This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

Court Street Graf, originally uploaded by plemeljr
As the above photo shows, there is a legal wall painting in progress at the corner of Court & Atlantic going up for the Atlantic Avenue Art Walk this weekend, 4 – 5 June. The walls are being painted by thirteen or so artists, and they will be working from 4 pm to dark every night this week to finish the work. The gentleman, whose name I instantly forgot (sorry!), working on his section said that tomorrow and Thursday would be the best nights to check out the work in progress.
For more photos of this wall at the Court & Atlantic Legal Wall set, the graffiti or streetart tags, and Jake Dobkin’s Streetart Archive.

This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

I just received this week’s eOculus for 05.02.05 published by the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The introduction by Fredric Bell, FAIA caught my eye:

Cultural facilities are needed at the World Trade Center site to serve as living memorials, catalysts for development and as vibrant harbingers of the resurgence of Lower Manhattan. The “Towers Site Campaign to Bypass Theaters” article by Robin Pogrebin (NYT 4/9/05) states that some World Trade Center Memorial Foundation trustees are saying that “cultural organizations are secondary.”
Clearly the memorial designed by Michael Arad, AIA, Peter Walker, and Davis Brody Bond is of primary importance and the lives lost at the twin towers will be appropriately commemorated by its timely construction. The museums and performing art spaces called for in the LMDC general project plan are essential, as well, to put into perspective the reason that people congregate in cities. Cultural activities are instrumental in defining New York’s character, and must be included to ensure that the WTC reconstruction achieves its goal of generating a vibrant urban environment.
emphasis added

Besides the kerfluffle about cultural spaces at the site, I was as astounded as Greg was last month to see Davis Brody Bond included as the memorial designer. How Davis Brody Bond attached themselves like a suckerfish to a shark would be a great, alas untold, story to hear.
The backroom dealings coming out of the redesign of Ground Zero is truly, truly awe inspiring. From problems with the master plan to NYPD warning Ground Zero’s developers about security problems at the Freedom Tower, the political maneuvering is happening on whole dimensions not accessible by a few.

This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

Touché, New York Times, Touché.
On Sunday, the paper of record decided to weigh in on an issue that we covered two weeks ago, with an article entitled, For a Mysterious Clock, Method in Its Madness:

It turns out that July 6 is the day the International Olympic Committee will announce the host city of the 2012 Olympics. According to Jay Carson, a spokesman for NYC2012, the group spearheading New York’s Olympic bid, the clock countdown is a joint venture between NYC2012 and the Related Companies, which manages the building and commissioned the Metronome, and was created so that “thousands each day would feel the urgency.” After July 6, the clock will return to its old form.

Our reporting on the Union Square Clock, known as the Metronome, came to the same conclusion, with information from an employee at One Union Square South. We asked the press liaison at NYC 2012 for a comment, but they declined in a quite patronizing fashion. My suggestion to the folks at NYC 2012, is that you need all of the good will and press you need, especially after reports of bribery by New York and London surfaced last week.
At the very least, we can be proud that we scooped the Times, even if it is over a trivial matter such as this. But the gauntlet has been thrown, and we have accepted the challenge.
Old Gray Lady, we have more information to share our readers: in addition to counting down to the Olympic Bid, NYC 2012 will hang a huge banner explaining what the numbers mean – or perhaps advertising the Olympic bid. Which won’t be ugly at all. Nope. Everything that NYC 2012 has designed is just beautiful. Yup. I just hope they get Building Department approval, unlike the giant M&M add.
So to help our readers, here is an artist’s conception of what we think, given the past record of NYC 2012’s design decisions, the banners might look like:

Old Gray Lady, bow down to our mock artist rendering skills!

This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

Union Square Clock
Does anyone know what has happened to the Union Square Clock on the Virgin Megastore building (1 Union Square South)? For those who don’t know about the clock, it is an art installation by Kristin Jones & Andrew Ginzel entitled Metronome, which normally consists of 15 large LED’s which count time both ascending and descending fashion. But it has changed: now instead of the ascending and descending time, it is counting down to some event in approximately 78 Days 22 Hours 02 Minutes 45 Seconds 23 Thousands (as of this morning). So what’s up? What is happening in 78 days- the public want’s to know!
UPDATE 19 Apr 2005
Grubbsketeer Jared pointed out it could be for nyc2012 Olympic Bid, which led us to more information via google. Basically, the announcement of the host city is made on July 6th, 2005 – about 78 days from now, so co-option of public art by Deputy Mayor Doctoroff isn’t besides the pale.
Update 27 Apr 2005
I can confirm that the numbers counting down are to the unveiling of the host city for the 2012 Olympics on July 6th, 2005. I’m just waiting on some quotes from participants so I can write it up. Here’s to journami-sm.

This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

Long Island City Powerhouse, originally uploaded by plemeljr
One of my favorite buildings in Long Island City is being torn apart. The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) Power House is being picked apart to make way for condos. The iconic smokestacks are being dismantled, as is the wop floor window galleries. What’s best worst about this are the yuppie gloating going on:

• The smoke stacks are coming down. No ifs ands or buts. 3 months give or take
• It will be condos, aprox 400 units averaging 1,000 sq ft
• There will be retail and community space (art gallery, most likely)
• There is and will be no landmark of those buildings
• It was NOT designed by Mckim, Meade and White (if you have proof it was, email me, otherwise, lets drop it) (ed: he is so wrong)
• It will retain the majority of the plant
• There WILL be a section on QueensWest.com for the building once I get confirmation on the name of the building.
• It will, in my opinion, be a great edition to the area

Besides being highly illiterate, using the worst commenting software known to man, and being generally assy, they are dead wrong about the building not being built by McKim Mead & White. Apparently my quick analysis of the development of the property wasn’t far off. The developer, Cheskel Schwimmer – vice president of Brooklyn-based CGS Builders, has pegged the cost to be around $100 million. I estimated around $60-70 million and the profit to be not substantial – but I could be wrong – they are using much more of the building then I assumed (four times more).
The New York Times also had a story about the smokestacks:

Despite the hubbub over the apparent demise of the smokestacks, the developer of the project said on Friday that he had no such plans. “We have no intention to take down the smokestacks,” said Cheskel Schwimmer, vice president of CGS Builders, a Brooklyn firm. “We want to try to preserve the smokestacks as much as possible.”
The intention behind applying for the permit, he said, was to get permission to remove small pieces of the smokestacks and incorporate them into the design.
To that end, Mr. Schwimmer and the architect he hired, Karl Fischer, have produced a rendering that includes a cube of glass resting on top of the existing building and attached to the smokestacks, which would actually become part of the new building and be equipped with windows. “We will both reinforce the smokestacks and create good living space within the building,” Mr. Schwimmer said.
For the time being, he and Mr. Fischer, who was the architect for the renovated Gretsch Building in Williamsburg, are working with the city’s departments of buildings and city planning to get the cube design approved. In the meantime, it seems that the smokestacks, beacons of Queens past, will continue to point their brown spires into the sky.

Yes, is is that Karl Fischer, the architect who is overseeing the conversion of the Gretsch Building in Williamsburg. So I’m not really hoping for the best. So I guess it is still inconclusive whether or not the stacks stay, I guess we will see in the next 3-6 months.

This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

Aerial View Of Vatican City, originally uploaded by plemeljr
Via Q.Queso I found a really nice Aerial view of Vatican City by Digital Globe. I uploaded it to Flickr and annotated the locations of the buildings in Vatican City. Luckily this falls under Fair Use (education) and Digital Globe has a really nice use policy for their sample photos. As a side note, this is exactly why Flickr’s “Add Note” function is (by itself) a killer app.

This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

Bruce Ratner is apparently push-polling about the proposed Net’s arena:

Pollster: OK, next, turning back to the proposed basketball arena in Brooklyn. This arena would be the centerpiece of a large commercial and residential complex that would be built on the same site. It would include retail stores, office space and more than 4,000 units of housing for all levels of income and needs.
The retail stores and office buildings would be located adjacent to the arena at Flatbush and Atlantic avenues. The residential units would be built along Atlantic Avenue between Sixth Avenue and Vanderbilt Avenue and part of the project, six acres of land in and around the site, would be landscaped and made into public open space.
Having heard more information, do you favor or oppose plans to build a sports arena for the Nets basketball team and a commercial and residential development at this site in Brooklyn?
Hagan: I absolutely oppose the whole damn thing!
Pollster: OK.
Hagan: And by the way, that [information being read] doesn’t say that they’re going to destroy the homes and offices and businesses of more than a thousand people, and just kick them out of this neighborhood. They don’t say that.
Pollster: OK, now let me read you some different opinions about this project. Supporters of this project say that the basketball arena and the surrounding office and residential complex will bring great benefit to Brooklyn. The project will create thousands of jobs and provide some badly needed housing space for people from all different income levels in Brooklyn. It will bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in extra tax revenue each year that could be used for schools and other vital services.

Don’t know if this is actually push polling, but the questions are fairly leading. The only reason we know about this is that the pollster called Prospect Heights anti-arena activist Patti Hagan and she recorded the conversation. (via Curbed)

This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

Improv Everywhere – Union Square, originally uploaded by seanich

Improv Everywhere is a NYC-based improv collective who do really funny public improv such as the Circle Line Tour in the Union Square fountain and Synchronized Swimming in Washington Square Park fountain. For their newest public improv, they turned DSW Shoes, Forever 21 and Filene’s Basement into a performance space entitled, Look Up More. This entailed 70-or so “agents” (of comedy?) taking up positions in the back-lit windows at night to do a choreographed dance performance.
This would have been awesome to see, since that building is the perfect performance space from Union square. Check out seanich’s photos from the event and the Improve Everywhere write up of the mission. Also, there is a video of the event. (8megs .mp4)

Improv Everywhere – Union Square, originally uploaded by seanich

Update 29 Mar 2005
Gothamist posts about the project.

This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

Via friends (and later greg.org) comes the unfortunate Daniel Libeskind condo on the shores of the Ohio River in Covington, Kentucky across from Cincinnati. Notice anything similar from, oh say, the World Trade Center Master Plan writ small?
Just look at this turd of a building which reportedly was rejected months ago at the planning commission, but is back again after the design has been “altered.” If altering means adding people to the rendering, then according to those close to the goings-on in Cincinnati, then yes: the building was “altered.”
Additionally, greg.org talks about the Empire State Building’s “Mini-me,” the RJ Reynolds headquarters in Winston-Salem, NC. But actually Cincinnati has it’s own pre-Empire State building, the Carew Tower which is magnitudes closer in lineage to Empire State than RJ Reynolds:

Carew Tower, originally at ohio old photos

Built by the same architects, Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, prior to Empire State, the Carew Tower is clad in the same material and system as the Empire State Building. The word on the street – by my old architecture history professor – is that as the Carew Tower was being completed, the developer of the Empire State needed a building, and needed it built fast. So the architects used the exact same building set from Carew Tower, just stretched it out in various directions to fit the site and added extra floors. The spire was added to compete with the then under construction Chrysler Building.
This story might be apophrical, but it would explain the reported two-week period which Shreve, Lamb & Harmon pumped out building drawings for Empire State.
25 March 2005
Of course, the design gurus at the The Cincinnati Enquirer are in support of the Libeskind tower: Bold design of proposed tower would soar as regional landmark.

This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

the bean – photo by pachanga
The privatization of the public sphere is continuing unabated. The new Millennium Park in Chicago, the 24.5-acre park on Michigan Avenue, is apparently a copyrighted public space. That’s right, according to the city, the sculptures/park follies and the park itself are copyrighted and those wishing to photograph the park need a $350 “media permit.” Watchout Flickr, all those photographs tagged with millennium and chicago could find you in deep trouble. Read this 28 Jan 2005 article by the Chicago Reader for the full story: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (via the urbanist). The city claims that no one can take photographs of the park without a $350 “media permit” if they are going to use the photographs for “commercial use.” But according to the city, exempted from the permit are students, journalists, and amateur photographers. Which makes no sense because journalism itself is a commercial use – albeit one protected by the First Amendment. I am pretty sure that you could make a First Amendment case that photographs, regardless of use or intent, is protected speech.
How messed up is our copyright system when you can’t take photographs of public buildings, paid for by public money, without a “permit.” I thought the First Amendment is the only permit you need? Looks like I’m breaking the law with this photo. In fact, I might have. I had this photo taken off of iStock Photo because of “copyright” problems. I never really cared enough to figure out, but I’m sure Calder (or the estate) made a stink about the photo containing the sculpture, probably claiming it was a derivative work. Which is insane.
As for the artist, on one hand I can sympathize with trying to protect their work – but copyright is not the answer. This is a public space, paid with public funds, and you Artist, created a very public piece of art. It seems that there are competing interests at work here: the right of the artist(s) to protect the work versus the right of the people to express themselves in an unfettered way. The fact that this is a public space built by public funds seems to negate the Artist’s claim of copyright (at least ethically and morally). Are there any copyright experts out there?