Follow me as I go on a long walk all over the middle part of Manhattan island. There's about 200 photos here, and they all date to May 24, 2008.
Our journey starts at Penn Station and ends in Chelsea:
But first, I'd like to show you some pics from the train-- these giants are the first things letting you know you're definitely in The City:
northern Manhattan:
(excuse the pics, but Amtrak doesn't expend much money cleaning their windows!)
going through the Sunnyside railyards in Queens, this is one of the last things you see before heading into the tunnel that takes you across the East River:
--
I think we're in the city now...
Yep, we definitely are!
^ we'll take a trip through Bryant Park in a little bit. But for now..
NYC ever growing:
Into the oasis that is Bryant Park:
Now it's off to Madison Square via Fifth Ave:
Hey... what's that building in the background?
Madison Ave, looking south:
And north:
We now enter Madison Square:
This one's for the romantics:
Back into the streets:
Now heading south for Union Square:
Continuing to head south via Third Ave, we now aim for Astor Place/Cooper Square:
Street Fair!
The novel:
The venerable:
Colliding street grids start to appear in this area, much to the eye's approval:
Cooper Union on the left, Gwathmey Siegel's Astor Place Building in the middle:
Astor Place:
Cooper Square Hotel -- one of the most attractive buildings to come about in this real estate cycle:
Cooper Union:
15 stories of neo-Federalism:
I now introduce you to one specific block of Bond Street:
This block of Bond Street is in between Lafayette Street and the Bowery:
Per capita it has seen the greatest infusion of imaginative architecture these last five years of anywhere in the city:
This one is 40 Bond, by Herzog and de Meuron:
Fit for the Wizard of Oz:
Also on the block is 25 Bond:
And the most tame of the newcomers, this one whose name I do not know:
We now saunter our way through the East/Central Village (NYU territory) on our way to SoHo:
Houston Street -- the "ho" in Soho.. it's not a pretty thoroughfare by any stretch of the imagination:
Looking downtown:
Aldo Rossi's sublime Scholastic Building:
Unfortunately, this is about all I have of Soho for now.. it was a weekend day and the sidewalks were insufferably stuffed with shoppers moving at 0.317 miles per hour.
We now go by NYU's dorms (by I.M. Pei) as we head for the endearing West Village:
^ Funny story: that dude in the black shirt is my brother. He lives in Albany, I in Boston, and we had no knowledge of either of us being in the city. Talk about a mother f***ing coincidence!!!
Trump Soho:
Time to become charmed, West Village style:
Looking south towards the gigantic warehouses of west Soho:
But for now, we go back to a more pedestrian-scaled environment:
Classic Village:
The best find of the trip was this -- Grove Court:
As if Greenwich Village could get any more cute...
Hudson Street:
And Greenwich Street:
West Street, looking south towards the under-construction Goldman Sachs tower:
Richard Meier's Perry Street trio:
Jersey:
and Jersey City:
We're now right next to
the Highline
Funky! This new project is the Standard Hotel, by Andre Balasz:
We're now in the heart of the Meatpacking District:
BAM!
Bravo, Gehry!
Finally, moving north into Chelsea, the Lehigh-Starrett warehouse utterly dominates the vista:
Ninth Ave looking south:
And looking north:
Fulton Houses:
The Maritime Hotel:
And the last picture, this previews my next installment -- a couple of walks around downtown:
Hope you enjoyed the tour!
Prev
)
Linear Mode
