Eclectic, Curated, Miscellaneous

What is this?

Below you will find a collection of random quotes, images, or projects that have stood out to me and seem to need a little recognition. The topic will usually be preservation focused, but some other things will sneak in. I promise.

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When the corner was cute.

While the 3-story, irregular building that stretches between 126th St and Amsterdam Ave is extant, the smaller structures on the corner have been removed. Now, there is only a shrubby green patch and a fence.

Image Credit: Percy Loomis Sperr (NYPL digital collections)

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Charles R. Knight, Dinosaur Painter

I stumbled across Charles R. Knight not because I know anything about dinosaurs, but because Knight had a studio in a building that I studied (146 East 56th Street, see Projects). However, I was taken with this New Years card that he made; well, he was the man for painting realistic depictions of dinosaurs. 

​Image: Wikimedia Commons

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Hearst Tower, without the Tower, c. 1928

The Hearst Building, which was always intended to support a tower, had to wait until 2006 to get it.

Wurts Bros. Photograph, (MCNY digital collection)

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Olana New York State Historic Site

Stunning decoration from bell tower to basement at Olana, the home of Frederic Edwin Church. Exterior painting restored in 2005. 

For more information:  http://www.olana.org/the-house/

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Gingerbread Houses of Port-au-Prince

A beautiful, but seemingly unused, Gingerbread house at 118 Avenue Jean Paul II (Turgeau), Port-au-Prince.

Historic Photography:

Bradbury Mansion, Hill and Court Streets, Los Angeles. c. 1890. Razed 1929. 

Quote:

"There is at root, however, a much simpler and more direct reason why a strong effort should be made to save, if not all, at least enough of the very best of these buildings so that they remain a vital and active piece of the city and not museum pieces: 
They will never happen again. 
All of the overt and direct, subtle and even mysterious sets of interrelationships, pressures, and people that gave birth to these houses will never come together at the same time and place again – ever. 
As such, they are unique, but beyond being unique they are wonderful, and if they go, [the city] may be newer, neater, and, heaven help us, even in better taste, some might argue; but it will also be a city in which an amputation of extremity has taken place, for we would be cutting off the start, the base line against which [the city] measures itself."
Thomas Aidala, The Great Houses of San Francisco