Nestled between the new W Hotel and an abandoned lot a few blocks south of the World Trade Center, a Neo-gothic building at 103 Greenwich Street has a history as incongruous as its architecture. Now an Irish pub, the building began as the home of Dutch immigrant Ryneer Suydam and his family in 1799. It [...]
Posts Tagged ‘architecture’
103 GREENWICH ST: Heaven, Hell & Purgatory
Posted in manhattan, tagged alexander hamilton, architecture, battery park, byzantine, catholic church, downtown alliance, federal style, greenwich south, irish pub, irving lewis allen, james joyce, manhattan, moran's, neogothic, robert fulton, st. george chapel, syrian, tenement, trinity church, W Hotel, wall street, world trade center on March 13, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
WILLIAMSBURG(H), BROOKLYN
Posted in brooklyn, tagged architecture, BAM, brooklyn, classical revival, david freeland, dime savings bank, greek revival, hsbc, new york city, preservation, public library, satmar hasidim, williamsburg, williamsburgh, williamsburgh savings bank, yiddish on December 15, 2009 | 6 Comments »
Original Williamsburgh Savings Bank Headquarters at 175 Broadway (Source: Flickr)
Did you know Williamsburg used to have an “h”? This week’s entry is a cross-post with Gotham Lost and Found, an insightful blog by David Freeland, author of Automats, Taxi Dances and Vaudeville: Excavating Manhattan’s Lost Places of Leisure. On a recent afternoon, David and I [...]
CLUB LIMELIGHT aka Church of the Holy Communion
Posted in manhattan, tagged architecture, avalon, big box store, chelsea, church, club, consumerism, evangelical, Landmark, limelight, manhattan, new york city, preservation, religion, repurposing, retrofitting suburbia, tunnel, wal mart on October 21, 2009 | 4 Comments »
It can be argued that only in the repurposing of architecture can the lines between commerce, religion and politics be truly contested. In suburbia, Wal-Marts and big box stores have been converted into evangelical megachurches. The connection between commerce and religion is not only isolated to the retrofitting of built structures, but writers also frame [...]
NEW JERSEY: The Van Liew-Suydam Farms
Posted in beyond the boroughs, tagged architecture, farm, new jersey, NJ Transit, preservation on October 20, 2009 | 1 Comment »
For many, fall conjures up childhood memories of pumpkin picking, mugs of apple cider, hayrides and corn mazes. Just an hour away on the NJ Transit is Suydam Farms and the Van Liew-Suydam House in Somerset, NJ with all of the above, and an added bonus of beautiful historic architecture. Ryck Suydam is the 13th generation [...]
EMPIRE STATE Pays Tribute to the Grateful Dead
Posted in manhattan, tagged architecture, empire state building, grateful dead, manhattan, music, skyscraper on October 19, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Not sure how long this is going to last, but as of tonight the Empire State Building has gone tie-dye in honor of the Grateful Dead and an upcoming exhibition curated by the New York Historical Society, slated for March 2010. The exhibition will be culled almost entirely from the Grateful Dead archive, featuring “an [...]
SECRET BURGER
Posted in manhattan, tagged architecture, burgers, central park, damien hirst, food, hotels, manhattan, midtown, new york city, public space on July 23, 2009 | 3 Comments »
I may be a little biased because “Burger Joint” is where I met my band before we were a band, but this little faux-dive has a deserved cult following. We call it “Secret Burger” because it’s hidden inside the lobby of the impossibly posh Le Parker Meridien hotel, tucked behind thick floor to ceiling curtains [...]
VINEGAR HILL, Brooklyn
Posted in brooklyn, tagged architecture, brooklyn, community, development, DUMBO, immigration, preservation, urbanization, vinegar hill on July 17, 2009 | 7 Comments »
Nestled between symbols of urban industrialization and modern residential development (aka a Con Edison plant and glass condos), Vinegar Hill is a five-block square cobble-stoned neighborhood next to the Manhattan Bridge that seems to have been preserved in time circa the nineteenth century. This break in the time-space continuum is perpetuated by a sudden loss [...]
ST. MARK’S PLACE: Beyond the Beatniks
Posted in manhattan, tagged architecture, astor place, east village, greenwich village, GVSHP, manhattan, preservation on July 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
An architectural tour about what is not there? Eric Ferrara of the East Village History Project/East Village Visitors Center (and a criminal historian!), in conjunction with the Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation (GVSHP), unveils layers of history beginning at the exact location in Astor Place where three indian tribes converged for a thousand years, [...]
