Movin' on Up!--Construction Update #3

Across the street, construction of the 35-story condominium building continues.

Progress since the earlier posts might seem slow but we can testify that loud construction activity is a daily activity. (Earlier blog posts,11/17/2015 and 2/29/2016.)

The noise of jackhammers and air horns is something our senses and brains have learned to ignore.  In fact, during our hiatus away from NYC, we found the peace and quiet a bit overwhelming, especially at night.  How is person expected to fall asleep without the din of car horns and sirens in the background?

Before leaving NYC in late April, the bottom of the building that sits on rock was taking shape.  A concrete layer was poured directly on top of the Manhattan schist.  Next, on top of the concrete layer, a honeycomb of steel rebar was placed to create the inner guts of a strong basement floor. 

Since returning to NYC, we noticed that the basement floor had been poured.  Now, the underground walls of the building are slowly taking shape.  Where once there was a rock-strewn hole in the ground, there is now a basement floor and forms for pouring concrete walls.  That's right.  After months of digging into the Manhattan schist, the slow rise upward has begun.  In other words, this newest East Side building is movin' on up.

Take a look.

200 East 59th Street, NYC (4/22/2016) (rebar placed before pouring the basement floor)

200 East 59th Street, NYC (5/23/2016) (basement floor already poured, basement walls taking shape)

Changing Seasons

One of the many things we love about living in NYC is experiencing the changing seasons. 

While living in Florida, there are subtle changes from season to season of which there are two:  one is hot and humid and the other is not so much.  

In the northern latitudes where NYC is situated, the seasons number four and the changes are dramatic, not subtle.  

Pictured below is evidence that Spring is in full swing and Summer is around the corner.  The once bare trees are full of green leaves providing needed shade on the streets below.  The green trees transform a stark, barren streetscape into a more inviting place to walk. 

We are very much looking forward to Summer, since we enjoyed only a slice when we arrived here last September.  There is more to do, more to see (sometimes too much) and more daylight to enjoy it all. 

The 200 block of East 59th Street seen from our terrace on a recent Spring day (May 2016).

Same scene during Winter (January 2016)

More Park Art--Dubuffet

Art is everywhere.  Especially in New York City.

While walking along Park Avenue the other day, we spotted a new art installation in front of the Seagram Building.  The artwork, pictured below, is a sculpture titled Welcome Parade by Frenchman Jean Dubuffet.  His work is recognizable for its partially abstract nature and use of white with black outlines, plus some blue and red.

Welcome Parade is one Dubuffet's monumental sculptures.   The five figures are:

• L’Accueillant, the welcoming
• Cherche-Aubaine, looking for a windfall
• Le Facétieux, the facetious
• L’Incivil, the uncivil  
• Rédingoton, ??????

According to WikiArt, the artwork is part of Dubuffet's L'Hourloupe and is based on a doodle.  "Dubuffet's L'Hourloupe series began in 1962 and would preoccupy the artist for many decades. The inspiration came from a doodle he created while on the telephone, and the fluid movement of the line combines with limited fields of color to create movement. He believed the style evoked the manner in which objects appear in the mind. This contrast between physical and mental representation later encouraged him to use the approach to create sculpture."

We are not sure about the contrast between physical and mental representation, but we are sure the artwork is a wonderful addition to Park Avenue.

Welcome Parade, by Jean Dubuffet (1974-2008) (5/22/2016) (at 375 Park Avenue, the plaza of the Seagram Building)

Some random hottie getting up close and personal with the art

Only in NYC--A Greek Moveable Feast

Wherever we venture in NYC, we often see interesting if not unique sights.

The other day, we spotted Uncle Gussy's food truck (photo below).  The truck featured an image of a Greek island and a logo with the Acropolis.

Greg was hungry (Greg is always hungry).  So, with dreams of gyros and dolmathakia dancing in his head, Greg ran after the truck.  He yelled and barked.  Unfortunately, Uncle Gussy outpaced Greg.  (Not to worry.  There was a happy ending.  We ate Chinese instead.)

A little known fact about the current food truck fad.  While the fad is new, food trucks are not.  In fact, it turns out that Uncle Gussy's mobile food wagon has been around for a very, long time.  Gussy's ancestors traveled with and served the Greek armies at the Battles of Marathon ad Themopylae.  If you want sustenance and strength for battle or running 26 miles to deliver news of victory, then Gussy's is the place to eat.

Back in the Big City

The boys are back in town.  (Cue the music.)

After a long adventure outside New York, we have returned to the Big Apple to continue our adventure here. 

Since returning a few days ago, we have been busy.  So, please stay tuned for more blog posts, starting today.

Hiatus--Another One

It's time for another hiatus.  We are traveling to see family and friends around the U.S.  So, please excuse the break in the action.  We will be back in NYC and back to blogging before too much time passes.

Touring NYC: The NYC Subway Art Tour (Part 6 of 6)

Our 3 hour tour is nearing its end, but not before we visit two more stations.  From Delancey Street, we took a short ride to Broadway and Lafayette, a location with historic significance.  .

Broadway-Lafayette Street Station:

Nearby, hundreds of years ago, the people who first traversed and inhabited Mannahatta had established trading routes along the paths that became Broadway and Lafayette Street.  To honor that history, artist Mel Chin collaborated with Peter Jemison of the Seneca to create Signal, a collection of campfires and smoke signals in the station.  Installed in 1997 and pictured below, the fires sit at the base of the columns supporting the station floors and ceilings, with the columns appearing as bluish smoke rising from the fires.  As trains arrive and depart, the fires light and fade. Along the tiled walls appear symbols; the symbols possibly represent smoke signals of peace.  According to the MTA website, the artist Mel Chin believes that "art should 'provoke greater social awareness and responsibility'" and that Signal fosters that goal..

Broadway-Lafayette Street Station:  Campfire with smoke rising

Broadway-Lafayette Street Station:  Lighted campfire signaling arrival of a train

Broadway-Lafayette Street Station:  Smoke signals along the station wall

Bleecker Street/Lafayette Street Station:

From the Broadway side of the station, we crossed over to the Bleecker Street side where we found Hive, an overhead collection of ever-changing LED lights in honeycomb shapes (pictured below).  Artist Leo Villareal installed the artwork in 2012.  

According to the MTA website, Hive has a "reference to games. Riders will be able to identify individual elements within a larger context and track this movement.  The work explores the compulsion to recognize patterns and the brain’s hard coded desire to understand and make meaning.  The patterns also take inspiration from the research of the mathematician John Conway who invented the Game of Life, the best-known cellular automata program. Hive (Bleecker Street) speaks to a diverse audience - it is abstract and evocative and can have many different meanings. It creates an experience for riders through changing patterns presented in randomized progression. Overall, the piece resonates with the activity of the station, transportation network and the city itself."

That description uses some pretty big words.  All we know is that the lights are cool and fun to watch.  Click here for a video of the changing lights.

Bleecker Street/Lafayette Street Station:  Photo of Hive installed on the station ceiling.  The name Hive is certainly appropriate.  This particular station is a hive of activity with two subway lines connecting here and worker bees constantly moving in every direction.

Bleecker Street/Lafayette Street Station:  Original terra cotta marker, B for Bleecker Street.  Or B for Bendlin?

Bleecker Street/Lafayette Street Station:  Original terra cotta marker

Astor Place Station:

From Bleecker Street, we ventured to Astor Place, the last stop.  There we found some original artwork from a century ago plus a modern interpretation of the original artwork.

Astor Place is named for John Jacob Astor who made a fortune in fur trading (and later real estate).  Accordingly, when the station was first built, it decorated with a bevy of beavers (pictured below).  Fast forward eight decades and a famous New York artist adds to the original artwork by re-interpreting it.  Artist Milton Glaser trained his eye on the geometric shapes in the corner of the original beaver artwork and created Untitled (1986), a series of large geometric designs using the same shapes and colors as the original artwork

According to the MTA website, "Glaser described his approach as, 'basically a variation on the existing forms.  By extracting fragments of the motifs on the tile panels, enlarging their scale, and placing these pieces in a random pattern, they take on the appearance of a puzzle.'  The result is a series of porcelain enamel panels in geometric patterns and color that echo the historic elements but present them in an entirely new way."

Astor Place Station:  Station marker and name

Astor Place Station:  Original terra cotta and tile artwork depicting a busy beaver gnawing a tree

Astor Place Station:  Untitled by Milton Glaser (1986)

Thanks for joining us on the subway art tour.  We hope you enjoyed it.  We did!  

It turns out that our skilled guide Phil Desiere leads another subway art tour that visits different stations.  We are looking forward to another adventure underground.  

P.S.  If you are wondering why we referred to Milt Glaser as a famous artist, there is a very good reason.  Please see below, which also happens to describe how we feel about New York City.

Designed by Milton Glaser (1977)

Touring NYC: The NYC Subway Art Tour (Part 5 of 6)

From Whitehall Street in lower Manhattan we ventured under the East River to Brooklyn, affectionately known by some as God's Country.  We arrived at the Jay Street Station for the next stop on the tour. 

Jay Street Station:

What the tiny figures at 8th Street lacked in size was compensated for by the large wall mosaics at Jay Street by artist Ben Snead.  Pictured below are various sorts of native and invasive species found in Brooklyn--fish, birds and insects.

According to the MTA website, the artwork, entitled Departures and Arrivals (2009), highlights "the connections and relationships between dissimilar species" and "features species that have migrated to Brooklyn as well as one species that is departing.  He [the artist] arranges the species in layers that can be seen from left to right: European starling (originally from England), a house sparrow (Europe), Red Lion fish (Indian Ocean), Monk parrot (South America) and Koi (Japan). The Tiger Beetle is represented on a tile background; a local species that is in decline. The result is a bold and graphic set of images that intrigue and delight passersby during their own departures and arrivals."

Interestingly, most people think the name Brooklyn refers is based on the Dutch word "Breuckelen", the name of a town in the Netherlands. In fact, Brooklyn is a native American word that means "Place of the Very Large Fish, Birds and Bugs."  Who knew?

Our brief sojourn in Brooklyn ended and we traveled back to Manhattan. 

Delancey Street-Essex Street Station:

We arrived at the Delancey Street-Essex Street Station and learned about the early history of the area that eventually became the Lower East Side.  As settlement edged northward from lower Manhattan, the De Lancey family established a farm that stretched across Manhattan island from the East River to the Hudson River.  A large cherry orchard was planted on the farm.  

Fast forward about three centuries.  In 2004, artist Ming Fay installed a large mosaic mural entitled "Delancey Orchard" (pictured below).

Delancey Street-Essex Street Station:  Mosaic mural of the De Lancey farm cherry orchard.  The cherry orchard was located not far from the Delancey Street Station, where a modern street now runs.  The modern street's name?  You guessed it:  Orchard Street. 

Delancey Street-Essex Street Station:  Mosaic with cherries.  The bowl is missing.

Elsewhere in the same station, artist Ming Fay installed another mosaic mural, Shad Crossing.  The large fish swim along the walls of the station.  According to the MTA, the "images of Shad Crossing celebrate the return of the once abundant fish to New York and water as a metaphor for 'crossing.'"  Our guide Phil noted that shad were an important part of the settlers' diet and helped settlers through lean times.

Delancey Street-Essex Street Station:  Shad Crossing (2009)

During the tour, Susan snapped a photo of this critter foraging along the subway track.  Could it be Pizza Rat?

Next and last stop:  Part 6--Broadway/Lafayette Street, Bleecker Street/Lafayette Street and Astor Place Stations.

Touring NYC: The NYC Subway Art Tour (Part 4 of 6)

From Chinatown, we traveled further downtown to the Cortlandt Street Station, not far from Wall Street, the World Trade Center and the Hudson river. 

Cortlandt Street Station:

Artist Margie Hughto first beautified the Cortlandt Street Station in 1997 with a series of handmade ceramic tiles entitled Trade, Treasure and Travel.  The title and substance of the art was appropriate for the area where the station is located, in the Financial District.  In fact, the station is situated near the former bank of the Hudson river.  In the map below, Cortlandt Street is an east-west street starting at Greenwich Street.  All of the land between Greenwich Street and the Hudson River was once water and is now landfill.  In other words, the former and new World Trade Center buildings are built on landfill where the Hudson River once coursed 200+ years ago.

The shaded area represents a 1776 map laid on top of a map of Manhattan today

Cortlandt Street appears in the bottom left corner of this 1776 map of lower Manhattan.  Greenwich Street runs next to the river.  So, in 1776, Cortlandt Street ended near the Hudson River.  Today, Cortlandt Street is several blocks away from the river.

A pictorial comparison is striking.  The first picture is a rendering of Manhattan island ("Mannahatta" in native language) before the arrival of Europeans.  The second picture shows modern Gotham.  Comparing the two reveals much of lower Manhattan is landfill where the Hudson and East Rivers once ran.  The park area in the second picture, at the lower tip of Manhattan, is landfill.  Castle Clinton, now landlocked, was once on a small island in the Hudson River connected to land by a wooden walkway.  Over time, the area around Castle Clinton was filled in to create what is now Battery Park.

The Cortlandt Street Station was partially destroyed on 9/11, but all of the artwork was intact because it was so well made.  Unfortunately, it was so well affixed to the wall that many tiles broke when they were removed for repairs to the station itself.  The tiles (pictured below) were reinstalled in 2011. 

According to the MTA website, the artist said in 2011, "'I thought about all the different peoples, products, objects, and money that passed through the area, and I visualized a treasure vault filled with coins, gems, and artifacts - rich, golden, glowing, and somewhat mysterious. Central images feature a bull and a bear, the financial world's warring mascots, and a large old-fashioned compass and a chart of stars by which mariners found their way."

Sailing ships

The Bear

The Bull

Lower Manhattan, with the Brooklyn Bridge and the World Trade Center

The compass

Whitehall Street Station:

From Cortlandt Street, we traveled to Whitehall Street Station, where the ferry terminals are located.  The street is named for the former home that stood on land near the station.  The home belonged to Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch Director-General of then New Amsterdam in the New Netherland colony.  When the Dutch ceded the territory to England in 1664, the English renamed the house White Hall, like the seat of government in London.  The house was whitewashed, hence the name.  The house is depicted below in the original terra cotta picture in the station.  A "now" photo shows the area today. 

Whitehall Street Station:  Then, the home of Dutch Director-General Peter Stuyvesant

Whitehall Street Station:  Now, area where the White Hall building was located

Following renovation of the station, artist Frank Giorgini installed artwork in 2000 entitled Passages.  The artwork is a sort of time machine, with views of New York over the centuries, from pre-European times to the present.

Seagulls soar over the harbor

A fish swims below

Dutch explorers arrive in 1609, while a beaver
 is busy working

Dutch settlers occupy New Amsterdam

Ferries and a ship transport New Yorkers in the modern era, plus the Statue of Liberty stands tall in the harbor

The modern era, with the former World Trade Center in the background and the Alexander Hamilton Custom House in the foreground, plus a watchful bird

Next stop:  Part 5--Jay Street and Delancey Street Stations.

Random Things, #10

Still more random things.

We love NYC diners and deli's.  We recently discovered the 2nd Avenue Deli, the one located on 1st Avenue on the Upper East Side.  Great food, great service and a cool place mat.

Our favorite diner near our building is Moonstruck Diner on East 58th Street.  We discovered Moonstruck the day we arrived and became regulars.  Susan recently purchased a mug as a souvenir. 

Near the tax clinic where we volunteered in East Harlem is a famous mural,  The Spirit of East Harlem by Frank Prussing (1973-1978).  The mural has been continuously conserved for the past four decades.  You can find it on 104th Street at Lexington Avenue.

During a recent adventure in the East Village, we saw this great mural on 10th Street.  The image resembles a photo of Susan from September (below).

Some random hottie at Pebble Beach in Brooklyn Bridge Park (9/21/2015)

Movin' on Up--Construction Update #2

Construction of the new condominium tower across the street is moving along. (Earlier blog posts,11/17/2015 and 2/29/2016.)

In the last update, the site was still being excavated (photo below, 2/18/2016).

(2/18/2016)

What goes up must first go down.  Way down.  After a lot of drilling and jack hammering, the site was excavated to a depth of about 30-40 feet.  Half of the site (right side in the photo below) is about 30 feet below grade.  The other half is about 40 feet below grade with a large box excavated even deeper into the ground (upper left corner in the photo below).  At the bottom of the hole, on top of the Manhattan schist, concrete was poured to create a hard subfloor that will support the basement floor (left side in the photo below).

(4/6/2016)

In preparation for pouring more concrete to create the basement floor, rebar is being installed.  A lot of rebar.  The rebar will reinforce the basement floor and create a solid building foundation on top of the bedrock. 

(4/18/2016)

Stay tuned.  In a month or so, we expect the construction site will look different than it does now.