The Bowery Boys: New York City History
Some New York neighborhoods are simply named for their location on a map (East Village, Midtown). Others are given prefabricated real-estate designations (SoHo, DUMBO). But a few retain names that link them intimately with their pasts. Other entries in this series can be found here. For all the New York City neighborhoods with wonderful old… Read More
Above: Peaceful Lispenard Meadow, future home of a British prison brothel? In the days of Collect Pond, the surrounding area was equally diverse and almost impossible to mentally construct today. Southeast of the pond was a place known as Beekman’s Swamp, a wetland drained by British landowner Jacobus Roosevelt on what would much later become… Read More
The oddest thing to ever peek its head above the Bowery, the brand new New Museum of Contemporary Art, captured the culture headlines last week during its week-long opening. Critics, even the toughest ones, praised its architecture by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of the Japanese firm Sanaa, admired its open gallery spaces glowing with… Read More
(Jacobs, as seen in Canada) We finally made it over to the Municipal Art Society’s exhibit on the extraordinary Jane Jacobs, community leader and civil planner whose theories on a successful urban landscape are currently fueling community activism today. Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York is part-bio on Jacobs, part inspection of her… Read More