Photo Friday: Snowy Harbor Seagull + Hot Links

Photo by The Preservator

Hot Links:

In Athens, GA stands the steeple of St. Mary's Episcopal Church. It just so happens that said church was, at one time, a DIY venue where R.E.M. played it's first gig. Today the steeple is all that remains of the church/venue and its current property owners (a condo association) have voted to demolish rather than restore the steeple.  Signs that the times they-are-a-changing? The National Trust's Preservation Magazine covers the story online here. Hmm.

For years communities and advocates have been working to improve the health of the Bronx River. Now, there's more multi-municipal cooperation. Bravo! Jose the Beaver thanks you too! (via NY Daily News)

Over at Rorotoko Elizabeth Collins Cromley breaks down her new book, The Food Axis: Cooking, Eating and the Architecture of American Houses, which contends that the ways in which food is stored/prepared/preserved/consumed has driven domestic architecture and its adaptations over time.

Oh yeah, and Wal-Mart has opted to find a different development sight after years of seeking to build a Supercenter in Orange County, VA on the site of the Wilderness Battlefield, one of the Civil War's most important. The National Trust explains. Reenactors and buffs like yours truly, rejoice.

Iron and Snow

Photo by The Preservator

 Trinity Church's Fence, Wall Street and Broadway, NYC. January 27, 2011.

Photo Friday: Flatiron + Hot Links

Flatiron Building, December 29, 2010 3:49pm
Photo by the Preservator

Hot Links + Strays:
Polis recently posted a piece about how relevant Jane Jacobs' thinking about the use of old buildings, 50 years later. Even lovers of Jacobs' writing, including yours truly, can get tired of the endless rehashing of her influential writing. Still, this piece reminds us that old buildings, in big expensive cities like New York, provide space for entrepreneurship. Do read.

Philebrity shared this rad portal into the future/past... er the future of the past. Something. Hi-Tech Psychedelic Past/Present Philly Street View promised. If you've ever wondered about how the Preservator wishes to experience the world. This is so close.

ArchPaper reports about a new level of destructoporn: Buffalo artist who's creating art out of pieces of abandoned buildings in an installation called Undone/Redone City.

Harlem Bespoke unearths details about this beautiful horse fountain at 155th and St. NicholasPlace in Hamilton Heights/Sugar Hill. NYC Parks has more info about the Hooper Fountain's restoration. Among the many streetscape treasures that delight the Preservator are horse fountains, most of which were built at a time when the ASPCA and its local chapters were on the rise. They make us think of kindness.

Amusing the Zillion tipped about an exhibit at Schroeder Romero & Shredder, Nickel Empire: Coney Island Photographs 1889-1948. It's up from January 27th-February 26 and looks great.

While we're on the subject, don't think we didn't notice, but in the last month the Coney Island debacle has continued with the demolition of the Bank of Coney Island and the landmarking of both Childs Restaurant and the Coney Island (Shore) Theater on Surf Avenue.

The Snowy Day

Okay, well, maybe it's not a Snow Day for us in New York City today. The Preservator didn't grow up in snowy climes so snow is not a hassle, it's magical. As a kid, these feelings of snow's fantastical wonder were fostered by favorite books like "Katy and the Big Snow," by Virgina Lee Burton and especially, "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats.

"The Snowy Day" finds a little boy named Peter waking up to winter's first snowfall and he sets out to explore his urban neighborhood. He has adventures listening to the crunch of snow underfoot, making snow angels, looking at the snowball fight the big kids are having.

Ezra Jack Keats was the son of Polish immigrants who grew up in East New York, Brooklyn. He was an artist and illustrator who began creating his own picture books in 1960. Just like the Brooklyn neighborhoods where his books are set, Keats' books are full of Hispanic, Asian, African American and Anglo faces. In "The Snowy Day" you can see Brooklyn everywhere; its streetscapes, the rowhouses, shops, and oh the ironwork! I still love the strong lines, bold colors, and texture of the illustrations, created using paint, gouache, collages of paper and fabric.

Image from the Keats archive at the Library of the University of 
Southern Mississippi's de Grummond Children's Literature Collection

If you are out and about today, at the library or bookstore, thumb through "The Snowy Day". Remember what it's like to find wonder in your neighborhood transformed under a blanket of snow. Engage your senses. Be an urban arctic explorer.

Recycling Events in NYC for a Clean Start to 2011

New years are opportunities for good intentions to be put into action. If you live in NYC there's a lot of ways to responsibly recycle unwanted stuff and begin the new year with a clean slate. Here are a few ideas:

CHIP IN: Instead of landfilling your Christmas tree, recycle it at MulchFest this weekend at 70 parks throughout the city. The wood chips created at MulchFest are used to feed trees and plants in parks and on the street. You can even take a bag of chips home for your yard or street tree. In case your tree is already crispy, you can even drop it off early. Last year 24,000 trees were recycled. Check the MulchFest website for more info about how it works and where to drop your tree.

Image courtesy of art_es_anna via flickr

E-CYCLE
This month the Lower East Side Ecology Center is collecting E-Waste for recycling. Their goal is to collect 100 tons! So bring your aged, busted electronics (list of acceptable items) to any number of pick-up sites every weekend in January between 10am-4pm. Electronic waste is full of highly toxic materials that can contribute to air and water pollution if it's not recycled properly. If that's not enough incentive to drag your e-junk to a collection location, all recyclers are entered into a Tekserv raffle to win an MacBook Air and Zipcar members can earn a driving credit. Among the collection spots are Prospect Park (1/16), Habana Outpost (1/22), Bowling Green Park (1/8), Tekserv (1/15), and the Queens Botanical Garden (1/9). For a full listing of e-waste collection days and locations, check out the calendar.
 

CLOSET PURGE
Also, don't forget that GrowNYC collects textiles for recycling at eight Greenmarkets throughout the year. Help them reach their 1 million pound goal this year by bringing your unwanted clothes, paired shoes, bags, and household linens. Usable items are sorted out and sold, while unusable pieces are sold to companies that will reuse them in new products like insulation or cushions.

Preservator Resolutions 2011

New Year's Greetings. NYPL Digital Gallery Image ID: 1587814

As we face a new year, the Preservator offers a few slightly heretical resolutions as food for thought. Care to share yours?

1. Don’t Look Back.

The past isn’t everything. Good preservation is as much about planning for the future as it is about caring for the past. It’s time to get more comfortable with treating preservation as one among many creative tools for shaping the future. Idealized recreations of the past are not suitable landscapes of the future. We should carry forward the lessons that historic places and things teach us and use those to help create a sustainable future for our cities, towns, and landscapes. Good preservation cannot and does not end with putting something under glass and then regulating the hell out of it.

 

2. Go Stealth.

I think it was Lenin who said that radical change was possible through a few well-placed men. Consider this as inspiration for the next year. There are real boundaries for preservation’s growth as a field. Ignore them. Better yet, violate them by embedding yourself in other fields. Work with environmentalists, historians, planners, architects, landscape architects, writers, urbanists, teachers, and policymakers alike to think holistically about the past and its future. Abandon territorial pissing matches over credit and ownership. These are meaningless and futile. Go forth and infuse.