July 12, 2007
Out There in the Shire
A Wart Pile, in Nantucket Speak.
Posted by jmarston at 09:34 PM | Comments (0)
January 19, 2007
READ THE HEADLINES
TOLL BROS. CITY LIVING DIVISION CONQUERS NEW YORK! REFUGESS SEEN FLEEING NORTH ALONG THE HUDSON RIVER AS THE CONDO BOOM SPREADS CREEPING DEATH FOR NEW YORKERS EVERYWHERE!!
Posted by jmarston at 05:05 PM
October 10, 2006
Bad Seed
Observed in the early stages of Teen. From the Development of Fugly series.
Posted by jmarston at 03:47 PM
October 05, 2006
More Modern Failures
Not quite the Modern Fire Station Madness (Pt.1, Pt.2, Pt.3), or Modern Library Madness (Pt.1), but this one is chafing sensibilities nonetheless. Part of the Hatin' campaign, now in our irritatingly irresistible 2nd year of vetting ugly architecture across New York City.
Posted by jmarston at 07:01 PM
September 29, 2006
Buster's Fugly Faced Bud Light Garage
Curbed has been covering the recent goings on with Busters Garage in Tribeca. Sometimes yuppies do nimby right. Either way, Transfer has always found this building beyond fugly, and as such, wholly representing the purpose it serves. Wreck it with Panache!
Posted by jmarston at 04:59 PM | Comments (1)
September 14, 2006
MFSM 3: Chain Links
Subtle, arresting - J'accuse, another architectural outrage at the firehouse!! Help these guys out!
Posted by jmarston at 08:48 PM
September 12, 2006
MFSM: Shoots and Ladders
Another NYC Firehouse left for the bog. Downer Design.
Posted by jmarston at 01:08 AM
September 07, 2006
Modernist Fire Station Madness: Thats Ornamentation
New Series, MFSM, The ugly modern squats that some firefighters are stuck with in New York City! Simply put, an Outrage!
Posted by jmarston at 10:33 PM | Comments (6)
August 24, 2006
Midtown Tree Water
Not really.
Posted by jmarston at 10:49 PM | Comments (1)
August 17, 2006
Dirtiest Building in Brooklyn
Yes, this is a white building. Con Ed is the tenant. 'Preciate it Con. Birds Eye.
Posted by jmarston at 10:07 PM | Comments (1)
July 20, 2006
Ugly Architecture in Stages of Development
New Born
Teenager
Adult
Posted by jmarston at 06:29 PM | Comments (4)
Toll the Inbound Narrows
See the traffic heading on 278 East? Tell me again why every particulate spewing truck takes the Verrazano, to the BQE, to Manhattan & Brooklyn? No toll perhaps? The only no tolled entrance to the boros? Thanks, thanks so much for sending that traffic thru Brooklyn.
Posted by jmarston at 05:41 PM | Comments (2)
Attack of the Useless Awning, Pt 6
In case you missed Attack of the Useless Awning Part One, the One that started it all.
Posted by jmarston at 05:35 PM
July 13, 2006
Rally Against Ratner
July 16 at Grand Army Plaza. The newest renderings put forward by Gehry.
Posted by jmarston at 01:00 PM
Boxed
Wow, what a huge suprise. Another big hug for the DOT. As reported by NY1, "The study of ten of the busiest intersections in Manhattan found 3,000 drivers in a nine-hour period “blocked the box" and not a single motorist received a ticket."
Posted by jmarston at 12:22 PM
July 07, 2006
Lame
Another reason BPC sucks.
Posted by jmarston at 11:32 PM | Comments (2)
June 29, 2006
Deis-El
Posted by jmarston at 09:23 PM
June 19, 2006
Dear DOT
More bullshit from the DOT. Why on earth does 5th Ave Brooklyn need a municipal parking lot? They dont. Auction the lot and use the money to give the bike lane on 5th some damned continuity. Thanks.
Posted by jmarston at 01:40 PM | Comments (1)
June 17, 2006
Flight Path Foolish
Whose bright idea was it to put 1 of the 2 flightpaths to LaGuardia, right over Prospect Park? Don't say it has to be, we all know how easily they changed the Manhattan flight patterns to LaGuardia in the months following Sept 11 '01. What a shame.
Posted by jmarston at 07:15 PM | Comments (3)
June 14, 2006
History of Fugly
Historians gathered in New York this week to decide if the period of style many have come to term Bubble, should indeed keep that name. Built mostly at the beginning of the 21st century, they were built quickly, cheaply, and without regard to style, taste, history, or context. They were then sold, during the Great Bubble of the early 2000's, at tremendously inflated rates. Soon, the shoddy craftsmanship, bad design, and lack of aesthetics caught up with the assessors, and values plummeted, sending neighborhoods dependent on Bubble architecture into foreclosure chaos. It was soon thereafter discovered that many of these structures had been given a pass thru the DOB permit process and shown the wears of time worse than the vagaries of taste. Many became structurally unsound in less than half-a-century of use. It was at this point, after much plodding, that the City of New York finally organized a Design Review Board.
Posted by jmarston at 09:11 PM
June 08, 2006
Dear Burden: Parking Required?
All New York City Residential Zoning code districts Require on average that a minimum of 40% of the dwelling units have a parking space. Shoot me if 40% of my building has a car. Required parking per dwelling tops out at 85% in R5 districts.
Any wise interpretations on the benefits of this course, please say cheese. This is first in a series of hard hitting Zoning Questions for the Lady of City Planning, the lovely Amanda Burden.
Posted by jmarston at 09:37 PM | Comments (6)
June 06, 2006
Emergency Placement Planning Commission
Posted by jmarston at 08:12 PM | Comments (3)
April 05, 2006
Real Estate Overlords, NYU
More slummin by REOnyu.
Posted by jmarston at 08:51 PM | Comments (2)
March 07, 2006
Guests
Friends from my sisters' Ghent Neighborhood, Norfolk. Hey Oh Slump.
Posted by jmarston at 08:31 PM | Comments (5)
Attack of the Useless Awning, Pt. 5
Parking garage to boot. Fack.
Posted by jmarston at 08:21 PM | Comments (2)
March 06, 2006
New Nolita Junk
Posted by jmarston at 08:07 PM
Bad Volume
Hatin
Posted by jmarston at 08:04 PM | Comments (1)
October 24, 2005
When Crap Ages
Time isn't kind to the undesigned.
Posted by jmarston at 02:50 PM | Comments (2)
Determined Lifelessness
Add these two lifeless shells to the list.
Posted by jmarston at 02:21 PM
October 05, 2005
Blocking Boxes and Crosswalkezz
A big fuck you to all the drivers in this city who think running reds, using bus lanes, cutting over bikes paths, blocking boxes, and taking up our crosswalks is all Part & Parcel of the NYC traffic game. Cause it ain't, and best prepare yourself for the Pedestrian revolt. You've set the record this year for hit & runs, wooed our Mayor into giving you turn lanes and thru streets, run roughshod over unenforced speed limits, and ruthlessly polluted our city, using your horn even an anticipation of a green light. You just wait. Your day will come, fucking steel boxed twits. You've generally made this city a fucking frogger game, transforming the bipedal amongst us into a wrathful, misanthropic bunch. A resounding Fuck Off! Its a privelage to drive here, not your consecrated birthright. While I'm at it, Eh Bloomberg, you think you could use your traffic enforcement division for something more than accruing revenue from parking tickets? Its about more than your goddamned budget.
Posted by jmarston at 12:36 PM | Comments (6)
September 26, 2005
Facade Fumbles
Last week Transfer covered this bangin joke of a facade, Philip Johnson's 1001 5th Ave, and this week The New York Times covers the same facade in the Streetscapes column. Christopher Gray, who penned the piece, seems to think Philip Johnson's facade is "Humorous", a postmodern pun. Umm, vile jokes are not to built, always. The egotistical gusto necessary to see these plans thru not only makes a joke of those titilated enough to see it as Funny, but funnier so when those who do, find it architecturally engaging.
Posted by jmarston at 03:55 PM
September 24, 2005
Not Funny Anymore
Another notch in the club of substandardism, this triumph of trash resides in the heart of Cobble Hill.
Posted by jmarston at 06:34 PM
September 23, 2005
Not Fooling
Appearing below are photos from the hilarious, and subtly disturbing, Not Fooling Anybody, "chronicling bad conversions and storefronts past". Peruse the reuse of branded architectural banality...
Posted by jmarston at 03:47 PM
September 18, 2005
Yep U Betcha
east side exit gas...
Posted by jmarston at 06:50 PM
Facade Failure
Chances are most New Yorkers have seen this joke, a 5th Ave flunkie & Duke Semans neighbor...
Posted by jmarston at 06:30 PM | Comments (1)
August 18, 2005
Landscaper Needed
With the relative rarity of green space, especially in context with resedential architecture, you'd think people would want - demand - a little more than this shit excuse for landscaping. Especially since the real estate thugs of the Village, NYU, own it. Oh, where does your $800/credit go? Not on the upkeep of existing properties, but the procurement of more tracts, and the building of the Tishman... don't get me started. Hatin' heavy.
Posted by jmarston at 03:22 PM | Comments (2)
August 08, 2005
Hatin': London Stylee Part 2
Another entry in the Hatin' archive.
Posted by jmarston at 05:01 PM
July 29, 2005
Substandard Sickness in SoHo
Only difference between this & these, is they covered up the Fedder AC units - with grills... some sucker shelled out $1000/sqft to live in this crap.
Posted by jmarston at 04:51 PM
July 28, 2005
Flails & Fails
Glass Eyes and Varicose Veins!
Hidddeoussssss...
Posted by jmarston at 10:59 AM
July 25, 2005
Hatin': London Stylee
No city is safe from a healthy dose of Hatin', crap attacks, first in St James, then in the City.
Posted by jmarston at 12:25 PM | Comments (1)
June 10, 2005
Friday the 17th
And here is London, reducing the Capital's road deaths by 21 per cent, in one year. The Mayor - London's first - Ken Livingstone, has made it happen with his Transport Strategy. Come on Mike, dont let Moses ghost push you around. Reign in the streets... The City Council made a nice gesture in March, but its going to take alot of intiative. 18 people have been killed this year already. A biker was killed yesterday on on one of the cities "preferred bike routes", which of course, does not have a bike lane. Good One. Before we put in light rail lets get our bus lanes enforced. Truck traffic is out of control.
Most of the food service on 42nd has frontside delivery everyday.
Our bike lanes, which we have a pittance of to begin with, are just double-parking lanes in most places.
One of the few remaining Mitchell-Lama complexes - a 500 unit 520,000-sf apartment complex at 96/97th St and Amsterdam - was sold "for a sum in excess of $115 million" to a new owner this week according to a Globe St news item. You can be sure big battles now loom on the horizon, the owner was quoted as saying, "It's exciting to be creating value." Just looking to ignite the dust of that powederkeg.
New York Construction News has an great June cover story, Top 20 Largest Regional projects for 2004-2005. Topping the list of projects started... dredging the Port of New York/New Jersey shipping channels, to a depth of 50ft at a cost of $1.6bn. Topping the list of completed projects... the 53-story, $631m, One Beacon Ct (731 Lex Ave), Bloomy's new HQ.
Top 10 Completed [.pdf]
Top 10 Started [.pdf]
Tadao Ando wins the UIA Gold Medal, reported by Architecture Week.
New audio from Architecture Radio, John King arch crit from the SF Chronicle, on California Contemp Architecture.
Fantastic post focused on China, from blogger City of Sound.
Touch Radio Chris Watson, field recording artist, Recorded in April 2005 on The Galapagos Islands.
Posted by jmarston at 09:57 AM
June 08, 2005
Corrupting Brooklyn
Carports, highway balconies, and gimmick windows, yeehaw.
Posted by jmarston at 08:11 PM
June 07, 2005
The Evils of Fresh Direct
So Yin does your laundry, Torkwase raises your kids, Maria cleans your floors, Rick gets you in shape, Muhammad drives you around, and now thanks to Fresh Direct, Juan drives your groceries to you in a huge diesel truck. But, unlike these other services, the rest of us suffer for it. Pollution, more truck traffic, noise, and congestion. Double Parked assholes. Not too mention the drop in demand at the local Key for higher quality food products. Kids, watch out as a paticulate spewing diesel truck (which has to idle during deliveries to run the refrigeration) comes trundling down our quiet street at 50 to make his next delievery crosstown. Look, is your job at Burson-Marsteller so goddamned important that you have to relinquish every single personal responsibility? "Oh, but Jeff wipes asses so much better than I can, and its so convenient"
Posted by jmarston at 11:35 AM | Comments (6)
Attack of the Useless, Shutter.
Shutters, painted on... Shudder.
Counterpoint. Some sexy shutters off Canal.
Posted by jmarston at 09:36 AM
June 02, 2005
Attack of the Useless Awning, Pt. 4
Faux-Indo Thatch!
Posted by jmarston at 09:54 AM
May 25, 2005
Attack of the Awning Pt. 4
You could say, at least these awnings are functional, and hell, they're not covered in gaudy advertisements - but damn, these are gruesome all the same.
Posted by jmarston at 05:45 PM
May 20, 2005
AT&T Building Needs New Toe Ring
Philip Johnson's dearly loved AT&T building has got to ditch those gaudy toe rings at her base.... Maybe the Lipstick building has some advice?
Posted by jmarston at 11:15 AM
May 19, 2005
Attack of the Useless Awning, Pt. 3
Part 1 & Part 2, were crassly commercial, this installment is just phugnny.
Posted by jmarston at 03:16 PM | Comments (5)
April 19, 2005
Surprise, Surprise NYC2012 Under Scrutiny
Like I was talking about earlier, IOC is now investigating the NYC and London bids... "The move came after New York and London — seeking votes in the final stretch of the campaign — promised subsidies, free marketing and other benefits to international sports federations and national Olympic committees."
Posted by jmarston at 04:47 PM
April 13, 2005
Attack of the Useless Awning, Pt. 2
Looks Great Guys! Whats the name again? Oh, Baskin Robins! Pt.1
Posted by jmarston at 03:05 PM
April 12, 2005
Brooklyn's Ugliest New Row House
Usually, as I mentioned earlier, these are reserved for further outterboro neighborhoods, but this is nearside Brooklyn, Dean btw 4th & 5th Ave. Prime 'underdeveloped' southslope real estate. What a pile of uninspired insipid trash. Love the wood awning, the curvaceous railings... Yowsers.
Lucky for us, this development is on the same block as two other slighly historicised and wholly boring structures. So terribly reflecting the RUSH to capitalize on Brooklyn's comeback kid status.
The two above do a really nice job highlighting the beauty, stature, and class of some of the 19th century wood frames - one below - that dot this same block of Dean St.
Posted by jmarston at 12:13 PM | Comments (7)
April 08, 2005
Leon Krier
Leon Krier is supreme loverboy of the new urbanist/neo-traditional/classical set, which has made him whipping boy de jour for the lefty deconstructionist kids... who use the laughable 'he did that Albert Speer book' (nazi) line of crap. Although the classicalists return the volley with, if you don't like Krier, you must be a high modernist, brutalist, line of baloney. No, not in the least actually. There is good reason to problematize architecture as subjective sculpture, but surely it doesn't mean turning back three thousand years of thought, does it?
Because of his lightning rod quality, he's been popping up in the blogsphere as of late. But Leon Krier shouldn't be whipped for his his book projects, but for his ideas. Like this one:
ummm, yea, miscegenation bad, purity good...
All those doric columns just give such a mystical signification. To what you ask? Stop there interloper! Temples to the significance of classical ideas, forms, and a more distinguished geometry. Timeless temples to the publicam. Wait, is this a bad fantasy novel or am I in Medici Italy? Does it matter, really, with of all this pomp and circumstance? I'm waiting for the winged beast to drop a slaughtered Koolhaas Foster & Company on the steps of our temple to the honorable Lord Krier. Pt 2, we enter the city...
This image comes from his drawings for Poundbury, Dorset.
And a Krier joke... Funny, in all of his flatus pre-premillennial europhilia, Krier is not above a penis joke - but in true form, he links it to a Greek mythology. Gotta love his steadiness. Do you really hate the Gherkin Krier?
Posted by jmarston at 09:41 AM | Comments (1)
April 01, 2005
Substandard Architecture
Talk about FUGLY! Emblematic of the type of structures United Homes of New York loves to construct... This image comes from an article in the City Paper about garage enabled row home construction in the Queens Village neighborhood of Philadelphia, & the fight against it. I love how modern is used here as a pejorative.
According to O'Donnell, even the city's temporary moratorium on demolishing historic buildings in this district hasn't stopped the garages. The moratorium is easily circumvented, he says, by reconstructing in phases. "They'll leave a toothpick, and build around it," he says, pointing at a new, modern facade that slipped past the historic moratorium.
Here are some really sexy images from Foxtons real estate listings of new construction in New York City, usually United related, mostly in impoverished outer borough neighborhoods. Substandard design, materials, and expectations... Just what the ghetto needs, right?
Posted by jmarston at 04:35 PM | Comments (5)
March 31, 2005
Exhaust
What architect thought it would be smart to put the parking garage exhaust vents on the usable 2nd level street front, immediately below residents windows? Close the window honey...
Posted by jmarston at 05:42 PM | Comments (2)
Stadium In Manhattan
Wow. What a scam. Seriously. You know if they announced this tomorrow most people would write it off as an April fools joke... but no, I mean really, who would of thought? No need to really put together a sensible reaction to this, because the only sense anyone should get is anger - then hearty laughter. Miss Representation, whose summary of today's news is spot on, has done a fine job covering this most epic of Monorail scams...
Even in China, they know that New Yorkers don't want a stadium in Manhattan... But Bloomberg news knew ahead that the Jets were likely to get the MTA to pick their bid. Huh. Thanks & Shouts to L. Jay Cross, Dan Doctoroff, Mikey B., and Peter K. Jerks.
Posted by jmarston at 03:38 PM
March 29, 2005
27 East 27th
Ziff Davis is the primary tenant of this boxy & moxieless pile of failed 60's modernism, with its stairs to nowhere, its terrible street presence, and insulting sight placement. Oh, its a really nice facade, dude. Makes me feel like I'm waiting for a long, slow, bureaucratic death. Oh, and great landscaping as well. This building situates nicely, everything wrong with derivative modernism, kind of like an earlier Hatin' smackdown, on the Kips Bay Branch Library.
This building would be even more forgettable if it wasn't situated across the street from the site of the original Madison Sq. Garden, where its architect, Stanford White was murdered, and since 1928 the home of Cass Gilbert's golden topped 40-storey New York Life Insurance building. Give Madison some Love already!
stairs to the exhaust vents and seat less, scraggly, unkept perim-plaza.
Posted by jmarston at 05:17 PM
March 21, 2005
Replicate
Trippin out on Super Bloc 'luxury' buildings replicating themselves around Manhattan. 111 Worth St, referenced on Curbed for their interesting marketing strategies, is pictured below.
This lardy Tribecan superblock looks in rendering, a helleva lot like recently completed Anthem, located on 34th...in the Far East.
Lux Dorms, Replicate!
Posted by jmarston at 02:02 PM | Comments (2)
March 11, 2005
Attack of the Useless Awning!
34th Streets' most Garish and Heinous little tub of lard. At least Tads keeps a level of respectability with the neon... Bring the neon back, or at least the multi-bulb display. Please, those types of adverts can take me back to Gotham's 40's era advertising... But this glowing plastic awning, is drawning... hiccup.
Posted by jmarston at 12:04 PM
March 10, 2005
Ground Floor
It appears that every new Super Block apartment building going up in New York has planned for only 2 or 3 retailers to occupy the ground floor... This inevitably leads to Big Box retailing and all of its requisite banalities. Not to advocate 6 two-thousand sqft boxs set for DryCleaning/NailSalon/Starbucks, although some of the time it necessitates. But a rereading of the type of spatial designs that attract the type of businesses that the luxury developer should want, the type of places they're trying to associate the condo with in the first place. Which, if they acted with any intelligence, would upscale their investment regardless. Intimate, remarkable, designed spaces, of varying sq footage and frontage. But instead, I breeze by tower after block, and the faint sucking sound of another Duane Reade - or in a shrill move to appease the yuppies marginal interest in proper urban street fronts, a Whole Foods - extracts from a passerby the faint hope for something remarkable to the neighborhood, to the experience of that spot on the grid. But Murray Hill is, as Kips Bay does, as they would do...
Posted by jmarston at 02:11 PM
Architecture of Obesity
Posted by jmarston at 01:36 PM | Comments (2)
In like a Lion out like a Lamb?
its march. new york shitty weather...
Posted by jmarston at 11:35 AM
March 04, 2005
Kips Bay Branch of Bull
A Library? Yes my dear, I now hate books too.
This is the type of building that really gives the modernists a bad rap, and rightfully so. Designed by Giorgio Cavaglieri, it opened in 1972, and its been pissing on us ever since. Civic? Hahaha...
Posted by jmarston at 12:14 PM
February 25, 2005
Malcontent Over Marriott on 6th Ave
The frightful beast began taking shape this fall, but hope still held tight to the lowly rebar popping from the site. A new building on this strip of 6th could begin to reshape what has always been M&J Trimming's block. Yet slowly, the new Residence Inn by Marriott rose with gut aching prominence. So much worse then a yawn, Nobutaka Ashihara Associate's 436-ft zit leaves us cold and bitter.
These 43 floors have more junk bonds then Mike Milken's white cube up the block. Check the finishing, windows, and chunk skin applications.
No excuse for these materials, but even more importantly, the half square cutting up each corner. Reminds me of another hunk we've covered.
Posted by jmarston at 11:50 AM | Comments (1)
February 04, 2005
Headache Inducing Overhangs
Get ready for a Hatin' explosion. Transfer has been out on the streets as the weather eases up, & boy-oh-boy have we got some work to do. Here is a pair of despicable overhangs, clunky, unfriendly jerks, taking up our sidewatchout with Doctoroff like percision. The first one, in the car ghetto of Kips Bay and the other cheerfully residing in our hateable hunk of wannabe new urbanism, BPC, a true Fryday celebration!
Posted by jmarston at 10:55 AM
December 08, 2004
Frankenstein Facade
There are always places in New York that reflect something altogether different than the contexts they sit in, some are funny, some are inspiring, some are just odd, others, are just plain Fugly. In the heart of some of the most expensive retail real estate, sit some of the most heinous little blobs, like our new foe, Dr. Locke Shoes. This building sits on 34th St. btw. 5th & 6th, across the street from Victoria Secrets' flag ship, and down the block from our beloved ESB.
The facade was surely a crack job, after welding on corrugated aluminum from the salvage lot, it looks like the windows and sign were hacksawed out. Nothing wrong with salvaging, mind you, if done in spirit (Broken Angel).
The owner [FOOTSAVER BUILDING CORPORATION] has a long list of DOB violations, two complaints read "wall, retaining wall, coping, and brick facade badly cracked". Hmm, maybe the term facade is right after all, maybe there *is* something ever more frightening underneath.
Shanty town building materials mixed with a poverty of imagination leads to nothing but hatability. In memory of Dr. Locke, Transfer can confirm, another hatin' case closed.
Posted by jmarston at 02:49 PM
November 30, 2004
Pallid Plaza
Today Tranfer brings a fine example of the 1961 Plaza Bonus gone sick, with bad intentions firmly in place, a priori construction.
It's common knowledge that many of the Plazas contructed to get bulk restrictions expanded (up to 18%), are hardly a beacon for use, or remarkable in any form. In fact, because of this, some have resorted to reminding city dwellers of their very existence.
But this pile of steel framed boredom that rises from the corner of 40th and 3rd, an ascent of inconseuqence and total banality, is begging to be taken to task. Just so happens to be one of the worst Mies rip offs one can find in Midtown...
Yet, they were able to beat out even their own height of detestable design, by making the "Plaza" even more odious than the structure itself.
Besides the easily amendable: bulbously bad lighting, elephantitisly ugly planters, ominously barren concrete flooring, dispiriting steel fencing, and complete lack of seating options...
The very plaza itself, on the unlit backside of the building, is completely useless, and unused. It nearly comical they even open the steel gating. Its one thing to have a plaza facing the Ave, sunlit, appropriate for noon hour gawkers, touching the street and the pedestrians in fluidity. But this?? Let the bitterness shiver out your fingertips, as we point you to another hatable hunk of New York acrhitecture.
Posted by jmarston at 01:53 PM | Comments (4)
November 16, 2004
Security Architecture
Hatin' coming heavy, but not towards a building this time. In fact, I love the new HSBC building - its wrap around the old - on the corner of 40th and 5th. What's not to be loved, is the obnoxious new security lumps they've installed, in double time at the corners, and in single file on 5th and 40th.
Wondering here, what to protect from, truck bombs I presume? More likely enflamed Pakistani cabbies who had to deal with an HSBC executive. But really folks, whats the deal here. Since when is HongKongShanghaiBankofChina a top target? Wouldn't Bank of New York be a better "hi-profile soft target". Surveillance conducted at their site, shows nothing like these inane blobs.
Whats really forstalling a catastrophic event as HSBC is the two security guards walking the perimeter, in Orange Security vests with clipboard in hand. Lucky I use the oh-so-discrete technology of the terrorists, the handy camera phone.
Go on and enjoy the clusterfuck these barriers have caused on an already small sidewalk. No time to rest on the barriers though, we must move along with the wheels of commerce. HSBC, visionaries of both security & design.
Posted by jmarston at 10:39 AM | Comments (3)
November 11, 2004
3 Park Avenue
Hatin' heavy on this beautiful Thursday afternoon. Every New Yorker knows this monstrosity, the catty-whompus 42 story brick monolith on 34th and Park. Always out of place, always an eyesore as you gaze, well just about any direction...
It is the Norman Thomas High School for Commercial Education - and we wonder why truancy rates are so high? The irony is Norman Thomas was a leading US socialist. Hey, flat-topped building, facing the street grid of Manhattan at a 45-degree angle, thats not way to show your desire for equality!
Funny, it is the last building built by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, the same firm that built the Empire State Building. How Dare?
I dare, photograph you stinky pile of brutalism! Oh, my mistake, international style.
But of course, this hapless dump of architecture has a security guard who dutily reflects the buildings' ideology. Big boy tried to get ole' Dave to give it up for 'security reasons', or at least provide 'identification' or, at last, an 'architecture license'. Long of the short, I told him to Lick Deez Nutz. America!
More hatin' at the corner of 34th and Park on the way...
Posted by jmarston at 02:13 PM | Comments (6)
November 03, 2004
Park Here, Jerk
Hatin' hard on this pair of buildings. Note to property owner: If you're gonna gut a pair of buildings in Herald Square cause your thinkin' you can get more per sq ft to park Lincoln Navigators, well, at least keep them looking like they're structurally stable. Thats not even addressing the fact that There are Too Many Damn Cars Anways... No Loft Conversations possible at this site. Ha.
Posted by jmarston at 04:28 PM
November 02, 2004
Vote Chimp, Vote!
Vote, blah blah blah, Vote. Yesterday, I saw 12% of eligible voters were still undecided. Huh? I wonder, to all the indecisive ones, What crack rock have you been living under?! This has got to be the most clear cut choice in sometime. Are you in the top 1% of income earners or not? Thats all you need to ask yourself, or I guess you could just hit that light bulb again...
Since every media outlet has wall to wall election coverage, seems we should find something else to hate on. Never fear, there is no shortage of garbage architecture to hate on in this city. Let this be the first in the Catergory: Hatin'
I'm happy my camera phone was finely calibrated this noon hour, to get a shot of this 80's-update monstrosity, located on Broadway at 39th St.
an argument, in and of itself, against coke heads.
Posted by jmarston at 02:17 PM | Comments (4)