« October 2005 | Main | December 2005 »
November 29, 2005
The Pro-Sit: Curbside Check-Out
Kicking off a new category, The Pro-Sit. The first two selections aren't New York based, but the why not set it off with a little Pro-Sittin', Seattle style. Yes folks, the ass friendly fun has only just begun!
Posted by jmarston at 08:03 PM
Lex! Berlin! Oh My!
Looks like the Anti-Sit phenom has hit the crusty crip gallery scene. Concept obvious, execution pretty weak, but its nice to see the Anti-Sit in'terror'gated elsewhere. Text below from a 2001 Times article...
''Weary travelers no longer need to stand for hours on end,'' a sign says. ''Use your government-issued photo ID card to download a free seating license.''... "Dr. Mann fights technology with technology, wearing computers on his body and cameras in his glasses so he can ''shoot back'' by recording everything he sees. The billboards and advertisements posted on every public surface are a form of ''attention theft,'' he says, so he has invented technology that replaces these messages with whatever he would like to see. When he is wearing his ''eyetap'' glasses, which project an image onto the retina of his eye, a condom ad in a bathroom becomes a picture of a waterfall."
Routledge - my old taskmaster - has published an interesting new book, Neo-Bohemia: Art and Commerce in the Postindustrial City, by UIC grad Richard Lloyd. An excellent read of Chicago's Wicker Park and forces that brought it to bear. A great editor & friend from Routledge sent this PDF scan of a Chicago Reader article on the book. [ed. upload issues, email if you want the scan, its a good read]
Carter H., over at the City Review, has a nice piece on Norman Foster's new hi-rise plans for Lexington Ave (53rd). Using the air rights from the Mies' Seagram Building on Park, Sir Norman plans to build a 709-foot-high mixed use structure. I qoute, "Roberta Brandes Gratz, a member of the commission [Landmarks Preservation Commission], remarked during the hearing that the new project was "quite exciting" given “the horror of images of how wrong this could be," adding that the design "almost feels natural." Although just under Pelli's Lex Ave Bloomberg pad, Foster has a variance in the works to put them on almost equal footing. Thats a go.
ForgottenNY heads to the outershores of Rockaway, exploring the beach front adandon of Edgemere.
A+U's new issue deals entirely in SE Asian architecture & space...
Architecture Week, last week, dealing out the goop on the National Trust for Historic Preservation conference from this past September... which is the cue for today's hi-Theory nugget, from The Harvard Design Magazine Fall/Winter issue --
An interesting read of Berlin - everybody's new favorite hip & n' arty bohemian outpost - the author uses it as The example, criticizing starchitects and former IBA leader Kleihues 'Critical Reconstruction' of Berlin: "the stealth conservatism that frequently lies behind the thick layers of celebrated, avant-garde-approved redesign, revealing a recuperative agenda strikingly similar to the ideological transparency of historic preservation. As it turns out, the exact reconstruction of Warsaw and the more experimental operations in Berlin have more in common than their formal differences might suggest: both reflect politically charged searches for national or societal identities in transitional times. More generally, the worldwide emergence of dialectic redesign may be viewed as a form of resistance to the perceived homogenizing forces of rampant globalization. Dialectic redesign allows a “global city” to participate in the vanity fair of avant-garde architecture to attract transnational capital, while simultaneously protecting — or recreating — a familiar physical framework in which regional differences and local idiosyncrasies can crystallize." ... "While the aesthetic shortcomings of Berlin’s recipe for dialectic redesign are evident, it may be more difficult to evaluate its political efficacy — does the recreation of spatial familiarity indeed promote societal stability or national unity?"
I'll post a response later...
Posted by jmarston at 04:19 PM
November 04, 2005
Beltway Pops
2 stories from the Beltway today. The first, House bill counters eminent domain ruling, "The bill, passed 376-38, would withhold federal money from state and local governments that use powers of eminent domain to force businesses and homeowners to give up their property for commercial uses."
The second, Court Rules Against District Commuter Tax. Oh imagine that, Chevy Chase insiders won't pay to keep up DC. Leeches.
Posted by jmarston at 04:25 PM | Comments (1)
November 01, 2005
Renovate Me Victims
Back in early October I got sad news byway of a Curbed post about 520 Broome St, which I featured in my Renovate Me column back in July. A developer is going to trash the gem for some substandard bore... But
Now comes more sad news via Massey Knakal that my other fave canidate for proper renovation and restoration was recently sold - with 5,600 sq ft of available air rights. This art deco gem, 73 Lexington Ave, which I covered back in June, looks to be headed for history. Except for those 29 stablized units that stand in the way of condo glinted greed... Massey sale journal entry below...
Posted by jmarston at 04:46 PM