Then Big Red 9
Here’s a wider view of 9 W 57th Street. There’s no mistaking the address here!
Again, notice the Chickering Building reflected fun-house-mirror style in the parabolic facade of 9 West.
May 242012
Facade detail of former Market Street National Bank at 1 East Penn Square
1 Penn Square East is a decent enough Art Deco structure, but the building’s most appealing feature is its polychrome terra-cotta decoration.
This is just a section of the Mesoamerican-inspired design over the main portal on Market Street. The architects, Ritter & Shay, also applied the same theme to each setback and along the edges of the crown.
Thanks to Residence Inns, the builing is in excellent shape, looking almost as good as it did upon completion in 1930.
Street-level design flair in South Philly
When I saw this pattern, it immediately reminded me of a gritier, more urban version of this one
Both images have two design elements that I really like: a repeating pattern and the contrast of color with “not-color.” This new one also has another of my favorite design elements in the radial lines at the top of the grillwork.
For the record, this photo shows the basement window of a house at the corner of Tasker and South Carlisle streets in funky, cheese-steaky, home-of-Rocky-Balboa South Philly.
Socony-Mobil Building Reflected in the Hyatt Hotel
If this image looks very much like the one I took of 666 Fifth Avenue, there’s good reason. Both are buildings with patterned metal skin, and in both photos, the buildings are reflected in a nearby glass-curtain-wall skyscraper.
666 Fifth’s wall panels are made from aluminum, while Socony, uniquely, is sheathed in stainless steel, but the reflections are very similar.
In my previous post, I rather cavalierly dismissed “…those glass-and-steel boxes…,” but after my 2-semester course in history of Western architecture, I’ve come to understand that not all International Style buildings are ugly and boring. So now, I’m going to have to look at them… and photograph them… with new eyes.
Gustavino tile lines the arched ceiling of the south arcade of the Municipal Building in Manhattan
Subway commuters ascending to street level from the IRT Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall stop are treated to this elegant vaulted arcade, lined with Gustavino tile.
While her parents stroll further up the hill, she takes advantage of gravity and sunlight
If you wanted to find some really good photo opportunities in Philly, you couldn’t do much better than the area around the Philadelphia Art Museum and the Fairmount Water Works. Here’s a strolling path that connects the museum, on higher ground, to the level of the Schuylkill River.
May 082012
Walking to Brooklyn, early morning
Early on a Saturday morning, there weren’t too many walkers and cyclists on the Brooklyn Bridge. By 10 am and beyond past sunset, a small city’s worth will have crossed over the East River from borough to borough.
Midshipmen take a sloop out on the Severn River
The 5th Avenue entrance to the Fred F. French Building
The Fred F. French Building (551 Fifth Avenue) is one of the less-well-known Art Deco skyscrapers in New York City. And that’s a shame, because it’s one of the better designs of that era.
I’ll have more photos and more to say about this building, but for now, I want to introduce you to its exuberant 5th Avenue entrance.
In designing the impressive bronze portal, the architects clearly had the Ishtar Gate of ancient Babylon in mind. Ishtar Gate was built during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC.) The Gate, a marvel of its time, announced to anyone approaching it that he had come to the greatest city of its day.
Perhaps Mr. French’s architects were saying the same thing about Babylon-on-the-Hudson?
Mar 152012
Marine rope, carefully coiled dockside, in Annapolis, MD
Each of our photo safaris has plenty of photo-worthy vistas, but don’t forget to look and focus on small details that relate to the character of our safari locations.
Here’s an example from last Saturday’s Afternoon Light In Annapolis. I wanted to encourage our photographers to “get close, and when you think you’re close enough, get closer…” So when I spotted this very seamanlike coil of marine rope on a dock, I took out my little pocket digicam and got *really* close to demonstrate what I meant.
The close-up of the coil makes for an interesting composition, and it also conveys the claim of Annapolis to be the “Sailing Capital of the World.”
