Tuesday, January 26, 2021 – Sit down and look out the window at our unbelievable city

By admin

TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2021

The

271st  Edition

From Our Archives

A BUS TRIP FROM

CITY HALL TO 63 ST

I had the opportunity today to take a M103 bus from
City Hall to 63rd Street. It is an unusual and sad feeling to see the emptiness of some neighborhoods. From my left hand seat, I had a great view on a sunny morning to discover sites we usually ignore. The architecture and design and wonderful hodge-podge of our downtown structures lends excitement to the buildings thru the graffiti and shabbiness of some areas.

No demonstrations or even visitors this morning.  City Hall is working from home.

The gracious entry to the Manhattan Bridge and off to Brooklyn

The wonderful former Bowery Savings Bank Building in Chinatown is now a Capitale catering hall.  Two icons stand guard at the gates.

You knew your money was safe with all that looks over the building

The lady is protecting the water tank

Chair, table, booth and that is what we sell!

A blur on a mural heading north

The Bouwerie Lane Theatre is a former bank building which became an Off-Broadway theatre, located at 330 Bowery at Bond Street in Manhattan, New York City. It is located in the NoHo Historic District.

The building’s facade on the Bowery (2010) The cast-iron building, which was constructed from 1873-1874, was designed by Henry Engelbert in the Italianate style for the Atlantic Savings Bank, which became the Bond Street Saving Bank before the building was completed.

When the bank failed in 1879, the building was sold to the German Exchange Bank, which served the German immigrant community.
] Prior to the 1960s, the building was used for the storage of fabrics. Then in 1963, the building was converted into a theater by Honey Waldman, who produced several plays there.

From 1974 to 2006, it was the home of the Jean Cocteau Repertory Theatre.
Among the many plays and musicals that were produced at the theatre, the first was The Immoralist (1963) with Frank Langella, Dames at Sea (1968), Night and Day (2000) by Tom Stoppard, Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera (2003), and the Cocteau’s final production, Jean Genet’s The Maids X 2 (2006).

] The building was purchased by Adam Gordon in 2007 for conversion into a private mansion with a climbing wall, and the Bowery street front used for retail.
In 1967, the building was designated a New York City landmark,[1] and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

The AIA Guide to New York City calls it “One of the most sophisticated cast-iron buildings.”

WIKIPEDIA

Arches, bay widows and some contemporary at the street level and dining too!

Peter Cooper sits south of the Cooper Union

Peek into the library of the Cooper Union

One spire and one tower

Table for two

Down

The most people I saw this morning.

TUESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

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MONDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

Lisa Fernandez, Nina Lublin, Gloria Herman
got it right
WALKING DOWN 7TH AVENUE IN Manhattan’s fashion district, you might be surprised to see a massive button and needle leaning against the Fashion District Information Center. While the sculpture was designed in the style of works by Claes Oldenburg, it was designed and built along with the information center by Pentagram Architectural Services.

Just next to the information booth, a statue of a garment worker toils in the shadow of the huge needle and button. This weathered-looking bronze statue is a work by Judith Weller. It depicts her father, one of a great many Jewish immigrants who moved to New York and wound up working in the garment district. Looming over the immigrant worker, the needle and button feel less whimsical and more menacingly oppressive.

     

Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter  and Deborah Dorff

Judith Berdy
Wikipedia
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Roosevelt Island Historical Society
unless otherwise indicated
PHOTOS BY JUDITH BERDY / RIHS (C)
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