Pictures of the day

8:00 AM: The new MTA switch station at Avenue C and McDonald Avenue.We'll know what the insides look like once they're concealed.

8:30 AM: Daffodils are blooming at Kings Bay Housing in Sheepshead Bay.

7:30 PM: Menu holder at Tipplers near Chelsea Market, celebrating a coworker's engagement.

8:30 PM: Site-specific ad in Chelsea. The advertisers thought outside of the box of one billboard.

Bird Friendly Glass Design

My office just finished a balcony repair project at a modern glass building along the West Side of Manhattan.

The contractor had to install sidewalk bridging around the entire building to protect pedestrians from the work occuring above. What I noticed while walking on the bridge was a prevalence of beautiful and small dead birds lying all around -- victims to the confusion created with certain types of reflective glass. Among them were small downy wood peckers.

Downy wood pecker

Rand's president is an avid bird aficionado. He recently pointed me to the Audobon Society's recommendations on better glass design, which are fairly simple to incorporate into new design projects, such as fritted glass, glass divisions, like sunscreens at the New York Times Building, or angling the glass panels to reduce the amount of glare. Here is a short article about bird-friendly glass, recalling Louis Sullivan's coined phrase: Form Follows Feathers. We're hoping to recommend these design elements to our clients if give the opportunity.


Sunscreen louvers at the New York Times Building





Interior view of New York Times Building



Sunset Park

In my new neighborhood, dumpsters drive themselves around.





I kid.

The rogue dumpster was retrieved eventually.

More change on Brighton Beach Avenue

I'm not sure how I missed it, but Radin Pharmacy at 1077 Brighton Beach Avenue closed.  Prescriptions were moved to Walgreens. Sad. That pharmacy has looked exactly the same for the past 25 years.

Radin, captured by google streetcar

Anyone know why it closed?

Radin today

Odessa - Brighton Beach Avenue

Finally, something is happening at the shuttered Odessa restaurant and food shop on Brighton Beach Avenue. Odessa was one closing mystery I never solved, but I never asked around. Last night I spotted a sidewalk shed in front of the two storefronts as well as Pat Singer's community center, the Chinese food place and the corner Cute Nail shop, which means that the entire lot will undergo some sort of change. Strangely, from what I saw Pat Singer's shop is blocked with plywood; only the food and nail place are accessible.

The DOB page states the following:
Alteration Type 1 - Construction equipment fence proposed 3rd and 4th floors vertical enlargement. Convert second and partial of first floor to ambulatory diagnostic and treatment health care facilities use group 4. Change use, egress and occupancy as per plan.

It doesn't specify the number of storefronts to be converted. While I don't necessarily mind the increased height, I'm not in favor of a health facility addition, given that we already have the ugly 4-story Dr. Abboud's office further down the block with unfinished cinder block walls visible when pulling into the Brighton Beach train station on the B or Q.

Corbin Place update

232 Corbin Place, with 230 and 228 in the background.

230 (left) and 228 Corbin Place.

Work continues at 232 Corbin Place and 228 Corbin Place.  228 is a duplicate of 230 Corbin Place. Both have been designed in keeping with the common styles of Manhattan Beach which has been a welcomed surprise. Both houses were put up for sale even before construction is complete.

Change in scale

 This three story building on East 57th Street must have been a hold-out.I can't imagine what the owners thought at the time. The construction of the neighboring buildings must have been extremely suffocating.

mta

Artistic revision.

Sunset Park

Eighth Avenue & 42nd Street, Brooklyn

On a personal note, I have moved from Manhattan Beach to Sunset Park.

Manhattan and Brighton Beach will always be my home and I plan to continue to post about these neighborhoods and the changes I witness.

But I may begin to post about Sunset Park as well. I am still in the process of absorbing what presently defines the area so that my eyes can begin to see what change is occurring. So far, the only intriguing change I have been watching is the renovation/restoration of the Ninth Avenue D train station. They recently relocated the token booth and in the process, temporarily revealed the old MTA logo. It was so much more elegant than what they have today!

One of the reasons why I love my job is the opportunity to be on the rooftops of various buildings and see the city from a new perspective. I forget how cold and snowy it is at times.