Architectural Hardware – A few cases where functional hardware is a design element. An obvious one, above, is the pint sized chemical ...
More New Nice-y (NYC) – Clouds pass over 11th Ave. & 28th St. Sadly, the wide open space of "Hudson Yards," just north, is destined to be...
L Haus Dollhouse – Plastic residents party on deck Past the K&G Fashion Superstore in a passage coming out of Grand Central below the ...
Hope for NYC – The Avalon Bowery Madonna Bleeds Black Small signs of hope amid the gloom... An Altercation Outside Starbucks At Astor...
If I Ruled NYC – The signs suggest NYC "loves it hard," and I'd be happy to oblige. If I ruled New York City: Cellphones would ...
One Madison Pencil Dick – Angled building photos, like the one to the left, of 105 Madison Ave., seem perfectly natural to me. Frontal shots -- ...
I'll Poison Their View – An ugly condo just went up dead-center in the one patch of sky I could see out my window, with a penthouse patio where...
Atlantic Yards Prefab Tower – Was there ever any doubt that Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards "affordable housing" would turn out to be a cheap highrise ...
Globe Slicers – Above, globe slicers on Bowery -- oops, I mean below. Or maybe both, since the slick, ostentatious Sperone ...
Barbed Wire Bowery – As sick as it makes me to see the changes along Bowery, the barbed wire around the Scarano thing here always lifts my ...
Gilded Catwalk NYC – Aristocrats frolic in the window at 51st St. & 7th Ave. I remember the trolls in the comments at Curbed used to (still ...
Greenwich Village Then & Now – Dylan & Suze Rotolo on Jones St. in the Village Nearly 50 years ago, on January 24, 1961, Bob Dylan first arrived in ...
Beekman Tower Launch Party – While vacationing in Florida, I testedthe concept with a single Saturn V rocket If I ruled the world I would give the ...
Beekman View – Frank Gehry's Beekman Tower posed like a Halloween ghost above; bound angels closeup below. [ Earlier Tower 1 ] [ ...
Walking in a Yuppie Wonderland – I hesitate to feature Williamsburg, which -- thanks to the Wall Street-loving Powers That Be -- has become NYC's answer...
New Bloomberg City – Like wide screen TV, but $1000 a month to maintain I think it's time we quit fooling ourselves, and rename NYC New ...
The Ugliest Buildings in NYC – Several Top 10 Ugly lists have been plucked from the American Institute of Architects' most recent "Guide to New York."&...
Gateway to Tourist Hell – Speaking of hell, summertime 8th Ave. above 42nd St. always seems like the gateway to tourist hell, with hot, humid ...
Green Tyvek vs. Yellow Sheetrock – Everything looks better in hot green Tyvek, as proved by these three photos of recent construction at Wythe and S 4th ...
West Side Eyesores – East side, west side All around the town, Eyesores are popping up Like daisies, best Keep your eyeballs Pointed down ...
Plastic Spring in Williamsburg – Even Worse Than Silent Spring As luxury condo development turns Williamsburg to Wall Street yuppie plastic, it figures ...
Crane Operator Music – I did my electronic dance music apprenticeship watching Jim Carrey's Night at the Roxbury on SNL, left. (Video at...
Construction Sights 2 – First a few intimate shots of construction crane/elevator support struts. Above, seen from 47th St., some ...
NYU Expansion Plans – "What does it mean in the 21st century to build a great city?" wonders NYU's president from the school's new campus in ...
Williamsburg Snow Daze – Above, last Saturday morning on Graham at Metropolitan. "Summer Streets" my ass. Below left, from Sunday, just ...
Bloomberg Job Corps 1 – While bitter critics claim that Mayor Bloomberg only cares about jobs on Wall Street, his crack team of technocrats has...
Construction Now & Then – Above, in two recent shots, work continues at the Solow site below the Queensboro Bridge at York & 61st (earlier photos...
Dent on Kent – I was intrigued when I heard about the "Rent on Kent" van -- I've dreamed for years of living in "a van down by the ...
Bat-Finger, Bugz & Birds – Above, a bat-like swarm of pigeons rises from the Bat-finger building on N 7th in Williamsburg, maybe on its way to the...
Picturing the '00s – I took up the NY Times "Documenting the Decade" challenge [ Lens ] and picked five of my photos to represent events of ...
Construction High & Low – Frank Gehry's Beekman Tower grows out of Pace, above, and makes the Woolworth Building look like its "little buddy," ...
Roll-Down Gate Redesign – My contributions to the redesign the roll-down gate feature at City Room. I have negative feelings about most of the '...
Holiday Construction – I walked by Herald Square to take a look at Macy's holiday windows. They were a disappointment, but the new tower...
Pulaski Bridge Bike Playground – Tagger Sprays Tot While DOT and Bikes Converge on Pulaski The NYC DOT continues to do its best to run pedestrians off ...
Plastic-Induced Paranoia – Poison Molecule Emitted By That Plastic Building in Back I can hear worms scrape through the dirt under the sidewalk, ...
New Museum Hits the NY Times – Face of Money on the Bowery Before the New Museum The New Museum conflict has hit the NY Times, and besides giving ...
The Shrinking Balcony – Some "luxury condo" balconies look like you could actually use them for storing junk you are tired of looking at inside...
New Museum Hits the Fan – I wondered months ago about the civic purpose of the New Museum. Now artist William Powhida has summed up ...
3 Columbus Circle Facelift – "Redevelopment" is what they call it on the 3 Columbus Circle website. They are spending $60 million to bring the...
Maya Lin to Atlantic Yards – Seeing Maya Lin's work, left, reminded me of my simplest design for the proposed Atlantic Yards Nets Arena. I don't ...
Williamsburg Landscape – Overlook Lodge Rises Above Grand Canyon of S 5th I had a horrible vision as I walked by: I imagined the building planned...
Atlantic Yards Arena Design Process – Top to bottom: 1) Inspiration. 2) Placement. 3) Make it sexy...
Williamsburg Sights – Recent sights from Williamsburg and the Williamsburg Bridge. Above, the view from the top of the bridge's south ...
Bowery Extremes – Extreme examples a block apart on the upper end of Bowery. Above, a repair shop at Great Jones, one of the ...
Urban Shed Competition – Something Is Going On Up There; 38th St. off Sixth Ave. I got excited when saw a blurb about the Urban Shed Competition...
Great Jones Construction Dragon – At Lafayette and Great Jones, the Great Green Cement Proboscis feeds the red dragon. Note that I've featured the ...
Honest Labor – Nothing like (watching someone else do) honest labor. Above, working way downtown, above Pearl & Whitehall. To ...
Find a Hole and Fill It – Above, the base of the "Freedom Tower" grows at the World Trade Center site. Looks like the rebar is going to be ...
Yellow Skyscraper Extruder – "The Setai II" going up at 5th and 36th. I assume the striking yellow cap is some newfangled construction unit...
Chelsea Works – Somehow the world keeps on working. Above and to the left, a color coordinated construction site on 23rd near ...
Cooper Union Cooper Square – Cooper Square is a hotbed of controversy, from the new Cooper Union building above and below left, to the Cooper Square...
Construction Shots – Here are a few shots that find some delicate quality lost in the engineered violence of construction. On top, a ...
New Development Idea – A modest proposal for the next building boom: Instead of creating a hodgepodge of dangerous construction sites all over...
South Williamsburg Sights – Some recent pictures from the south side of Williamsburg. On top and below left, the Karl Fischer ROCK house at S...
Northside Pier View – Some photos from the pier behind the new condo towers on Williamsburg's waterfront. On top, the hive-like midsection ...
Williamsburg Swimmin' Holes – (In case the heat returns.) McCarren Park Pool, above left, is still dry as a bone. But down on Wythe at S...
Domino Still Dead – A boat sails by Domino on a moody day The massive new project is still dead, that is, unless its lobbyists can finagle ...
Best Building Will Ever Look 7 – Judging from the architectural rendering, which looks like a piece of clip-art tossed in with the design software, it's...
Wrapped and Veiled – A veiled scaffold and some construction wrapping. Above, on E. 44th off 5th Ave. near Grand Central, a veiled ...
Top of the World – I doubt this modest building -- across the Long Island City end of the Pulaski Bridge from L Haus -- has a name at all...
Low Torque Toren – I enjoyed a recent NY Times article about Frank Gehry software. I imagine the software will show up at Home Depot...
Scrutiny on the Bowery – The Bowery Goes To Hell Nothing represents gentrification of the Bowery like the New Museum. I finally visited a few ...
HelL Haus Freeze – Summertime ad in front of L Haus entertains LIC's blue collar workforce In spite of the way winter can turn the area ...
The Schlock Lobby – Above: A Dale Chihuly work in the lobby of the Bellagio in Las Vegas, apparently depicting a Western Omelet with salad ...
Truck Stop Condo – I think I've found the ultimate condo "amenity": a built-in gas station. As you can see from the photos, the Exxon ...
Karl Fischer's Lost Portfolio – I see that beloved scarchitect Robert Scarano has been removing renderings and burning the evidence like a Bush ...
Splendor Amid the Ruins – Have no fear. Even if the economy slips into a credit coma, and all construction in New York stops, it will still...
World's Largest Condom – My career as a photojournalist had hit the skids; I was desperate for a scoop, any scoop. I walked by the Karl Fischer ...
Construction Sights 1 – My eyes have a sweet tooth for construction sites. No matter what heinous tower of crap is going up, I like to ...
Best Building Will Ever Look 6 – It looks like my prediction was correct, and the condo tower above left will never look better than the giant air ...
Wall Street Crash is Great News! – The crash may be bad news for Wall Street types and the people who serve them, like chauffeurs, sex workers, artists, ...
In Search of Superfinger – The Finger Building was born in Williamsburg, but they exist wherever developers seek to lord over the existing skyline...
Pre-Plastic New York – Here are some photos I took on Broadway between 27th and 30th Streets. I love walking through this neighborhood; ...
Luxury Condo Cooties – (It's catching!) I can't believe it's coincidence that the old building on the right (on Eckford near Engert in ...
Map of Karl Fischer City – If you live in or near Williamsburg and feel like your world is turning plastic, it's no delusion -- Karl Fischer ...
Fifth Ave Tuxedo T-Shirt – Above: closeup of the tuxedo t-shirt that's covered construction at 141 Fifth for months. Below: leaning closeup...
Top Chef Gets First Paparazzo! – It just goes to show that if you live long enough the world will come to you, or at least to Williamsburg. ...
Best Building Will Ever Look 5 – Above is Williamsburg's original "finger building," flipping off N 7th since forever. That Wuthering Heights shot...
Union Square Trashbag Attire – There's not a construction site in town that can compete with the trashbag attire of 15 Union Square West. It's ...
All My Condos – A soap opera. Episode 1: As the Row Rotates. The bells of the Russian Orthodox church on McCarren Park hammer ...
Fixing Karl Fischer 2 – Here we cloak the slobbering big brother of Karl Fischer Row (20 Bayard) in a Frank Gehry outfit. Note below that I've...
Best Building Will Ever Look 4 – The name Igor popped into my head when I first saw this building months ago (right; at N 8th and Roebling in ...
Karl Fischer Bunker Beds – Real estate magnate Bruce Ratner's problem is that he thinks too big. If he had quietly bought a block at a time ...
Idea: NYC Danger Maps – What with faked concrete-strength tests and killer cranes, hellbent development has outstripped city government's ...
Clich̩s for a Day РObama's victory was inspiring, but this morning's gray skies brought back dark thoughts about art and money that go ...
Fixing Karl Fischer 1 – To fix this Karl Fischer monstrosity, lurking like a one eyed pervert at the edge of McCarren Park: Find the oiliest ...
LIC's Taste of Brazil – I couldn't help but notice Long Island City's "mystery condo" (now known as "L Haus," pronounced "Hell House") from a ...
Pictures for a Slow Week – Above left: I like the way the condos at the corner of Manhattan and Driggs in Greenpoint left just enough drive-under ...
Best Building Will Ever Look 3 – I assume the Lower East Side building under construction above left (with yellow box on top) is trying to fit in with ...
Karl Fischer, Powerhouse – A defender of Karl Fischer says (in the comments for my recent post on Karl in The Showerhead) that "The Powerhouse is ...
Karl Fischer in "The Showerhead" – Every time I walk by architect Karl Fischer's timeless Empty Clockface building on McCarren Park, I think: I know I've...
Best Building Will Ever Look 2 – In the beginning, as pictured above, "Warehouse 11" (aka "Stalag 11") in Williamsburg had strong, clean lines. I would...
Best Building Will Ever Look 1 – This is the first in a series of predictions. I predict that the yellow bruiser of a building here, at the Long ...
Scaffolding the Rich & Famous – A few summertime shots of scaffolding (since removed) for the rich & famous. Above, the swashbuckling rigging of the ...
Across the Queensboro Bridge – The Queensborough / 59th St. Bridge (listing above left) is not a real enjoyable walk even in good weather -- noisy, ...
Greenpoint Domes – It's not fair to expect modest, hardworking Greenpoint to produce great architecture. And the bank I'm picking ...
Construction Interruptus – If it was up to me, this building (the Cooper Square Hotel, where Third Ave. fades into Bowery) would be complete as-is...
Bluefinger – (Once you sink to spoofing buildings, there is no bottom to the pit.) This portrait, of The Building Named BLUE (just ...
Greenpoint Acres – Some minor mogul has built tens of buildings based on this design in Greenpoint. I'm not sure just what "the design" is...
Perfectly Positioned – That's what the billboard says about the luxury condos going up here on 14th Street. Is that because the new tenants ...
Lights 2 – I've taken a lot of pictures of lights lately, and here are a few more. The construction lights are only part way to ...
Idea: Fix Summer in the City – Top left: shirtless buildings reclining in Bryant Park heat. Bottom: The Plan. I love walking in New York, but ...
Religious Roundup 2 – The veiled church above left (Grace Church at 10th and Broadway) has a white addition that always looks vaguely "...
Idea: WTC Freedom Tower – In place of the current icepick design for the new World Trade Center Freedom Tower, pictured grimly to the left, I ...
Blue Buildings – The Leaning Tower of Marge Simpson's Hair, above right, was featured at Lost City and Curbed. I've walked by the ...
Condo Surprise – The only visual relief in the wall of three condo buildings going up on the south side of McCarren Park is the ...
Ugly NYU Buildings – It's a cold, wet, ugly day outside. What better time to wonder: why do universities -- institutions you'd expect ...
Construction Site – This is a snapshot (taken with the tiny camera inside my Palm "handheld device") of a construction site about a mile ...
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