Open House New York, Year II

This month I volunteered again with Open House New York as a site photographer. I had intended to shoot fewer sights this year, but there were so many interesting locations to choose from that I ended up with five over the two days.

Saturday

First up was the hard hat tour of ABC No Rio’s ongoing renovation of their space at 156 Rivington Street on the Lower East Side. Executive Director of ABC No Rio Gavin Marcus and principal architect Paul Castrucci explained the motivation behind the $21M demolition and sustainable rebuilding of their premises as a high-performance “Passive House,” serving as a model for resilient, low-carbon, healthy building practices.

 

 

Next, I headed down to Centre Street to the Manhattan Borough President’s Office to see the Original Map of Manhattan. Executed by Johny Randal Jr. in 1820, this was the first map to plot the 1811 Commissioner’s Plan which established the Manhattan street grid from Houston Street to 155th Street. It was fascinating to see the early grid laid out and the names of all the landowners scrawled across their respective parcels. Another interesting discovery was seeing how much of the Upper East Side was expanded east with landfill, covering a significant inlet of water from the East River.

 

 

My final location on day one was back in Astoria at Spacetime, sculpture artist Mark Di Suvero’s studio in the yellow aluminum warehouse on the waterfront. Founder of Socrates Sculpture Park in 1986, Di Suvero is a master of interactive steel sculpture on a massive scale, and his work has been exhibited worldwide. Some of the pieces displayed in and around the warehouse were so enormous they truly defied imagination.

 

 


Sunday

My first location on day two was to the newly opened Printemps department store on Wall Street to see “The Red Room,” a landmarked mosaic interior space designed by muralist Hildreth Meière in 1931. While the recently renovated Art Deco building at 1 Wall Street was given landmark designation in 2001, the interior (walls and ceiling) of the Red Room could not be landmarked until 2024, once it was reopened to the public. Members of the International Hildreth Meière Association lead a very impressive tour of the space, delving into the history and significance of the room, as well as Meière’s history as one of this country’s most accomplished Art Deco artists.

 

 

The final location of the weekend was at Sky Farm LIC, located on the rooftop of the former Standard Motors building on Northern Boulevard. Run by the kids of the Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens, the farm offers the children a chance to learn how to grow vegetables and flowers, keep bees, and participate in wholesome activities in a free third space. (There were no children present during the tours.) It also has a breathtaking view of the city!

 

 

Easily the best part of OHNY Weekend is checking out new areas of the city that I’ve either never been to or haven’t ventured to in a long time. I prefer to keep to one borough since the subway is notoriously unreliable on the weekends, this one included. As my roaming project is always in mind, I took the opportunity to shoot along the way. These are a few of my favorites.