and 24th and we also saw a building from the next block. Here it is closer up.



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This is a big deal condo going up and you can read all about it in Curbed. Look for the entries under 200 Eleventh Avenue. The most exciting feature is the sky garage, a car elevator that takes each owner directly to their apartment. Wow. This is good protection for people plagued by those pesky paparazzi.

You notice all this netting on construction sites? I thought maybe it was a new thing, but it turns out it's been required by city law since 1987. On my way to discovering that fact, I also discovered I would die at age 100. You know how when you start typing something in Google, it will offer suggestions? When I typed "when", the first word of my question, google suggested "when will I die". That's kind of hard to ignore. 



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But now, look at this tiny little building next to the fabulous new skyscraper.  When I saw this, I had the same reaction that I have to kittens or puppies, or the occasional baby:  an intake of breath and a little moan. 




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In fact I was motivated to change my lens so I could get a close-up.

Chelsea, Eleventh Avenue Between 25th and 24th Streets

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We are on Eleventh Avenue at 25th Street, but we're looking at the block between 25th and 24th Streets. The second tall building you see is in the next block. So on this block we have a tall, massive, ornate building next to a low, utilitarian sructure. Here's a shot of the LU structure.





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It could be the trunk of the TMO building. Except wouldn't you think such a fancy building would have a better looking trunk?

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Chelsea, Eleventh Avenue at 25th Street

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This is looking back at 25th Street.  That's the Chelsea Arts Tower on the left, not looking quite so fabulous from this view.  And the building on the right is where the art gallery with the 4-legged birds is located.

Which reminds me, I did revisit that gallery today and now I have the information we need.  The gallery is Gana Art and the artist is Shigeru Uchida, a Japanese architect and designer.

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Chelsea, Eleventh Avenue at 25th Street

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25th Street ends here at Eleventh Avenue where two whole blocks are taken up with a post office facility.  The sign said Manhattan VMF.  Through diligent research, I learned that probably means Vehicle Maintenace Facility.




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It's quite a colorful, swoopy sort of place.  Playful, you might say.




Mary Sargent © 2009 ……………………….. click to enlarge

It's something to be happy about.

Chelsea, 25th Street Between Eleventh and Tenth Avenues

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Just at the end of this block, here's a gallery I think I want to have a look at.





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Inside, we see it's an installation with trees, sheep and pools of water.





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But wait!  Those don't look like sheep - they look like 4-legged birds. 

At this point, as I'm trying to figure out exactly what the artist intended them to be, I realize I have no information on the gallery or the artist.  Inexcusable, I know.  I tried googling wooden trees and sheep exhibition; nothing came up, but of course, maybe I should have googled wooden trees and 4-legged birds.

I'm going back to do some more work this week, and I will get answers.
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11/4 - yes answers:  Gana Art is the gallery; Shigeru Uchida is the artist.

Chelsea, 25th Street Between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues

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This building is where OHNY has its office where I'm doing some volunteer work. On the ground floor is Gallery Henoch which is currently exhibiting a pretty good still life show. I particularly like Olga Antonova, but you have to see her stuff in person to appreciate it.





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Look at that intricate brickwork around the arch.  Remember to enlarge it.  Do you think the bricklayers had patterns to consult?
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After looking at a couple of exhibitions, I walked west on 25th Street, then down Eleventh Avenue to 23rd, then west on 23rd to Twelfth Avenue, then up to 24th Street, and across to Tenth Avenue where I ran out of space on my card. The reason I took such a tightly coiled walk was to close a few gaps on my map. It looks much better now. The next walk should be more straightforward.








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Here's a view looking west on 25th Street.










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And a close up.

Chelsea, 25th Street Between Eleventh and Tenth Avenues

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This, the Chelsea Arts Tower, completed in 2006, is the first condominium for art galleries in New York, according to New York Construction's website. You know, instead of waiting around for the neighborhood to go upscale and their rents to rise, they'll buy their space and be secure. Restaurants have gotten wise to that, now galleries. A few, anyway. Marlborough is on the first two floors.

The New York Times reported that in an unusual move, the developers used focus groups of gallery owners to learn what they wanted in gallery space, resulting in some changes, e.g., higher ceilings, three elevators instead of two.  Uh, unusual?  Let's see, we want gallery owners to buy space here.  I wonder what would get them to buy.  I got it, we'll ask them!

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