Chelsea, 30th Street Between Seventh and Sixth Avenues

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A week ago Saturday, I found myself on this block in front of this building that we first saw two years ago.  With one important difference.  This time I had a wide angle lens.  And now you can see the whole thing.  This is the former 23rd Police Precinct Station House and you can read all about it at the above link.

Lower East Side, Orchard Street at Delancey

After walking two blocks, I stopped to look at my watch - I mean, cell phone - and realized this photowalk was over.  The tour was starting soon, so I hustled over to, uh, Joe's Fabric Warehouse, and took one last photo.


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Even though it looks like these people are waiting to get into Joe's, they are actually waiting for a tour.  The Tenement Museum Gift Shop is back there somewhere, and the tours start and end here.

Luka and I went on the "Getting By" Tour which took us to two apartments:  the first restored to 1863, the second to the 1930's.  It was so good, so interesting. They've really done a good job.  Luka's father grew up on the Lower East Side, she thinks Rivington Street, so she has a special interest.  But you don't need a special interest to find this fascinating.  Please put this on your list before you forget about it.

Now, as to Joe's Fabric Warehouse, it opened in 1998. and according to The New York Times, was a harbinger of a new kind of Lower East Side.  If you'd like to see a copy of the real thing on Joe's website, complete with photos, but absent 2 other fabric stores, click here.

Lower East Side, Chrystie Street Between Stanton and Rivington

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Below are three photographs across the street from the park, showing the spread of Chinatown.  This is pretty far north of any current boundaries.



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Perhaps someday we'll all be Chinese.  Umm, good food.

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Lower East Side, Chrystie Street Between Houston and Stanton Streets, Stanton and Rivington

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Playing basketball surrounded by large trees seems kind of idyllic, don't you think?





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On the other side of the court is this group of ball players, composed of those who wear long pants.  It's hard to take them very seriously.



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The park continues for seven blocks, to Canal Street, but here at Stanton, it almost looks like a different park.  All business, no idylls.

Lower East Side, Chrystie Street at Houston

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Okay, it's a dull photo, and you're wondering why I put it up and what you're supposed to see in it.  It's strictly because of the Whole Foods Market across the street.  I was surprised to see it here and I think my reaction was to kind of grumble to myself about how Whole Foods is everywhere now.  I had no idea I was in the presence of the most wonderful Whole Foods in existence.  Yelp has 203 reviewers, most of whom write at length about how much they love this particular Whole Foods.  The dining area upstairs!  The beer room! The spaciousness!

I'm sure stopping in next time I'm here.

Lower East Side, Houston Street at Chrystie

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Last Wednesday, Luka and I were determined to go on a Tenement Museum tour, so we actually made reservations like normal people do.  On my way to meet her at the museum, I did a short photowalk down Chrystie.  Had to stop after two blocks because the tour was starting soon.

This is the entrance to the Sara D. Roosevelt Park on Houston Street.  Not Eleanor, Sara.  Franklin's mother.  Why on earth would they name a park for the president's mother, I wondered.  The Parks Department was there with the answer:

The park was named by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in 1934 for Sara Delano Roosevelt (1854-1941), President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's mother, as a way of currying favor with the new Roosevelt Administration. She held the distinction of being the only Presidential mother, after Mary Washington, to live to see her son take office.

This was from a recent press release about the ribbon cutting on a new and improved $5 million dollar renovation of the Hester Street Playground at the final block of the park between Hester and Canal.  Can't wait to see it.


See map.

Lower East Side, Allen Street at Broome

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For the last shot of this one-block photowalk, I give you Composition in Beige and Green.

Tomorrow, a two-block photowalk.

Lower East Side, Allen Street Between Broome and Delancey

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So this is the renovation that demonstrates "what could and might be done in the future with the Allen and Pike Street Malls."  I must say, I'm underwhelmed.  After pondering this for a while, I realized it is the walkway that's the problem.  It's not integrated into the natural setting.  It looks like a strip of linoleum laid down on top of an asphalt walkway.  Do you agree?

Lower East Side, Allen Street Between Delancey and Broome

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You may remember the plan was to go to the Tenement Museum and take a tour, but the plan fell through.  However, here right on Allen Street is a glimpse of the rear yard reconstruction of the tenement at 97 Orchard Street.  Below is a view of the rear yard.

This building was a great find for the organizers of this museum because it had been boarded up for 50 years.  The landlord couldn't or wouldn't pay for the mandated upgrades to the building, so he evicted the tenants and closed off the upper floors, using only the street level commercial space. 



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It wasn't until 1895 that running water was provided to the building; before that, tenants come to the rear yard to get their water and to use the privies, shown here at the left.  There were four stalls serving the entire building and the patrons of the bar downstairs.

Lower East Side, Allen Street Between Delancey and Broome

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Last I heard, Chinatown ended at Grand Street, but it's looking mighty like Chinatown around the corner from Delancey.  I did find one acknowledgment of this in a real estate site, NYBits, and I quote:  Unlike neighboring Little Italy, Chinatown is continually expanding. The border between the two has all but disappeared and Chinatown now stretches from City Hall to Grand Street (by some accounts even further, to Delancey St).

I'm sure you remember that when I was last on the Lower East Side in January 2009, I was looking forward to visiting this block in the Spring.  It took a little longer than that, but no matter.  I had read about the redesign of the center mall.  We'll see it close up in a few days.

See map.

 

Lower East Side, Delancey Street at Allen Street

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We have finally torn ourselves from the magnetic field of White Slab and made it to the streets once again.  Please no rain.

Lower East Side, Delancey Street at Allen

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In due time, the food arrived, and once again, in the excitement of actual food in front of me, I forgot to take pictures. So picture this:  a fish sandwich on a kind of thick powdery looking good bread, oozing with tartar sauce and sliced cornichons and greens, with salad and homemade potato chips on my side; on Luka's side, crunchy potato pancakes with ligonberries and bacon, no make that ham, we're out of bacon.  But the ham was surprisingly good as a bacon substitute because it was fried crisp.  The sandwich, though hard to eat, was quite good (the fish was pollock), the salad, not very, and the potato chips, fine.  The potato pancakes were good once I got past the crunchiness factor.  Luka had no problem.  We shared, as you may have gathered.  All in all, although I wouldn't say the food was great, it was good enough to be able to come back another time and be in this enchanting place.

But here's the thing.  I was coming back from the bathroom and ran into the proprietor/chef/waitress, who looked at me, stricken, and said, we were shut down.  Much disbelief, indignation and sadness ensued.  According to her, it was a matter of saran wrap stored in the bathroom, some fruit flies and a little condensation, surely not enough to shut a restaurant down?  A fine, maybe, but not shut down.  We agreed wholeheartedly.  It did seem mean.  By this time, these people were our friends, our family, almost, and we hated to think of the lost money, the being out of work, and all that follows.

Thus the yellow notices on the doors.  We're hoping for a speedy reopening.

Lower East Side, Delancey Street at Allen

Now we're inside.  This is one of two other people in the place.



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Here's the other:



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Love those windows.  Loved being there.  I hope the food is good, I prayed.  It will be, promised Luka.  The proprietor/chef/waitress emerged from the basement and welcomed us but said we might have to wait a bit for food because there was an inspection going on.  In the meantime, we could get drinks and some olives and bread.



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It's a gin something with a nice bitter taste to counter the sweetness.  Luka always gets pretty drinks.

I must stop now, though I'm not finished. I have to get up in 3 hours.

Lower East Side, Delancey Street at Allen

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Luka and I had plans.  We would meet at the 2nd Avenue subway stop on the Lower East Side, and do a photowalk down Chrystie Street to Delancey. Turn on Delancey and walk to Orchard to the Tenement Museum, and take a tour, if possible.

We did meet at the appointed time, having arrived on the same train, but it was raining on Chrystie Street and so there was no photowalk on Chrystie Street.  Then we didn't want to take the last tour of the day, which is all that remained at the Tenement Museum, and so we took no tour.  What to do?  You already know the answer.  Find a restaurant.




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And so we did.  This is White Slab Palace, this shot taken on our way out.  We had arrived around 4 p.m. when it was almost empty and the doors and windows were closed, and there were no yellow notices on the doors.  This is the Delancey side.




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And this is the Allen Street Side.

Midtown, Broadway at 59th Street

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Here's the Time Warner Building seen in its entirety for the first time in this blog.  It has appeared in previous posts in supporting roles.

I love this photo for its look of unreality.  I feel like I'm a player on the board game, Candyland.  Notice the two-dimensionality of the left tower.  You may want to check the previous posts to reassure yourself that it is indeed a real tower.

Midtown, Broadway at 57th Street

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These walks are getting interminable; this one started on May 5th.  Time to wind down, go home.  So I've made it to Broadway, on my way to the 59th Street subway station.  I took this shot because of the Hearst Building over on Eighth Avenue - the building with the triangles.

I've hated this building from the moment I set eyes on it - as it was being constructed.  It has a lot to do with the building it sits atop, which is ludicrously incompatible.  Imagine my bafflement when all the architectural critics loved it.  I can only conclude they are drinking some funny Kool-aid.  To see what I'm talking about, go to the Wikipedia article and look at the first image.  Then scroll down to the 3 images and enlarge the third one.  Is that coherent?  Does it make any sense?  NO, no, no.  I will probably carry on some more when I do a photowalk closer up.  Perhaps I should take an architecture class in the meantime.

Midtown, 56th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues

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I shot this building because it is old and small and good looking.  Then later I learned the sad story of the Joseph Patelson Music House. It has apparently been closed for over a year, victim of the economy and the internet.  Sad, because it has been at this location since 1947, and being located across the street from Carnegie Hall's backstage entrance, has long been a hangout for visiting musicians as well as local music lovers.  The Times has a good story, worth a look.





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And here is the back of Carnegie Hall at Seventh Avenue.  We saw the front in February 2008.

Midtown, 56th Street Between Sixth and Seventh Avenues

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Here's Topaz Thai, so Carnegie Hall must be nearby.  I remember eating here a couple of times years ago, and liking it, but the last time, I ordered a dish I'd had before but this time it was so spicy, I couldn't eat it.  And I haven't been back since.  A little mistake like that and it's over.

Midtown, 56th Street Between Sixth and Seventh Avenues

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Now in the next block, it's all big city.  No more 3-story buildings.  Don't you love that little WOW half way up the buildings?

Midtown, 56th Street Between Fifth and Sixth Avenues

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56th Street between Fifth and Sixth looks back at big buildings to the east (see half of the broken pediment of the Sony Building on Madison), and forward to big buildings to the west, but here on this block, there are lots of old 3, 4 and 5 story buildings, as you can see here in this long shot.




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And there's the uptown version of Joe's Shanghai, famed for its soup dumplings (the soup is inside the dumplings, and they are good, good, good).  However, long before soup dumplings existed in Manhattan, Bill and I and FL and I made the arduous journey to Queens to try soup dumplings at Goody's, and my loyalties lie with Goody's as having the first and the better dumplings.  Later, they opened a branch in Chinatown on East Broadway, and later than that, they closed.  As far as I can tell, they no longer exist at all.  Oh, it's so sad.

But back to 56th Street.



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And these two cuties, one housing Sushiya.  If you check out the link, you can read a review that mentions the line at Abercrombie and Fitch's.  It seems to be an everyday thing.

Midtown, Fifth Avenue at 56th Street

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A line!  So exciting!  What could it be about? 





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They're standing in line for a store.  The only time I ever stood on line for a store was at P.J. Wine the day before Thanksgiving.  Cursing myself for waiting so late to get my holiday wine.  So what's so great about Abercrombie & Fitch? I bet they just had some of their employees start a line and people couldn't resist joining in.

Midtown, 56th Street at Madison Avenue

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I do want to talk about this notorious building with its Chippendale pediment, but I can't do it justice at this late hour.  This is the Sony Building, formerly the AT&T building, of Philip Johnson, one of the leading architects of the modernist period.  Come back tomorrow.  It's worth getting into.
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6/3 - Okay, so Philip Johnson championed the International Style of architecture and introduced it to the United States in a show he helped organize at The Museum of Modern Art in 1932, featuring, among others, the European architects Le Corbusier and Mies Van der Rohe.  The principles of the style, according to Johnson, were 1) emphasis of volume over mass, 2) asymmetry and 3) NO decoration.  The Seagram Building is a perfect example of this style.  See also the United Nations, designed by Le Corbusier.  However, Johnson lived a long time (98 years) and there came a time when he got bored with the International Style.  But you know how people get upset when you change.  Just think of Bob Dylan.  So when he built the AT&T Building and put a split pediment on top of it, looking like the top of a piece of furniture, some people carried on quite a bit about it.  This was in 1984, a couple of years after I moved here, and I remember the complaints.  Now, however, it is seen as one of the first expressions of postmodern architecture.  A good thing.  Witty and fun.

Note how I managed to get the pediment in the photo.  But you'll get better views and lot of them at New York Architecture images.

Midtown, Park Avenue at 56th Street

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This is Park Avenue from 56th Street, looking south.  Boy, aren't you glad you don't live on Park Avenue?  And if you do live on Park Avenue, I guess you have a fabulous apartment, but is it really worth it?  Not a Korean deli to be seen.  Where do you get your coffee?