Upper East Side, Madison Avenue at 71st Street

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

In 1991, Christopher Gray (there's that name again) wrote a Streetscapes article about St. James' Church titled "A Metamorphis Still in Progress," in which he recounts the six or so major changes the church has undergone since it was built in 1885. Among them are switching the front and back interiors and trying to get the steeple right; the one you see here is the third attempt and is "widely considered a failure."



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Upper East Side, Madison Avenue Between 67th and 68th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

I apologize for not getting the name of this shoe store, but if you feel you must have these shoes, you should be able to find them. Just walk very slowly along the west side of Madison, you can't miss them.

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Upper East Side, Madison Avenue Between 66th and 67th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2008 ……………..…….. click to enlarge

Enough of sunlit leafy streets! Now we're back on Madison Avenue where commerce rules. The store on the left is Paul & Shark, an Italian sportswear company, and on the right is Nicole Miller, women's fashions and men's ties, among other things.

However, the reason I took the picture was for the space between the two buildings where the fire escape is. I love how that space flattens out and looks like an abstract painting.

Upper East Side, Madison Avenue at 66th Street

Mary Sargent © 2008 …...….. click to enlarge


The photo below is 66th Street at Madison.


Mary Sargent © 2008 …….. click to enlarge

This building is known only as 45 East 66th Street and was built in 1908 as an apartment building with two 12-13 room apartments on each floor. As of 1988, when this Streetscapes column was written, a "handful" survived intact. The column concerns the major restoration done in 1988 to restore the façade to its original form.

The AIA Guide to New York City describes it thusly: "Two glassy 10-story walls of 12 over 12 double-hung windows intersect in a magnificent cylinder of even more windows, making this one of the city's grandest facades."

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Upper East Side, Madison Avenue at 65th Street

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Friday, I did something different for a photowalk. Typically, unless I have an errand which lends itself to a photowalk, I look at my map and choose a place, go there, see things that interest me and come home and research them. This time I randomly opened my book New York Streetscapes to page 215, the Charles Scribner House at 9 East 66th Street. This worked. I hadn't been to the East Side for a good while and I hadn't walked that street. So after therapy and after shooting the church on 86th street, I went downtown and took the 66th Street crosstown bus. It let me out on Madison and 65th Street. While at that intersection I took this shot. Can you guess why?

Well, Citibank. What's this with the black? Citibank has been blue for as long as I've banked there, which is since 1982. After much pondering, I came up with this explanation. Just like me, Citibank has noticed all the banks going blue, I can't think what they are now but – and in fact, maybe that's the problem. Blue doesn't identify anyone now, since so many use it. So Citibank is going to be different.

I can just imagine the meeting. Green might be suggested. No, it's a little too friendly. Purple or yellow, no way. But black. Genius!

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Spanish Harlem, Madison Avenue at 111th Street

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

We've crossed Fifth Avenue and here is Madison; that means we're in East Harlem now. Here's one of those buildings that gets to me every time.

One more photo: La Pequena Grocery at the base of the building.

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Murray Hill, Madison Avenue Between 33rd and 32nd Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Heading back to the office, down Madison Avenue. For a long shot of this stretch of street go here.

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