Uploads from Mattron, tagged architecture

Ft. Greene

nobody@flickr.com (Mattron) — Sat, 11 May 2013 15:25:41 -0700

Mattron posted a photo:

Brooklyn
May 9, 2013

In the decades around the Civil War, Brooklyn was booming, and new residential neighborhoods surrounding the downtown, like Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens, and Ft. Greene, sprang up in gorgeous fashion.

1 World Trade

nobody@flickr.com (Mattron) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:01:27 -0700

Mattron posted a photo:

Over the past few months, 1 WTC has begun to pop up above the streetscape in neighborhoods throughout the vast city- just as the Twin Towers did. Finally, that sad hole in the ground has life returning to it.

Today, the glass exterior is only a few floors from being complete, and you can clearly see the rotunda of the future observation deck, and the spire, which was raised with great fanfare.

It is now the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, and the 3rd tallest in the world.

April 25, 2013

Happy 100th

nobody@flickr.com (Mattron) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:01:27 -0700

Mattron posted a photo:

The Woolworth Building turned 100 yesterday

Wednesday marked the 100th birthday of the Woolworth Building in Lower Manhattan. With its unprecedented design, it held the title of world's tallest building from 1913 to 1930, a span of time that no other skyscraper has come close to enjoying.

For the first time in human history, people were beginning to live and work at heights that would have been inconceivable even 50 years before.
In one generation, the cityscape was transformed from a flat sprawl into a vertical city.

It must have boggled the mind. As was said in the 1800's: New York is an unloveable city. What is there to love, when a person returns to the streets of his youth and recognizes nothing that once was?

April 25, 2013

Center of the World

nobody@flickr.com (Mattron) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:10:18 -0700

Mattron posted a photo:

World Financial Center on the left, World Trade Center on the right

Lower Manhattan
April 7, 2013

verticalia 1

nobody@flickr.com (Mattron) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:10:18 -0700

Mattron posted a photo:

World Trade Center constrution
Lower Manhattan
April 7, 2013

adventures in vertigo

nobody@flickr.com (Mattron) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:10:20 -0700

Mattron posted a photo:

Lower Manhattan

this block off of the Battery was flooded during the hurricane

April 7, 2013

400 years ago, this vantage point would have seen Ft. Amsterdam

Lower Manhattan Gold

nobody@flickr.com (Mattron) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:10:22 -0700

Mattron posted a photo:

NYC

Century-old skyscrapers

April 7, 2013

Into the Blue

nobody@flickr.com (Mattron) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:10:19 -0700

Mattron posted a photo:

1 WTC is now a year from opening.

Lower Manhattan
April 7, 2013

Gothamesque 1

nobody@flickr.com (Mattron) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:10:16 -0700

Mattron posted a photo:

33 floors above Lower Manhattan
April 7, 2013

Gothamesque 2

nobody@flickr.com (Mattron) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:10:15 -0700

Mattron posted a photo:

33 floors above Lower Manhattan
April 7, 2013

Lower Manhattan

nobody@flickr.com (Mattron) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:10:21 -0700

Mattron posted a photo:

NYC
April 7, 2013

harbor light

nobody@flickr.com (Mattron) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:10:15 -0700

Mattron posted a photo:

Lower Manhattan
April 7, 2013

verticalia 2

nobody@flickr.com (Mattron) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:10:17 -0700

Mattron posted a photo:

World Trade Center constrution
Lower Manhattan
April 7, 2013

Ladies Mile

nobody@flickr.com (Mattron) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 10:32:38 -0800

Mattron posted a photo:

The area around Madison Square is a treasure trove of beautifully designed buildings constructed roughly a century ago.

After the Civil War, the industrial revolution and the early days of mass production made it more affordable for women to maintain their households without having to spend as much time toiling at home. And so, some of the first modern department stores in the world began to open in the area between Union and Madison Squares. While their husbands were at work and their children at school, wives and mothers could enjoy the brief freedom of being out on the town independently. The area became known as "Ladies' Mile".

The subway was constructed during this era, and as a modern, hurried commuter knows all too well, there are an unusual number of stops on the lines traveling through the neighborhood.

The department store buildings that remain are beautifully designed, often clad in cast-iron. The interiors of many, like the Home Depot on 23rd Street, have been modernized to accommodate modern commerce, and the area is still a shopping destination.

There was a darker side to the glory days of Ladies Mile. While middle- and upper- class women enjoyed a new public life, the poorer women of the city suffered in the sweatshops that supplied the products for sale.

February 27, 2013

Hugh O'Neill and Company

nobody@flickr.com (Mattron) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 10:32:38 -0800

Mattron posted a photo:

One of the largest cast iron facades in the city and one of the first commercial buildings in the city to encompass an entire block -

After the Civil War, the industrial revolution and the early days of mass production made it more affordable for women to maintain their households without having to spend as much time toiling at home. And so, some of the first modern department stores in the world began to open in the area between Union and Madison Squares. While their husbands were at work and their children at school, wives and mothers could enjoy the brief freedom of being out on the town independently. The area became known as "Ladies' Mile".

The subway was constructed during this era, and as a modern, hurried commuter knows all too well, there are an unusual number of stops on the lines traveling through the neighborhood.

The department store buildings that remain are beautifully designed, often clad in cast-iron. The interiors of many, like the Home Depot on 23rd Street, have been modernized to accommodate modern commerce, and the area is still a shopping destination.

There was a darker side to the glory days of Ladies Mile. While middle- and upper- class women enjoyed a new public life, the poorer women of the city suffered in the sweatshops that supplied the products for sale.

The O'Neill and Company department store opened in 1887, and was in business until 1907. Over the next century, the building served a number of purposes, and in 2006, at the height of real estate bubble, the gold domes were restored and the huge complex went residential. In late 2012, there was a minor structural collapse, which, I imagine, is still being resolved.

February 27, 2013

Citigroup Center

nobody@flickr.com (Mattron) — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 14:00:56 -0800

Mattron posted a photo:

Midtown Manhattan
in the last light of the shortest day.

December 21, 2012

Hearst Tower

nobody@flickr.com (Mattron) — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 12:03:14 -0800

Mattron posted a photo:

Midtown, Manhattan

The base was built in 1928 and was intended to support an art deco skyscraper.

The tower didn't go up until 2006, in a totally different style of course. The Hearst is one of the most interesting building projects of last decade, and one of the first "green" buildings in NYC

November, 2012

MoMA

nobody@flickr.com (Mattron) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:01:28 -0700

Mattron posted a photo:

Saw two great exhibits -

One was the first U.S. exhibition on the 19th century French Beaux-Arts architect, Henri Labrouste. He is credited as was one of the first to use iron construction to delicately create large spaces,

The other was on the British photographer, Bill Brandt. Very inspiring.

April 25, 2013

Jefferson Market Library

nobody@flickr.com (Mattron) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 22:43:07 -0700

Mattron posted a photo:

built 1877

Was a courthouse for many years. Now is a branch of the NY Public Library. In 1885, it was named one of the most beautiful buildings in the US by a group of architecture critics...

a snowy March 18, 2013

Greenwich Village

Gramercy Park

nobody@flickr.com (Mattron) — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 11:31:12 -0800

Mattron posted a photo:

One of the classic apartment buildings lining Gramercy Park, which are some of the most exclusive addresses in the world

Someone recently bought a penthouse in one of these buildings for 42 million dollars.

The Park itself is gated, and only accessible to those holding a key. I'm not here often, but I never have seen anyone actually using the park.

January 10, 2013