A completely brand new section as of December 2005. Some archived material will shift in here shortly, to be followed be some great map links. These should get you started:
Although the architects usually get the attention, New York City’s ligting designers get the spotlight in the NightSeeing Map, which was released earlier this year by the Illuminating Engineering Society and Designers Lighting Forum of New York.
The map comes with its own self-guided walking tours of Uptown, Midtown, Downtown and a route through the villages. The guide hits the outer boroughs as well, including the “This Way” installation at the Brooklyn pedestrian entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge by Tillett Lighting Design.
Not all of the tour is outdoors, as you’ll also be guided into the Hall of Ocean Life at the American Museum of Natural History. The lighting design by Brandston Partnership, which features programmed “underwater shadows,” won the 2004 Lumen Award of Excellence.
The online version is free, but hard-copy can be purchased at The Center for Architecture at 536 LaGuardia Place; GL Lites On Showroom at 511 W. Canal Street; or the Times Square Information Center on 7th Avenue between 46th and 47th streets.
New tech for NYC: subway hacks to cheap hotel maps
There’s an awful lot of newish gee-gaws out there with special features for heavy New York City users — and travelers. Here’s a roundup:
AcrossAir’s New York Nearest Subway application for iPhone (see video above) will show you which subway entrances are closest to your current location.
Another application, Exit Strategy NYC will tell you where to stand on the subway platform so that when you alight, you’ll be perfectly aligned with the station exit you need.
The New York Philharmonic has launched its own iPhone application that lets listen to music and podcasts — and buy tickets
Sirius XM Radio Inc has also launched a free application for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Car-free Summer Streets to return Aug. 8, 15 and 22
Almost 7 miles of Manhattan roads will be closed to traffic again this summer as Summer Streets will return August 8, 15 and 22 from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The 6.9-mile route will give way to bikers, skaters, walkers and others from the Brooklyn Bridge, up Lafayette/Centre Streets, along 4th Avenue and Park Avenue up to 72nd streets, map.
However, main cross-town streets will remain open to vehicles crossing the car-free zone.
“This is only its second year, but Summer Streets is already a New York tradition,” Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said at the news conference announcing the dates.
In addition the city has creating 13 extra car-free street events in other neighborhoods in all five boroughs, ranging from one to seven blocks long. Here are the dates of the remaining dates for those events:
The Map Room, a blog about maps, today highlights an interesting bit of news about photography in New York City.
A team of computer scientists at Cornell University analyzed geotags on 35 million photos on flickr to create accurate global and city maps. And further, according to New Scientist, they also judged a popularity contest:
New York City is the most photographed city on Earth – over 12 million of the photos analysed were snapped there. Bizarrely, the team’s findings show that the fifth-most photographed place in the city is the Apple store in midtown Manhattan.
According to the research paper by David Crandall, Lars Backstrom, Daniel Huttenlocher and Jon Kleinberg, the most photographed sites in New York City are:
1. Empire State Building
2. Times Square
3. Rockefeller Center
4. Grand Central Terminal
5. Apple Store on Fifth Avenue
6. Columbus Circle
7. Liberty Island
Book excerpt: In Queens with 'Public Art New York'
NewYorkology is pleased today to offer an extended excerpt chapter from the new book “Public Art New York” by architect Jean Parker Phifer and photographer Francis Dzikowski.
The book tackles all the best permanent public art in all five boroughs of New York City, but today’s preview focuses on Queens, including the WPA murals and an Alexander Calder mobile at LaGuardia and Kennedy airports, respectively.
Published just this week, “Public Art New York” is organized by neighborhood and includes maps helpful for travelers on foot or armchair. Phifer, a past president of the Art Commission of the City of New York, is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and teaches Environmental Design at New York University. Dzikowski is an architectural photographer based in New York City.
Their book tour includes several NYC events at locations including the Skyscraper Museum and Urban Center Books.
Queens
Flight
James Brooks, Artist, 1938-40
Collection of the City of New York
Marine Air Terminal
Delano & Aldrich, Architects, 1937-40; Restoration by Beyer Blinder Belle, Architects, 1995-6
West end of LaGuardia Airport, Flushing
Built just before World War II at the urging of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, the Marine Air Terminal originally served passengers for the legendary seaplanes known as Yankee Clippers. Over time, as air travel changed from seaways to runways, the terminal became divorced from the waterfront and was poorly renovated, masking its Art Deco style. The murals were inexplicably painted over in the 1950s but were restored in the late 1970s. Declared a New York City landmark, the terminal and its interior finally regained their former glory in the 1990s.
The colorful murals ringing the upper level of the interior of the original main hall are a striking reminder of the excitement and sophistication of the early days of air travel. Completed under the Works Progress Administration, the murals combine historical representation with artistic exuberance. Subjects include early biplanes, pilots undertaking navigational computations, and various representations of humanity benefiting from the advances of flight. The model of an old plane that now hangs from the middle of the dome is a perfect touch in this highly evocative public space.
New York Hall of Science
47-01 111th Street, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park
The unusual concrete and glass core of this building was constructed to the designs of Harrison and Abramovitz for the 1964 World’s Fair. A new entrance and galleries by Beyer Blinder Belle were opened in 1996, and several fantastic outdoor science playgrounds by BKSK architects have been built since. The newest wing to the north, designed by the Polshek Partnership, opened in 2004. The upper Hall of Light in this wing is clad in a luminous membrane of translucent panels that brings filtered daylight into the interior exhibits. The terrific public art throughout the museum has been inspired by scientific inquiry and interprets natural phenomena in innovative ways to an audience of all ages. A few of these pieces are described on the following pages.
Sun Sculpture
Maty Grunberg, 1999
Collection of the City of New York
This gigantic astrolabe, 10 feet in diameter, sits in front of the entrance to the Hall of Science. Part artwork and part scientific instrument, it is a direct demonstration of how our daily and seasonal cycles are calibrated from the rotation of the earth around the sun. Whereas this sculpture celebrates the sun’s hegemony over human time, the collection of historic rockets displayed nearby documents man’s attempts to break free of earthly gravity to explore the solar system.
Inclined Light Wall
James Carpenter, 2004
Collection of the City of New York, Sponsored by the Percent for Art Program of the Department of Cultural Affairs
Installed on the inside of the north end of Polshek’s 2004 addition to the Hall of Science, James Carpenter’s slanted glass sculpture takes full advantage of the light streaming through the glass skylight above to project changing patterns and color on the wall. Because the sun and clouds are constantly moving across the sky, the intensity of the yellow color and the definition of the dot screens on both the inclined glass plane and the wall beyond continue to overlay in complex and evolving relationships. Located at the end of the wing, the piece acts as a magnet for visitors throughout the building and can be seen as well from the exterior. Says Carpenter, “It is a play on large-scale moire patterns that shift with the viewers’ movement through the space.”
Soul in Flight: A Memorial to Arthur Ashe
Eric Fischl, Sculptor; Mark Sullivan, Landscape Architect, 2000
Collection of the City of New York
National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park
From what we get, we make a living; What we give, however, makes a life.
- Arthur Ashe
The sculptor Eric Fischl, selected to design this memorial by a committee that included Ashe’s widow, opted to represent Ashe’s athletic prowess and humanitarian spirit with a nude figure. The novelty of depicting a tennis champion in the midst of the serving motion totally in the buff has perplexed some of the star’s fans. But the muscled figure can be read as reaching heavenward in a universal gesture of striving and hope. The torqued counterpoint of the figure, recalling forms of classical sculpture, depicts the moment of recoil before the energy release of his mammoth tennis serve, evoking the graceful confidence of Arthur Ashe the champion.
Unisphere
Gilmore D. Clarke, 1964
Granite Pavement
Matt Mullican, Artist; Miceli Kulik Williams, Landscape Architects, 1995
Collection of the City of New York, Sponsored by the Percent for Art Program of the Department of Cultural Affairs
Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, East of the Grand Central Parkway
Although the huge Unisphere, built for the 1964 World’s Fair in shiny stainless steel, is regarded by some as an incongruous relic of World’s Fair bombast, it has earned the fond regard of many as an example of mid-twentieth-century design and has been designated a New York City landmark. The gigantic globe, 120 feet in diameter, hovers over a large fountain with spray jets that add palpably to its appeal in the hot summer months. The extensive area of pavement around the fountain has been reinvigorated with highly detailed pictorial depictions of historical events in the vicinity of the park, etched with matte finish into the polished black granite. The scale of the whole ensemble, therefore, is an odd mix of the gargantuan and the minute, isolated in the huge expanse of the sprawling park.
The James Beard Foundation has announced its 2009 nominees for the best in all things food. The winners will be announced at a gala ceremony May 4 at Lincoln Center co-hosted by Cat Cora, Emeril Lagasse and Stanley Tucci.
There’s a lot to like about the concept of the Panamap.
Tilt it one way and you can see Manhattan’s street grid, another angle gets you the subway lines, yet another yields the names of all the neighborhood and landmarks such as museums and hospitals.
However, you need a deft wrist move to see what you’re looking for. And even more frustrating is the choice of “sights” on the map. While it’s missing museums such as the New-York Historical Society and the Rubin Museum it somehow includes the Guggenheim Museum SoHo (which closed in 2001.)
There’s more, like the reference to the Ellis Island ferry at Pier 25 (which would send tourists to the edge of Tribeca rather than the southern tip of Manhattan.)
Tech-savvy 'A-Hole' surprise at the NY Visitor Center
Usman Chaudhary today joins NewYorkology’s team of correspondents. He’s a New Jersey-based web developer and frequent New York City visitor and his personal blog can be found at whoisusman.com. He’s just talked to one of the developers — and given a test run — of the new software at NYC & Co.’s official Midtown tourism center.
Not a lot of cities would have the guts to feature “A-HOLE” in their official tourism centers.
But this is New York City. And that’s what can happen when you install new technology,
giving over some control to the masses.
As the economy slows, New York City is still spending money to keep tourism revenue near record levels. One example can be found in the NY Visitor Information Center — located on 7th Avenue between 52nd and 53rd streets — where a test of the new interactive tables resulted in a few surprises.
Visitors to the center begin by picking up circular discs with unique patterns and placing them on one of three interactive map tables. The tables display a circular menu, allowing users to choose between 12 options encompassing arts, entertainment, dining, hotels, and something called “NYC photos,” which provided much entertainment (more about that later.)
When an option is picked, destinations are displayed around the current location, which can be repositioned by sliding a finger iPhone-style across the glass. Though the selection criteria for establishments wasn’t stated anywhere, the table did show dozens of restaurants and all major hotels.
Destinations can be e-mailed, text messaged, or “saved to the disc” - which then allows users to print an itinerary at the printing station. After trying all these options, I was left with a list of locations and addresses but not real directions. Incorporating public transportation suggestions. (Perhaps a list of nearby subway lines for each location) into the resulting printout would have been nice.)
The “NYC Photos” option is connected to an unfiltered Flickr feed of location-tagged photos. One of the first pictures to appear was the photograph of a New York Post cover about Alex Rodriguez … the one with the “A-HOLE” headline. Combined with many personal snapshots, these unexpected photos made made it far more interesting than a canned selection of normal NYC-themed images.
The “New Baghdad” table was designed by Ezri Tarazi in Edra, Italy “so that the most recognizable features of the city, the Tigris river and the main streets were as accurate as possible,” according to the product description at Moss. “The aluminum parts representing the buildings and structures in between the river and the main streets were assembled in an imaginary and futuristic way.”
The website listing says the price is available upon request, but the store’s RSS feed of the Daily New lists the price as $45,000.
