Yesterday was a beautiful day and after too many days on the rock, I decided to to take the ferry to Wall Street to check out The Conwell Coffee Hall. Ranyee, my intrepid travel companion met on the ferry (she came from 90th St.) and sailed south. Conwell is located at 6 Hanover St. A five minute walk and the massive banking hall was in front of us.
We stepped up to the counter where our transactions were ordering coffee and light bites. We had delicious sandwiches, smoked salmon for me; cheese, egg on a croissant for Ranyee. Served at a table by a wait-person, with a linen napkin, real cutlery and dishes, an elegant ambiance. Much more relaxing than most coffee chains.
Our next stop was One Wall Street. After walking through throngs of tourists in narrow Wall Street, One Wall entrance is around the corner. The newly minted super-luxury condominium was guarded by a young man who politely denied us entry into to the sanctuary. He told us the Red Room is under restoration and temporarily closed. From a press release I gather that Primtemps the Parisian department store will open in the building.
Next door was the entrance to a year-old Whole Foods, the most lovely market I have seen in Manhattan. We found the coffee bar ($3.50 for a cappuccino, a bargain), sat in the lower level cafe and wandered the aisles of all kinds of eats and treats. Wide aisles, free water refill stations and restrooms, made this a popular stop for families from afar to take a break from sightseeing.
Walking down Exchange Place more condo conversions were evident. Number 25 has a luxurious lobby and its grand lamps stand guard on this narrow street.
Down the street, the newly re-opened Delmonico’s stands guard with her red and brownstone structure.
Across the street a Brazilian Bank has a lovely entrance.
On Hanover Square the Queen Elizabeth September Garden offers a shaded park with a touch of the grand British Commonwealth in the paving stones. One local, while waiting for his lunch to be delivered, discussed the neighborhood changes after living there 20 years.
This wonderful food delivery man from Grub Hub comes from a former French Colony, Guinea!! Magnifique
Pavers from Australia Turks & Caicos, Ascension Island, and the Antarctic Territory are an interesting reminder of the British Colonial days.
The former India House, now a club, is newly restored and looking out of the park.
Ready for the PRIDE PARADE on Sunday, this DOT vehicle was parked off Water Street
Arriving back at the NYC Ferry pier, I found there were crowds of riders on long lines, waiting for the 3 presidential helicopters to depart. There was no river traffic south of the Brooklyn Bridge. After a half hour, lines moved and we were on our way home. Just another afternoon in New York.
AVOIDING POLITICS
TWO FUN MOVIES
FAR AWAY,
A TURKISH WOMAN ESCAPES HER FAMILY TO AN ISLAND IN CROATIA
NO PRESSURE A CITY CHEF ESCAPES TO THE THE POLISH COUNTRYSIDE
BOTH ARE FROM NETFLIX
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JUDITH BERDY UNTAPPED NEW YORK
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I mentioned the Colossus of Coney Island once before, but it’s time to expand on that a bit. (The fact that I mentioned this building three and a half years ago and did not remember having done so until I searched for it makes me wonder if I’ve written too many blog posts.) Here’s an 1896 photograph that, while sadly lacking contrast, gives an accurate impression of how big that elephant was. The one-story building in front only goes halfway up the legs.
Note that visiting the inside was free at that time. It had been planned as a mall of sorts, housing individual store stalls and supposedly had a grand hall and museum. While it was extraordinarily large as an elephant, it was not really that big as a building, and the museum and hall spaces were small as museums and grand halls go. And since the number of windows – again, large for an elephant, small for a building – was limited by the need to have the wood structure span between the legs, it must have been a bit dark and close inside there. Here’s a cross-section
It was about twice the size of its predecessor, Lucy, in Atlantic City, with the peak of the howdah on the elephant’s back about 120 feet above grade. My personal favorite detail is that there were telescopes set into the eyes – which may be why they look a little weird in the photos – so that the head was a kind of observatory. Another not-great photo:
The Colossus opened in 1885 and, like so much of early Coney Island, burned down. The stereoscopic view may be dated 1897, but the elephant burned down in September 1896.
A Coney Island Tragedy: Burning of the Historic Elephant Cover from October 10, 1896 issue of The Illustrated American
The attractions at Coney Island and other beach resorts at that time were maybe one notch better than those of a traveling carnival and were built as cheaply as possible. A building-sized object made up entirely of plank and 2×s, and lit by gas, was pretty much inevitably going to burn.
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That’s the new folly, but I have no way to explain what that is because I have no idea. If you look at the website about the projectthere are some renderings of it, but they don’t seem to look much like that. It may be that my imagination is lacking or it may be that the design has changed since the renderings were made or it may be some of both. In the end, I just want the project done to get the sidewalks back to normal.
Nearly every day, I walk past the construction of the South Battery Park City Resiliency Project, part of protecting lower Manhattan from the kind of flooding that occurred during Hurricane Sandy. Much of it is relatively straightforward: there’s a big berm being added to the park along the river, which will be landscaped to be a useful part of the park.
Part of the park since its construction has been an odd folly, with a fake brick arch as its centerpiece, that housed a restaurant. Since the folly’s footprint crossed form an area with unchanged elevation into the berm, it had to be removed, and is being replaced with an odder folly, which will probably house a restaurant.
That’s the context for this photo:
UNLIKE COLER THIS PROJECT IS IN A PARK, CHECK OUT LINKS AND IMAGES
The South Battery Park City Resiliency Project contemplates creation of an integrated coastal flood risk management system from the Museum of Jewish Heritage, across Wagner Park and Pier A Plaza, and along the northern border of the Historic Battery.
The SBPCR Project represents one of several projects within the overall Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency (LMCR) Master Plan.
The purpose of the SBPCR Project is to:
• Provide a reliable coastal flood control system to provide risk reduction to property, residents and assets within the vicinity of South Battery Park City in response to the design storm event;
• Protect and preserve to the maximum extent practicable, open space resources and opportunities to view and interact with the Manhattan waterfront, particularly in Wagner Park, Pier A Plaza and The Battery; and,
• Avoid or minimize disruption to existing below and above-ground infrastructure (i.e., water and sewer infrastructure, subways, tunnels, utilities, etc.) from flood events
The SBPCR Project enhances Wagner Park’s programmatic diversity and provides an opportunity for a new waterfront marine habitat educational area along the Pier A inlet. The Pier A Inlet design converts a concrete relieving platform and rip-rap edge to a terraced condition that improves habitat opportunities.
SBPCR Project: Frequently Asked Questions (May 2023)COMMUNITY NOTICE: SOUTH BATTERY PARK CITY RESILIENCY PROJECTThe South Battery Park City Resiliency Project contemplates creation of an integrated coastal flood risk management system from the Museum of Jewish Heritage, across Wagner Park and Pier A Plaza, and along the northern border of the Historic Battery.The SBPCR Project represents one of several projects within the overall Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency (LMCR) Master Plan.The purpose of the SBPCR Project is to:• Provide a reliable coastal flood control system to provide risk reduction to property, residents and assets within the vicinity of South Battery Park City in response to the design storm event;• Protect and preserve to the maximum extent practicable, open space resources and opportunities to view and interact with the Manhattan waterfront, particularly in Wagner Park, Pier A Plaza and The Battery; and,• Avoid or minimize disruption to existing below and above-ground infrastructure (i.e., water and sewer infrastructure, subways, tunnels, utilities, etc.) from flood eventsThe SBPCR Project enhances Wagner Park’s programmatic diversity and provides an opportunity for a new waterfront marine habitat educational area along the Pier A inlet. The Pier A Inlet design converts a concrete relieving platform and rip-rap edge to a terraced condition that improves habitat opportunities.
FROM WALT WHITMAN’S LEAVES OF GRASS THE SHAPES ARISE
HOME NEEDED FOR NON FUNCTIONING ORGAN IN CHAPEL. IF YOU HAVE A SUGGESTION FOR A NEW HOME, CONTACT JBIRD134@AOL.COM
CREDITS
OLD STRUCTURES ENGINEERING DON FRIEDMAN POETRY BY WALT WHITMAN YIMBY
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CREDITS
JUDITH BERDY ROOSEVELT ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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The Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed on March 17, 1861, although linguistic and economic characteristics differed from one region to another. When in that same year statesman Massimo d’Azeglio published his memoirs, he began his narrative with a warning: “Pur troppo s’è fatta l’Italia, ma non si fanno gl’Italiani” (Unfortunately, Italy was created, but Italians are not being created).
The country might have become a political entity, but its population was far from cohesive. Not rooted in ancestry, national identity was a political and socio-cultural construction.
In 1911, Italians celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of unification (Cinquantenario). Marked by expositions in Turin, Florence and Rome, the festivities aimed at showing the world that a vigorous young nation was ready to join the Great Powers of Europe. The jubilee aspired to embrace modernity by challenging stereotypes of backwardness and indolence.
At the same time, organizers paid tribute to seventeenth century architecture. Baroque was presented as the peninsula’s first genuine national style and therefore proof of a cultural sense of self that anticipated political unity.
Tension between Italy’s fragmented past and its centralized present was a feature of identity formation. Food traditions were part of a troublesome process that was further complicated by the input of Italian-Americans.
Belly of Naples
Soon after Christopher Columbus completed his first voyage to the Americas, crops were taken to the port of Seville and presented to the Royal Iberian gardens. Seeds of maize, marigold and chili peppers attracted the interest of European scholars – and so did the tomato. Spanish colonizers reported that the Aztecs cultivated the fruit in a variety of sizes, shapes and colors.
The Kingdom of Naples was a vital part of the Spanish global Empire which spanned from South and Central America to the Philippines. Many Neapolitans served on ships sailing under Portuguese and Spanish flags. It did not take long for the tomato to reach its local gardens. Tomatoes or “pomi d’oro” (golden apples) were studied by botanists in the 1540s.
Naples in the late seventeenth century was one of Europe’s most populous cities (with three million inhabitants in 1600) and a center of architecture, art and music pulling visitors from far and wide. Mount Vesuvius added a thrill to those who had traveled to see the city.
The quality of its cuisine was another attraction. The San Marzano tomato came to symbolize local cooking and the Mediterranean diet. Campania’s potassium-rich volcanic soil was perfect for the fruit’s cultivation.
Antonio Latini was a self-made man who had started his career in the household of Cardinal Antonio Barberini in Rome, before settling in Naples in 1682 to become steward to Don Stefano Carillo Salcedo, first minister to the Spanish Viceroy. In this role he was responsible for the management of all staff, provisions, meals and entertainments.
In 1692/4 he published a cookbook in two volumes entitled Lo scalco alla moderna (The Modern Steward). It was the last great book of Italian Renaissance and Baroque cuisine, a flamboyant tradition that had dominated elite European dining. The French style of cooking was beginning to emerge.
At the same time Latini looked forward. With a keen interest in local ingredients, he closely inspected the region and listed specialties such as oil, olives, vegetables and fruits. He was the first author to publish recipes using tomatoes and chili peppers. The American tomato was about to conquer Naples.
Following unification, Naples lost its leading position and suffered serious economic decline. Street vendors began selling pizzas in the poorest parts of the city. As Matilde Serao observed in Il ventre di Napoli (The Belly of Naples, written in the aftermath of the cholera epidemic of September 1884) large sections of the population lived on the street.
They survived on flatbread, fritters of cabbage stalk, fragments of anchovy, or boiled chestnuts. Street fare was the only way of procuring a meal.
One of the earliest accounts of “lazzaroni” (poor people) consuming pizza was recorded by French novelist Alexandre Dumas during a visit to Naples in 1835. Street vendors baked pies in wood-fired ovens and kept them warm in tin “stoves” which they balanced on their head.
Judgmental Italians treated the pie with disgust. Carlo Collodi, son of a Florentine chef and author of Pinocchio, referred to it as a “patchwork of greasy filth.” Pizza was associated with poverty, malnutrition and disease.
Cooking & Politics
Lombardy-born chef and author Bartolomeo Scappi made his career at the Vatican. In 1570, he published his monumental Opera dell’arte del cucinare, listing about 1,000 recipes of Renaissance cuisine which included a “pizza alla Napoletana,” described as a baked dessert pie stuffed with almond custard.
Three centuries later the same dish featured in a cookbook that has been hailed as an iconic contribution to culinary history.
Published in Florence in 1891, Pellegrino Artusi’s La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiare bene (Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well) was the first attempt at creating a comprehensive Italian cookbook.
Unable to find a publisher, he printed the first 1,000 copies at his own expense. The original volume contained 475 recipes which had grown to 790 by the fourteenth edition (published in 1911, the year of the author’s death). Since then the book has never been out of print.
Recipe 609 in the collection is a “pizza alla Napoletana,” presented as a shortcrust filled with a cream of ricotta, almonds and lemon peel (Artusi included two more “pizze,” both of them desserts).
Living in Florence, Pellegrino was a prosperous silk merchant with literary ambitions and a passion for food. A taste traveler, he had enjoyed all Tuscan delicacies, macaroni in Naples, saltimbocca in Rome and risotto in Milan.
Recreating these dishes at home, supported by his assistants Marietta Sabatini and Francesco Ruffilli, he transcribed them in the form of recipes. Artusi was a gourmet, not a chef. A noted host and raconteur, his flowing narrative is a mixture of directions interspersed with anecdotes and asides. But his book was more than just an entertaining manual.
The author had been a member of Giuseppe Mazzini’s “La Giovine Italia” (Young Italy). He would have been aware of Giuseppe Garibaldi’s statement that the force of macaroni would unite Italy as it reflected the rich variety of its culture.
Artusi’s cookbook was a political document. He argued that presenting gastronomic delights in a common language would benefit unification. An inclusive society embraces regional practices and values difference. Sharing a table bridges cultural divides. Food is a unifier.
Not only did Artusi turn against the ingrained Italian habit of speaking in dialect, he also attacked the French dominated terminology of “haute cuisine.”
When lexicographer Alfredo Panzini published his Dizionario moderno delle parole che non si trovano nei dizionari comuni (A Modern Dictionary of Words Not Found in Ordinary Dictionaries’) in 1905, he praised the author for his determination to create a vocabulary free of Gallicisms. Artusi became the nation’s food ambassador.
In 1889, at the Pizzeria Brandi in Naples, Raffaele Esposito was said to have baked a pie with a topping of basil, mozzarella and tomato representing the nation’s flag. He named his creation “pizza Margherita” in honor of Margherita of Savoy, wife of King Umberto I. The story was an invention.
Pizza as we know it today did not exist at the time. Its “modern” definition first appeared in an Italian dictionary in 1905.
Naples to Manhattan
Thomas Jefferson served as US Minister to France from 1785 to 1789 and during his stay he developed a passion for Mediterranean cuisine. He studied farming techniques, researched cooking utensils, and had his own chef trained in the French culinary arts.
In 1787 he wrote a short treatise on the delight of Neapolitan pasta and produced a sketch of a “maccaroni” (a generic term for pasta) machine, a version of which he later shipped back to Monticello.
Once installed as President, he served such delicacies as ice cream or peach flambé to his dinner guests, but also surprised them with a plate of macaroni and cheese at a time that the American diet was dominated by heavy English-style boiled, baked or stewed meats. It would take several decades before Italian food became embedded in American culture.
During the late nineteenth century, peasants and the urban poor in the Italian South suffered severe hardship and food insecurity. They survived on stale bread and soup. Wholesome food was mainly memory.
Italians left in droves, arriving in America through Ellis Island. In spite of long hours of hard labor and living in squalid quarters, families were able to afford flour, eggs and meat. Olive oil, pasta and cheese were imported from Italy itself or via the Italian diaspora in Argentina.
The stereotypical Italian-American red sauce cuisine was a fusion of ‘rich’ ingredients (cheese, meat and fish) and tomatoes, whilst retaining the simplicity that characterized Neapolitan or Sicilian meals.
Until the 1960s few Italian-American cookbooks were published as recipes were passed down orally. Neapolitans had come to work in factories, not to make culinary statements.
Gennaro Lombardi arrived in New York from Naples in 1897 and started a small grocery story in Manhattan’s Little Italy. Located at 32 Spring Street, he began selling slices of Neapolitan “tomato pies” wrapped in paper to local laborers.
In 1905 he was licensed by the New York City government to make and sell pizzas. Named Lombardi’s, the business thrived. Tenor Enrico Caruso, himself born and raised in Naples, was a client.
Adapting to new conditions, New York-style pies were baked in coal rather than wood-fired ovens. The hand-tossed thin crust was topped with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. Neapolitan poor man’s pie made an appeal as it corresponded to the American pace of life. It became New York’s fast food icon.
Always keen to identify a starting point in time, historians have nominated Lombardi as pizza’s “Founding Father.” Inevitably, the suggestion has been challenged. The idea that in the midst of an influx of immigrants there would be a single pioneer is unlikely.
Pizza slices were produced before Lombardi had settled in Manhattan. Filippo Milone was an immigrant who had arrived in New York in the early 1890s and he apparently ran a successful pizza business in the city. There would have been others.
Pizza Effect
Artusi’s personal bias was towards the cooking of Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany. Other regions were represented with few dishes, whilst some parts such as Marche, Abruzzo, Puglia, Basilicata or Calabria are not mentioned at all. These omissions highlight the limitations of our notion of a “national cuisine.”
Dishes such as German “sauerkraut,” Hungarian “goulash” or Ukrainian “borshch” have become a means of ethnic identification, both positively and negatively. The Racial Slur Database lists hundreds of insults based on what people eat.
Once the economic concept of World Fairs had taken root, nations created pavilions to present themselves to the outside world. Authenticity was staged; tradition invented; cooking standardized. Tourism contributed to the process of simplification. National cuisine became a stereotype.
The pizza boom started after the Second World War. Most new outlets were owned by independent operators of various nationalities. The simple Neapolitan pie was turned into a New York, Chicago or Detroit-style pizza with mozzarella, tomatoes and a variety of “gourmet” toppings. The pizza habit spread quickly to workers on their lunch hour and families looking for an affordable meal out.
The American pizza-scape changed with the proliferation of chains. Pizza Hut made a successful start in Kansas in 1958 and was followed in rapid succession by a range of others (Little Caesar’s in 1959 and Domino’s in 1960, both in Michigan). Pizza became a commodity and a lesson. By sharing slices, its consumption promotes cooperation. As a metaphor, pizza has entered the domain of politics and enterprise.
The “Pizza Meter” is a theory that postulates that an uptick in takeaway orders in Washington, DC, signals international conflict. The delivery record of Domino’s pizzas at the CIA offices occurred on August 1, 1990, the day before Iraq invaded Kuwait.
The rush may have inspired Jeff Bezos when, four years later, he founded Amazon from his garage in Bellevue, Washington. To achieve maximum efficiency, he divided the company into groupings and introduced the “Two Pizza Rule,” stipulating that every internal team should be small enough to subsist on two pizzas.
Such was its popular impact that Yankee pizzas invaded Europe. Pizza may have been invented in Naples as cheap food consumed by the poor, it remained unknown outside the region until migrants arrived in Manhattan.
After the Second World War many Italian-Americans traveled to Europe to reconnect with their ancestors and make a pilgrimage to the “home” of pizza. In Naples, they were served their familiar Americanized versions.
In a globalized world, cultures tend to influence each other in a loop. Elements of a national or regional culture are embraced elsewhere, transformed, and then re-exported to their domain of origin. Sociologists have named this phenomenon the “Pizza Effect.”
Celebrating 35 years serving our community weekly with fresh fruits, vegetables, other goodies and great friendly service!!! Congrats to Israel, his family and crew.
Illustrations, from above: Garibaldi departing on the Expedition of the Thousand in 1860; Sprig of a tomato plant from an album of medicinal plants, Rome ca 1610 (Royal Collection Trust); Third corrected edition of Artusi’s La scienza in cucina; Pizza alla napoletana (dessert) according to Pellegrino Artusi; 1989 commemorative plaque in Naples marking the 100th anniversary of pizza Margherita; Thomas Jefferson description and sketch of a macaroni machine (Library of Congress); and Pizza Hut opens its 11,000th international restaurant in Dubai in 2019.
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Our work with old buildings has us studying a lot of different topics in addition to structural engineering – for example, architecture, history, and historic preservation – and we like sharing stories about what we’ve found. OLD STRUCTURES ENGINEERING
The central dome of the US Capitol on May 9, 1861:
There was a certain symbolism to its incomplete state given that the Civil War had begun the previous month, but that was a coincidence. The replacement of the original wooden dome had been planned for some time. The old dome was too small, architecturally, having been sized for the building before the wings were added, and was a fire hazard in an era where “artificial light” meant “flame.”
The new dome took ten years to build from start to finish, in part because of the war but largely because of logistical and design issues. In any case, it’s interesting to me that common descriptions consistently describe the structure incorrectly. The description at the Architect of the Capitol’s website, for example, call is “cast iron” twice and “iron” twice. Similarly, the Wikipedia page calls it “cast iron” four times, despite having an original drawing that makes it clear why that’s only partially correct:
[This post was edited after posting, with the edits marked in square barckets. My thanks tio the reader who pointed out my error.]The dome consists of a cast-iron skin largely supported by a series of wrought-iron trusses. [Edit, 5 hours after posting: the trusses are a combination of cast and wrought iron, with the wrought iron used where tension was expected.] The cast skin contributes to the structural action but is not the main load-carrying element. So why are the trusses ignored? First, visible architectural elements are easier to understand than hidden structure. Second, as I’ve learned the hard way, non-engineers really don’t understand trusses and are sometimes freaked out by them. Third, there’s a common narrative in architectural history that cast-iron construction in the US was a stepping stone to steel frames, which really isn’t true (cast-iron facades are a form of bearing wall, not rigid frame, and I know of no building where the cast iron supports the structure without the help of masonry or wrought iron) and is a twentieth-century retcon of the technological development. In any case, feel free to put on a superior expression and say “actually, it’s a cast-iron skin over [Edit: combination cast- and] wrought-iron trusses” if you hear someone call it a cast-iron dome.___As for my title, the cast-iron foundry was in the Bronx. I don’t remember offhand where the wrought iron was rolled and fabricated.
I was at Coler with head nurse Melana to celebrate the Beacon Award for great care in the Memory Units at the hospital!!!
CREDITS DON FRIEDMAN OLD STRUCTURES ENGINEERING LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
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Our work with old buildings has us studying a lot of different topics in addition to structural engineering – for example, architecture, history, and historic preservation – and we like sharing stories about what we’ve found. OLD STRUCTURES ENGINEERING
From Angelo Rizzuto, a view of the Brooklyn Bridge from June 1954. It was not taken from Woolworth, as the angle is slightly wrong.
The bridge was in a transition period, with one major renovation just completed and another about to start. Between 1950 and 1954, the bridge underwent it’s most extreme changes: the BMT elevated and trolley tracks were removed, the roadway expanded from two lanes each way (one shared with the trolleys) to three by using the elevated lanes for cars, the mid-width trusses that separated the elevated lanes from the traffic removed, and the formerly low outer trusses raised to the height of the inner trusses. This picture was taken a month after the end of that work, with the pedestrian walkway (center of the deck) reopened. The big space at the end of the bridge isn’t a plaza, it’s where the elevated station had been.
Note how close the bridge deck is to the neighboring buildings on both sides. That wouldn’t last: the next project was the – in my opinion, incredibly ill-advised – construction of ramps to connect the bridge to the highway along the East River. Because of the change in elevation, the buildings abutting the bridge on both sides, including the domed World Building on the right, were demolished so the ramps could double back on themselves in plan. This simultaneously encouraged people to drive into and through lower Manhattan and deprived the bridge of part of its original context.
Finally, note that little triangular island, with a subway entrance, at the end of the bridge. While not in the direct path of traffic, thanks to the ghost of the elevated station, it shows that traffic engineers were not yet in control.
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THE ART DECO MAGIC OF BLOOMINGDALE’S LEXINGTON AVENUE STORE SIGN
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 2024 ISSUE # 1256
EPHEMERAL NEWYORK
Like many of Manhattan’s legendary department stores, Bloomingdale’s developed in stages.
First came Lyman and Joseph Bloomingdale’s “Ladies’ Notions Shop” on Chambers Street, where they sold the trendiest garment of the 1860s: the hoop skirt.
In 1886, the Bloomingdale Brothers moved their store, renamed the “East Side Emporium,” to the hinterlands of Manhattan at Lexington Avenue and 59th Street.
“The store expanded steadily and by the 1920’s, Bloomingdale’s converted an entire city block,” states Bloomingdale’s website.
The block-long store that was put together piecemeal underwent an Art Deco makeover in 1930. A movie-marquee awning, metal decals along the facade, and geometric shapes above the main entrance decorate the store’s Lexington Avenue side.
What captures my eye is the Art Deco-style lettering on Bloomingdale’s facade and the entrance awning. I’m not enough of a typeface expert to know if it has a name.
But the san serif, all-caps lettering is a unique reminder of the magic of Art Deco—and that this beloved midcentury design style dominating many of Manhattan’s skyscraper districts can be found hidden away in unusual places: subway entrances, nameplates on building doors, and the lettering above store entrances.
PS 217 SANITATION SQUAD.
ARMED WITH TRASH BAGS AND GRABBERS STUDENTS ATTACKED TRASH ON MAIN STREET A PROGRAM FUNDED BY THE NY SANITATION DEPARTMENT
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Deepa Vinoo and I are pleased to announce that our article “Advancing Health Care Equity: A Memory Care Unit in a Large New York City Public Nursing Home” was published online in Caring for the Ages, which is the official newspaper of AMDA, providing timely and relevant news and commentary to post-acute and long-term care professionals throughout our country. This article, which describes how we went about improving dementia care, is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the entire Coler team. We greatly appreciate the support that you have given to Coler over the years. Advancing Health Care Equity: A Memory Care Unit in a Large New York City Public Nursing Home – Caring for the Ages
The 150-bed memory care unit (MCU) at Coler Rehabilitation & Nursing Care Center has a two-thirds racial and ethnic minority population. The unit’s residents have been impacted by social determinants of health associated with poor health outcomes, such as poverty, homelessness, substance use disorders, mental illness, behavioral disorders, and lack of health insurance. In addition, over 20% have no available family or surrogates.
Coler, which is operated by NYC Health + Hospitals (H+H), our nation’s largest municipal health system, serves as a safety net for those who otherwise would lack access to high-quality dementia care.
Recently, Coler received the American Association of Critical Care Nursing’s Beacon Award for Excellence in recognition of the high-quality dementia care provided in its MCU, becoming the first U.S. post-acute care recipient. Coler’s MCU team remains committed to advancing health equity in dementia care for an aging minority population in need of palliative services. To them, the true test of leadership is identifying new challenges, finding solutions, and inspiring others — for advancing health equity requires a deep-seated commitment to providing the highest-quality care.Journey to SuccessThe journey began two decades ago when the dementia care model was aggressive medical treatment, involving a hospital transfer at the resident’s end of life. For Coler, the key initial step involved transforming dementia care from a predominantly medical model to a palliative one, which required changing the culture of care.
The first target was tube-feeding in advanced dementia, which had been commonplace at Coler at the time. By contrast, emerging evidence-based medical literature was advocating maintenance of oral feeding as the more humane alternative (J Am Geriatr Soc 2014;62:1590–1593). Coler’s frontline MCU interdisciplinary team (IDT) took on the challenge, and they persuaded families to try this evidenced-based approach. As a result, within a relatively short interval they significantly reduced tube-feeding among their residents with advanced dementia.
Coler’s efforts continue today, and currently no MCU residents are receiving tube-feeding. A key lesson learned from this experience was how to embolden team spirit and build off an initial success in implementing evidenced-based care.KindnessSince 2008, kindness has been the key ingredient in the MCU team’s recipe for success, enabling the MCU’s residents to find their “comfort zone” and to express themselves in more meaningful ways. Kindness is also the key that enables the MCU IDT to gain the respect and trust of families.
As a case in point, early in the pandemic when family visitations were suspended, the wife of a MCU resident became extremely anxious and fearful for her husband’s safety. The head nurse explained the situation to the chief of psychiatry, who called the wife and reassured her that her husband was doing well. He even gave her his work cellphone number with instructions to call him with any concerns that she might have. When visitations were later resumed, the wife thanked the chief of psychiatry, commenting that his kindness completely rid her of her anxiety and fear; she said that she could sleep normally, knowing her husband was in good hands.
Based on our experience, any organization wishing to improve dementia care should rely on kindness from the onset, as it will never fail them. In fact, NYC H+H later launched a systemwide initiative called ICARE With Kindness, which emphasizes the greater need for kindness in every aspect of care.Liaison With Mentoring OrganizationsColer’s MCU was fortunate to receive guidance and training from organizations dedicated to advancing dementia care, which included Caring Kind, Comfort Matters, the Center to Advance Palliative Care, and AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. For organizations embarking on a similar path, it is essential to have dementia care support organizations by their side. For instance, as part of a research grant Comfort Matters trained all MCU IDT members in dementia care. The training received from these organizations was invaluable, building team confidence and paving the way for future successes, which were subsequently reflected in improved metrics.Person-Centered, Culturally Sensitive Dementia CareCare tailored to the residents’ needs and preferences that respects their values, beliefs, and cultural heritage has served Coler’s MCU residents well. Coler is fortunate to have culturally diverse IDT members, who serve as cultural liaisons to the residents and families.
For advanced-stage dementia, comfort care is provided to spare the residents from nonbeneficial, burdensome treatments while enrolling them in Coler’s palliative care program. In a 2021–2022 quality study, 19 of the 20 MCU residents (95%) who died during that period were enrolled in Coler’s palliative care, and none were transferred to acute care in their last 30 days of life. Organizations seeking to improve dementia care should consider this approach, which can be tailored to the needs and preferences of diverse populations.
A case Illustration Mr. L was a 35-year-old male with AIDS-induced dementia who identified as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. He was combative and was receiving high-dose antipsychotic medication at admission, which caused parkinsonian-like extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS). He required one-to-one observation; the Behavior Rapid Response Team was frequently called to assist, and several staff members had been injured. Moral distress among the staff was high, and Mr. L was transferred to the Coler MCU.
Upon his transfer, the MCU IDT held multiple huddles to explore the antecedents of Mr. L’s behavior. His next-of-kin were contacted to identify his preferences. After videoconferences with the family, a person-centered, culturally sensitive care approach was formulated. As part of this care plan, Mr. L received his favorite snacks and a personalized radio with his favorite music.
Mr. L’s aggressive behavior completely subsided, and he was tapered off his antipsychotic medications, with subsequent lessening of his EPS. He responded well to nonpharmacological pain management. Mr. L was then enrolled in Coler’s palliative care program to receive comfort measures and pastoral care. His family participated in his end-of-life care via videoconferences.
The IDT members comforted him in his final days, and Mr. L died peacefully in the MCU. Several IDT members attended his funeral. His family were deeply appreciative and wrote the team a touching thank-you message.
Key MetricsColer’s MCU leadership have used key metrics from the onset to improve dementia care in areas such as reducing falls, avoiding tube-feeding in advanced dementia, limiting antipsychotics, promoting systemwide deprescribing initiatives, expanding palliative care enrollment, and preventing end-of-life hospital transfers. They have presented their quality improvement data both within our health organization and to peer organizations such as the Society.Milestones/Distinctions• 2008–2011. Brown University sponsored research study: “Bathing Without a Battle: Creating a Better Bathing Experience for Persons With Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders”• 2010. Two protected units with 47 beds developed for residents with dementia• 2011–2013. Antipsychotic stewardship leading to a major reduction in antipsychotic use in MCU• 2014. Development of full-fledged memory care programs• 2016. “Algorithm for the Unbefriended” introduced at Coler, a support tool to assist care teams in making end-of-life treatment decisions for patients who lack both decisional capacity and surrogates• 2018. Collaboration with Comfort Matters and Caring Kind to build a palliative care program for dementia• 2018. Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (MOLST) quality improvement initiative launched to improve advance care planning• 2020–2021. COVID-19 pandemic, with no COVID deaths at Coler from July 1, 2020 to December 31, 2021 These milestones have helped us earn the recognition we have today as a quality facility, including the Quality Improvement & Health Care Outcomes Award from the Society (Caring for the Ages 2020;21[5]:23) and the recognition of our chief medical officer, Rani Rao, MD, FACP, CMD, as the Society’s Medical Director of the Year (Caring for the Ages 2023;24[3]:7).Take-Home Points• Leadership’s role is to seek new challenges, find solutions, and inspire others.• Advancing health care equity for America’s rapidly growing minority elders requires a deep-seated commitment to provide the highest-quality care.• Facilities must build off their successes.• Kindness is the key ingredient in the formula for success.• To succeed, it is essential to form liaisons with mentoring dementia care organizations.• Person-centered, culturally sensitive dementia care can be tailored to meet the needs and preferences of diverse populations. Throughout the process, leaders should utilize key metrics, measure your progress, set higher goals, present your quality improvement accomplishments to peer organizations, and collaborate with colleagues at annual conferences. Dr. Finger is attending physician/clinical ethics consultant at Coler Rehabilitation & Nursing Care Center and at Henry J. Carter Specialty Hospital & Nursing Facility. Dr. Vinoo is associate director nursing for the Coler Memory Care Unit.Article infoIdentificationDOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carage.2024.05.015CopyrightScienceDirectAccess this article on ScienceDirectRelated ArticlesEmpowering Care Through Connection: How Peer Mentoring Transformed a South Carolina Nursing Home’s Staff RetentionPischel et al. Caring for the AgesPreviewFull-Text PDFMedicare Home Health Care Outcomes Different by RaceJeffrey S. Eisenberg Caring for the AgesPreviewFull-Text PDFPartnering With Nursing Home Administrators to Improve Diabetes CareCarolyn Kazdan Caring for the AgesPreviewFull-Text PDFAcute Care in Nursing Homes May Be Better Than Hospital Care for Some ConditionsJeffrey S. Eisenberg Caring for the AgesPreviewFull-Text PDFA Year in Review in Long-Term Care: Virtual Reality, Breast Cancer Overdiagnosis, and Decolonization Interventions in Nursing HomesStaff Caring for the Ages
COLER STAFF CELEBRATES
The Beacon Award for Excellence FROM THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF CRITICAL CARE NURSES THEIR RECEIVING A PRESTIGIOUS AWARD FOR EXCELLENT CARE OF MEMORY UNIT RESIDENTS.
For patients and their families, the Beacon Award signifies exceptional care in a unit that puts patients first. For nurses, this award can mean a positive and supportive work environment with greater collaboration, higher morale and lower turnover.
he Beacon Award program comprises three distinct modules: Patient Outcomes, Work Environment and Nursing Workforce. While units must complete all three modules to be eligible for the Beacon Award, a unit may still receive recognition for top-tier performance at the module level even if only one module is completed.
CREDIT CARING FOR THE AGES (c) HOWARD FINGER, MD
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
While walking west on 28th Street I spotted a skinny building on the southwest corner of Broadway with Grecian temple at it’s peak. Time to check out the building with this odd design.
Charles A. Baudouine opened his first cabinetmaking shop on Pearl Street around 1830. As highly-ornate Victorian style came into fashion, his exquisitely carved Rococo Revival furniture earned him the reputation as one of New York’s premier cabinetmakers in the decades after Duncan Phyfe. His sole competitor in New York was John Henry Belter with whom he was (and is) consistently compared.
This Rococo Revival sofa came from the workshop of Charles Baudouine — The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
When Cyrus West Field purchased his mansion on the newly-developed Gramercy Park, he commissioned Baudouine to furnish the entire house—it was the first time in New York that a professional designer was hired as an interior decorator.
As Baudouine’s wealth accumulated, he invested heavily in real estate. Recognizing the potential of the northward movement of commerce up Fifth Avenue and Broadway, he bought up small buildings and erected modern business structures. Charles Baudouine would not live to see his last project fulfilled. He died on January 13, 1895 leaving an estate of approximately $3 million.
At Nos. 1181 to 1183 Broadway stood an old hotel known as the Brower House. The building was demolished and not long after Baudouine’s death construction commenced on a 10-story store and office structure–the Baudouine Building. Designed by architect Alfred Zucker, it was completed the following year. Situated at a slight bend in the thoroughfare, it claimed a commanding presence to anyone looking down Broadway.
Even today the location affords the building an opportune presence.
Zucker clothed his steel and iron framework in sandy-colored brick and terra-cotta on a rusticated two-story base of limestone. Despite the decorative elements, including an ornate closed pediment on the West 28th Street side; Zucker’s design would have been less-than-remarkable were it not for one feature: a large, meticulously designed Greco-Roman temple on the roof
Painstaking details in the temple, invisible from street level, are seen from a roof across the street — photography by C. T. Brady, Jr., from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York,
It is possible that the two-story temple was designed specifically as the offices of the Charles A. Baudouine Realty Company, the first tenant in the building. Run principally by son Charles A. Baudoine, it was also perhaps the first tenant to run into trouble.
Baudoine had in his employ a 27-year old “confidential clerk,” Albert Page Wood. On November 4, 1897 Baudoine sent the man to the Second National Bank to deposit $700 in checks and $262 in cash. When he returned to the office around noon, he made the excuse that he had left the deposit book at the bank. On November 6 The New York Times reported “The officers of the bank said that Wood had made no deposit, and they knew nothing of the book. The police found the book and checks in Wood’s pockets. He refuses to tell what he did with the cash.”Young Albert Wood was arrested and learned a valuable lesson: When you steal $262 in cash from your employer, it is best not to go back to work.
Unlike his father, Charles had difficulty keeping his name out of the newspapers. In 1894 he married Agnes M. Rutter, daughter of Thomas Rutter, president of the New York Central Railroad. That same year they became friendly with writer Casper W. Whitney and his wife, Annie Childs Whitney, who lived nearby the newlyweds on West 58th Street. In December of that same year the Baudouines were divorced and a month later the Whitneys separated.
Six months later Charles and his new love were married and sailed off to Europe where they remained until February 1897. They returned to find that Casper Whitney had sued to have his wife’s divorce decree set aside and he filed for his own divorce. Since the original divorce was no longer legal, neither was Charles’ and Annie’s wedding. The couple was remarried amid the glare of newspapers and society.
Louis L. Meyer ran his tailoring business on the second floor of the Baudouine Building in 1899. He was found dead on a sofa here on April 11 that year in mysterious circumstances. A janitor reported seeing a “strange man” leaving the vicinity. On the floor nearby Meyer’s bloodied body was a broken bottle which had contained carbolic acid. His lips were acid-burned and an ambulance surgeon said that “his death had undoubtedly been caused by carbolic acid,” according to The New York Times.
Friends of the tailor said they believed he committed suicide while “mentally overbalanced from overwork,” despite the fact that his business was prospering. The Times noted that “The blood stains were not accounted for.”At the same time, the famous stage actress Julia Arthur had her offices here. One of her celebrated roles was that of a man—Hamlet. Readers of The New York Times were delighted when, on July 13, 1899, the newspaper reported “It was said yesterday at the offices of Miss Arthur’s company, 1181 Broadway, that she would probably be seen as the Dane before her engagement at the Broadway Theatre ends.”
A succession of renowned architects would take space in the building over the years. In 1900 Henry Anderson moved in; in 1909 Henry Atterbury Smith was here when he designed a group of four tenement houses for Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, specifically designed for tuberculosis victims; and William A. Hewlett occupied offices here in 1914 through 1916.In 1901 Harry Elliott ran his pharmacy in the Baudouine Building; the same year that The Art Publishing Company came up with a clever gimmick to sell issues of its new magazine. The firm ran advertisements in newspapers like The Sun publicizing a contest to name the new periodical. It offered $3,500 to the person who submitted the winning title.
“Can you suggest a suitable name? The publication is handsomely bound with colored cover, and printed on the finest super-calendared paper, is beautifully illustrated and full of bright, up-to-date articles on current topics, all of which are of a most interesting character. In other words, you will find it the most interesting and instructive publication you ever read, and fit for the finest homes in the land.”
The Art Publishing Company was careful not to reveal too much about the contents. It wanted to sell a copy to each of the aspiring contest participants with the glint of $3,500 in their eyes. “The best and surest way to win the money is to get a sample copy so that you can see what it’s like. You can then form an idea of what would be a suitable name for it, and may suggest and send any number of names from 1 to 30 to select from.” In order to find out what the magazine was all about, the reader was required to mail in a dime, the price of a single issue.
Also in the building was T. Cook & Sons, ticket agents for the Midland Railway, an English railroad that promised “the most interesting and picturesque route through the centre of England.” The agents would stay on in the Baudouine Building for years.
At the same time the New York Registry Company was located here. A sort of life insurance firm, clients would “register” and were provided with a brass tag on which a number was inscribed. Upon producing the tag, which was intended to be worn by the insured, the beneficiary would be paid.
The company figured somewhat ghoulishly in the life (and death) of canal boat captain Gordon Maxon in 1903. Early in December of that year Maxon moored his boat the H. A. Comiskey to a pier at Coenties Slip. He was nagged by an uneasy premonition and told acquaintances “he felt that he would drown sooner or later.” He therefore registered with the New York Registry Company. Only a few nights later the Captain and his wife were aboard the canal boat. He went above board to make sure things were properly moored and did not return.
The Evening World assumed “In some unknown way he fell overboard and was drowned.” Mrs. Maxon headed off to the Baudouine Building to claim her insurance benefits; but Captain Maxon wore the tag around his neck and the body was missing.
Finally, four months later on the afternoon of April 10, 1904, the body of the 60-year old captain was found floating in the river. “When his body was found the tag was found in his clothes and the identification made,” reported The Evening World. “Maxon’s wife has been unable to collect the insurance on her husband’s life because the tag must be produced, but will be able to do so now.”
While the New York Registry Company was selling insurance, the St. James Society was offering cures to drug addiction. One advertisement in the February 1901 issue of The Cosmopolitan recounted the story of a New York businessman who lost his job and whose life was being ruined by morphine. “I sent for a trial bottle [of the cure], which the doctor sent me free of charge, and before I had taken all of the trial bottle I felt a change come over me—in fact, the FREE TRIAL almost cured me of the desire for drugs, and the St. James Society gave me the only comfort and encouragement I had received in five years.”
Within three months, said the advertisement, he had his job back, was earning $10,000 a year, “which is more salary than I was getting when I lost my position,” and was free of addiction. The ad offered the free trial bottle; but neglected to mention what the follow-up doses would cost.
James D. Murphy Company, a major building contractor, had its offices in the building in 1904 when it had the unenviable task of forcing 32 families out of their homes in the Lexington Avenue and 25th Street neighborhood, to make way for the anticipated 69th Regiment Armory.
James D. Murphy was painted as a cold-hearted brute by newspapers. “In many cases persons were too ill to be removed, and, in one instance, a death resulted from catching cold while looking for another apartment,” said The Times on February 16. Murphy tried to explain. “It is not the James D. Murphy Company which is doing what is being done, but the city…There is no desire on the part of the Murphy Company to be harsh or hard, or to create trouble for any one.”
Another large contracting firm here was that of Patrick Gallagher. Gallagher, his wife and daughter, lived nearby on East 29th Street. In 1905 he received a number of building contracts “and as he could not go on his own bond, he transferred…the property…to his wife, so that she could qualify,” said The Times. The somewhat questionable move would cause problems later.
Three years later Gallagher instructed his wife to reconvey the properties to him. She refused. So he sued her and received a court order in his favor. Mrs. Gallagher appealed. So Gallagher sued her again in September 1908—this time for contempt of court. The New York Times found the back-and-forth legal squabbling puzzling. “Husband and wife are living in the same house and have a 17-year-old daughter,” it said.
Mrs. Gallagher’s lawyer was equally shocked. “Never before in the history of our jurisprudence so far as I have been able to discover, has a court of justice been called upon by a husband to send his wife, with whom he is living, the mother of this child, to jail for contempt on a charge of this kind.”
Gallagher insisted he did not want his wife jailed; he merely wanted his property returned.
His domestic problems were not the only reason Gallagher that would see the inside of a courtroom that year. He had contracts to construct school buildings for the city; but in August 1908 his payments were not being received and he sued the City. The Committee on Buildings of the Board of Education agreed with him. “The committee asserts that the Controller has delayed for months the payment of money to contractors which should never have taken more than ten days,” reported The Times.
Gallagher did not care who was responsible—he simply wanted to be paid. He wrote to the Controller saying he intended to sue him and the city “for loss which he says the Controller has caused him by withholding money due on contracts.”
The outspoken Gallagher was back in the press a year later when he lashed out at the Mayor for “his expressed ignorance of the provisions of the newly revised Building Code. In his letter to the His Honor, the contractor said in part that “city finances are so crippled by the fearful mismanagement and unpardonable extravagance of our officials that we have been and are unable to start any new school buildings for near one year.”
Bold letters announce the building’s name on both elevations.
By now the Garment District was inching towards Broadway and 28th Street. The Croonborg Sartorial Academy, a school of fashion and apparel, was in the building by 1907. Once a year it put on its Annual Garment and Style Exhibit—a fashion show that brought both women and men up to date on current trends.
The August 1907 show proved that dark blue was the new color for men’s formal wear. “Of all the evening suits on exhibition there from the scissors of some of the most celebrated tailors in the country, two-thirds are made of blue worsted,” reported The Times. “The new suits are otherwise not much different than the evening clothes of last year. The tails are chopped off a bit squarer, but that is all.”
The newspaper’s critic was not taken with most of the new styles, saying they looked “very much like the wardrobe of a vaudeville slapstick artist or a Dutch comedian.” Speaking in particular of one coat the exhibitors said promised to be “very popular,” the writer cautioned “Any one who appeared on Broadway a year ago wearing that coat would have been followed for blocks by a mob anxious to see what he was advertising.”
Other apparel concerns followed; among them Croonberg Fashion Co.; Thain, Hewlett & Reddy; the Pennsylvania Button and Trimming Company; and the Matthews Clothes Shop in the first floor retail space. Matthews would be a fixture in the building into the 1920s.
The Evening World, November 26, 1920
In March 1918 the Baudouine family received a shock when Charles’ niece, Marguerite Baudouine Burke, sued her father and uncle for a share in her grandfather’s estate. Her vicious attack asserted that her father was an “inveterate gambler and speculator” who “lived a life of dissipation” and was “morally and financially irresponsible.” She said Charles was “living a life of luxury and pleasure and devoting himself to horses and dogs.” She said he has “lived a life of idleness, luxury and display” and described her father as “openly branded by his creditors as a cheat and fraud.”
Therefore, she explained in her court papers, $15,000 a year would be sufficient for Charles and John Baudouine (about $150,000 today) from their father’s $3 million trust. Assumedly that would leave “sufficient” money for Marguerite and her siblings upon her father’s and uncle’s deaths.
On December 6, 1929 tragedy struck here when Mrs. Henriette Insko visited her husband in his jewelry office. The 23-year old woman dropped a package in the elevator and, as she bent to retrieve it in the moving cab, her head hit the landing of the ninth floor. She died within minutes. Oddly enough, Melvin Anderson, the elevator operator was arrested on a technical charge of homicide.
Throughout the remainder of the century the building continued to be home to apparel firms like the Bowcraft Co., a “shoe trimmings” firm that took a full floor in 1950; and novel companies like the Interstate Toy Co. In 1979 a gas explosion in the basement of a novelty store at street level injured five persons. The blast caused a brief flash fire, broke windows in the area and created gaping holes in the concrete sidewalk.
By 2004 the wonderful temple on the roof of the Baudouine Building had become residential—home to a business tenant whose office was on a lower floor. Although the street level of the building has been brutally altered to accommodate garish novelty and electronics stores; above the structure is unchanged. And the out-of-place slice of Rome atop is a marvel, prompting the “AIA Guide to New York City” to call the building “A sliver with a meticulous Ionic-columned Roman temple on top. Peer upward.”
Luckily, the building is located in the No-Mad Historic District and hopefully a better future may be assured.
de Gourneay, the French wallpaper company has refreshed the exterior of their shop at the Tram Plaza. Wonderful floral murals cover the walls… What a wonderful and delightful site!!!
CREDIT Daytonian in Manhattan
Judith Berdy
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
