October 10, 2006
More Painted Ladies in Brooklyn
Another installment in the series.
Posted by jmarston at 03:48 PM
August 16, 2006
Walker Eats Local Church
Posted by jmarston at 06:39 PM
August 12, 2006
Hampton Roads Tour
I recently had the oppurtunity to explore (sea & land) Hampton Roads, in southeastern Virginia. One of the Unitied States most active Maritime centers, & perhaps the finest natural harbor in the world, virtued by the confluence of the James, Nansemond, and Elizabeth Rivers passing into Chesapeake Bay. In 1620 the first shipyard opened in the deep ice free waters of Hampton Roads, and since it has come to be the largest of just about all things Pirate. The Hampton Roads complex of Portsmouth, Norfolk, Hampton, Newport News is home to the largest Naval base in the world. The third biggest container facility in the US, as well as massive rail & ship complex for the export of Appalachian coal. Thats not too mention the largest ship building & repair center in the country, with a variety of associated maritime industries. The first dry dock in the Western Hemisphere was built in Norfolk in 1833, beating out Boston by the narrowest of margins.
Its a sublime joy to see such massive architecture active on the waterfront. Economies of scale that intimidate and inspire. Its easy to relish the industrial expression when you see New York's erased relationship to its waterfronts. In New York, where dry docks once stood, Ikeas and rollerblade paths now pass.
Military Industrial Complex; Car Boats, Supply Ships, Drudge Barges, Ton Tons, and Dry Docks. The Naval base doesn't encourage drive-bys but their presence is everywhere. Below are just a smattering of images such.
Further down appear snaps of the homes of sea capitans, merchants, lawyers, & slaves; all rich in architectural history. Along with the very Dutch foundings of Ghent, an older neighborhood on a small canal in Norfolk, which has a number of buildings that were brought over from Holland, Portsmouth has a fantastic historic district. The waters have been sites of naval battles during the Revolutionary War, & the Battle of the Ironsides during the Civil War. There are also plenty of Old Sea stories that permeate the area. The shipwrecks off Cape Hatteras, sunk by the dangerous Diamond Shoals; these ever shifting sand & rock bars formed from the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current mixing so close shore. It just sends me out looking for the ghost ship, or Blackbeard. Its like a Michael Mann set.
After the Portsmouth photos are the CBBT snaps. On the above map you can see the Chesepeake Bay Bridge - Tunnel, which stretches 17.6 miles shore to shore, crossing the entrance of "Chesepiooc", Algonquin for Great Shellfish Bay. Opening in 1965, it connects Southeastern Virginia - Hampton Roads - and the Delmarva Peninsula (Delaware plus the Eastern Shore counties in Maryland and Virginia).
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Posted by jmarston at 12:00 PM
July 07, 2006
Fort Jay
Fort Jay, on Governors Island, is simply an amazing piece of architecture. Lets hope NYC can appropriately highlight the phenomenal site. Finished in 1798, the star shaped military structure was peppered with 110 cannons, and the grounds bare of vegetation, protecting New York from an attack by sea. Forgotten NY's Jay page.
Posted by jmarston at 08:37 PM
June 22, 2006
White Love
Rare, amongst the brown & brick of NYC. Shitty 60's white brick doesn't count.
Posted by jmarston at 11:40 AM
June 18, 2006
Best Beach in Brooklyn
The BBB award for June.
Posted by jmarston at 03:04 PM
June 14, 2006
Brooklyn's Painted Ladies
Posted by jmarston at 09:06 PM | Comments (2)
June 03, 2006
The Newest Luxury Future Primitive!
"Plywood! Do you hear me Fabrice, we are tastemakers and this is soooooo Brooklyn!!" -overheard on Ledgers Berry.
Posted by jmarston at 12:16 AM | Comments (2)
May 31, 2006
Nixons Ghost on Mushrooms in Brooklyn
Posted by jmarston at 09:11 PM
October 07, 2005
Happy Birthday Amma
October 11 is actually my Amma's birthday. But all the family is up in North Dakota celebrating. Happy B-Day!!
Posted by jmarston at 04:27 PM | Comments (2)
September 26, 2005
Wood Brooklyn
Posted by jmarston at 10:40 PM
September 13, 2005
Hello!
Back, from an unintended Technical Hiatus. A new server, and an approaching Anniversary (Transfer turns one year 09/28) make it Hi-Time for a Blognado. Hang on.
Posted by jmarston at 12:13 PM
August 24, 2005
Nothing To Say, Good Day
Its beautiful once again. No humidity, no haze, no sweet garbage stench, just the light, crystal clear air that fall brings upon our metropolis. Yess.
Posted by jmarston at 10:33 AM | Comments (2)
August 23, 2005
Pssss, eh Renovator
Heres a little hint before you go about renovating as cheaply as possible - there's more to life than subzero fridges...thats the part we see every day. Windows. If you're going to install double hung windows, and forgo the elegant lead glass, and the casement, you should throw some faux framing in there. These buildings look a whole lot better. And most were designed with this type of windown in mind anyways. Below is an older building with the casement windows still beautifying the block - and a new renovation that opted for nice recreation. Lovely touch.
Sadly, after getting my tax photo, I realized how wonderful my building looked with lead pane framed windows and an entrance awning. Cheap bastards.
Posted by jmarston at 05:19 PM
August 01, 2005
East End Elegance
Once hovels of disease and despair, the near East End of London now sparkles with understated beauty.
Posted by jmarston at 04:10 PM
July 29, 2005
Rock Me
Rock like concrete pile on Barrow & 7th Ave... Can we have more Ecological Interventions, even if they're manmade...
Posted by jmarston at 05:02 PM | Comments (1)
July 27, 2005
Regulated Sharing
Great new book from MIT Press, In the Bubble, Designing in a Complex World by John Thackara. Excellent musings with important ideas for architects, planners, and flaneurs alike. He's got some good Situationist strains running thru his thought. You can hear him here and also here and check out his blog here.
Loving Londinium rows...
Posted by jmarston at 12:30 PM
July 22, 2005
David Adjaye
Some photos of the hottest new residential architecture in London, built by buzzing British architect David Adjaye, in the LESesque industrial neighborhood of Shoreditch. Hot! Hot? Well, Kind of, in that sleek black box kind of way. Really do like the floating roof though.
Enforcing surfacing alert.
Posted by jmarston at 10:23 AM
July 21, 2005
London Sunrise
Firecrackers won't set it down.
Posted by jmarston at 12:49 PM
May 25, 2005
Modernist Rowhouses
Midtown Manhattan Modernism
Is glass brick really that cool?
Posted by jmarston at 04:12 PM | Comments (1)
May 18, 2005
Most Dangerous Pedestrian Intersection in Manhattan
Watch Yourself... Who would have thought its vicinity to one of Hatin's biggest and baddest slabs, 3 Park Avenue?
Posted by jmarston at 11:55 AM
Greening Grating Apartment Blocks: Pt 1
One way to alleviate the brutal coldness of 60's slabs. Green Em!
Posted by jmarston at 10:25 AM
March 22, 2005
Finally!
We're out of the Forties!
Posted by jmarston at 02:31 PM | Comments (1)
March 10, 2005
Zip Zap Rap
Thazz Right!
Posted by jmarston at 12:27 PM
February 08, 2005
Philip Johnson
Philip Johnson died recently... Transfer doesnt much care to comment on his landmarked structures or reflect on his 98 years of life - but much love is doled out for the three triangular spikes at the Chrysler Trylons building - East 42nd St NYC. Varying from 57 to 73 feet tall, they were finished in late 2001. They now house a restaurant which is surely far and above Transfer's budget... Eloquent & distinct, they are a remarkable feature of 42nd st. Respect.
Posted by jmarston at 02:06 PM
February 04, 2005
I Remember You Summer
Fire Island - New York
Posted by jmarston at 06:15 PM
February 02, 2005
New York, Loving You Baby
From the Transfer archive...
Posted by jmarston at 05:37 PM
November 29, 2004
Wandering Fever
A passage from the amazing book, Songlines, by Bruce Chatwin.
"The names of the brothers are a matched pair of opposites. Abel comes from the Hebrew 'hebel', meaning 'breath' or 'vapour': anything that lives and moves and is transient, including his own life. The root of 'Cain' appears to be the verb 'kanah': to 'acquire', 'get', 'own property', and so 'rule' or subjugate'..." ...
"His [Jahweh] sanctuary is the Mobile Ark, His House a tent, his altar a cairin of rough stones."
I took these two photos in lower Manhattan. Just imagine what a little less grid, and lot more natural curving would do to the experience of our buildings?? Is it any wonder that New York's famed Broadway, follows the orginal (natural) walking path/trail north?
Pascal said, "Our nature lies in movement; complete calm is death."
New York Songlines provides a memory of sites as you navigate the grid, while you engage the Cruise.
Posted by jmarston at 02:39 PM | Comments (2)