Photo Friday: Custom House Sunset

Cass Gilbert's U.S. Custom House, Bowling Green, NYC. Built c. 1900. Photo by The Preservator

Hot Links

Liquor Store Sign, DeKalb Avenue, Fort Greene Brooklyn. March 3, 2011. Photo by The Preservator.

Queens Graffiti Mecca Faces Redevelopment - via WNYC Culture
If you've ridden the 7 train, you know this building in Long Island City. I can't see how planning more lux-y development in Long Island City is a good idea right now. Not well-timed.

The Old American Dream Is A Nightmare - via Grist
Jim Kunstler, an old favorite, chats with Grist, breaking down why the skyscraper won't save us, how the New Urbanists have won, with requisite smatterings about the national debt and - of course - peak oil. And - beware the photo - our man looked better sans mustache. (Also, I saw someone reading his peak-oil futurist novel, World Made By Hand, on the subway this morning.)

Hoping Gowanus Canal Cleanup Turns Up Old Treasures - via NYT

What is not to love about urban archaeology of the forgotten Gowanus landscape?! Superfund = superfun!

Loss: I.P. Morris Machine Shop #2

I.P. Morris Machine Shop #2, Philadelphia, 2006-2007. by The Preservator.

Meet an old friend of mine, the I.P. Morris Machine Shop #2.  Since the early 20th century, this building sat along Richmond Street, facing the Delaware River in the Fishtown neigborhood of Philadelphia. Its early history was spent as a manufacturing facility, creating iron machine parts for the internationally renowned William Cramp & Sons Ship and Engine Building Company.

Fishtown was a major manufacturing area well into the 20th century.  There, along the Delaware River, Cramp grew into an industrial powerhouse over the course of a century. During the Second World War, Cramp's operations peaked, ultimately employing about 15,000 people (largely Fishtown/Kensington residents) on its 65-acre campus. Cramp shut its doors in 1946.

The long decline of industrial Philadelphia has meant that many large manufacturing facilities remain untouched, while others are demolished. The I.P. Morris Machine Shop #2 was the last vestige of Cramp's once enormous presence in Fishtown. This year, after years of planning, the Machine Shop is being demolished to make way for a new ramp for I-95 intended to handle traffic for the new Sugarhouse Casino a few blocks south.

In 1994 the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission had deemed the building eligible for listing in the State/National Registers of Historic Places. I always liked its raised monitor windows and the railroad tracks leading into the bays suggesting its industrial past. This is all that remained as of Wednesday:

via www.95revive.com

Want more? Peep this:
95 Revive: Cramp Building Coming Down
PlanPhilly: Cramp Shipyard Demo Proceeds
PlanPhilly: How One Shipbuilder Impacted Philadelphia and the World