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Showing posts from July, 2011

Washington Square Village in the NYU 2031 Plan

I am intrigued by the semantics of the NYU 2031 Plan.  In this post I consider an excerpt from the plan that discusses the size and feel of the interior of Washington Square Village which the plan has named the North (Super)Block. On page 165 of Chapter 6 - The Core (or page 30 of 36 if you are reading the NYU2031 pdf ), the plan's authors describe the proposed changes to the existing courtyard including the playground between the two buildings of Washington Square Village: The intent is to break the vast interior of Washington Square Village into smaller and more intimate spaces, promoting a park-like atmosphere (emphasis added). Here is a Google Map view of the courtyard in 2011: Image: Washington Square Village courtyard: Hideo Sasaki Garden (2), playground (3).  Area 1 includes park strips and retail and commercial space on LaGuardia Place. The courtyard looks park-like in the above aerial image and when you are in the Hideo Sasaki Garden and in the playground,

Nine hawthorn grove at Imperial No. 9

The Imperial No. 9 restaurant at 9 Crosby Street that has received better ratings for its decor, including the hawthorn grove that fronts the street, than its food. Several dictionaries define a grove as a group of trees growing in the absence of understory vegetation.  I always thought that a grove is a seemingly random or at least a circular arrangement of trees but the nine hawthorn grove at Imperial No. 9 is arranged in three rows of three.  The grove is mulched with small stones and is separated from the sidewalk by a vine-filled metal trellis. A grove can also be a small fruit tree orchard and orchards are typically planted in rows.  Web searches did not reveal details about the restaurant's landscape intention.

At play in Washington Square Park

This is the inaugural post in an occasional series about playgrounds.  The reviews are based on visits to playgrounds accompanied by a 16 to 24 month old child.  We consider the following factors in our assessment: sun/shade, seating, water, safety, and cleanliness. Washington Square Park has two playgrounds.  (According to the WSP Reconstruction Parks web page , a third play area will be constructed to incorporate the former "mounds.")  The smaller of the two is ideal for crawlers, new walkers, and small numbers of children and adults while the larger playground in the northeast quadrant of the park can accommodate more people and a wider variety of ages and abilities.  The latter is the subject of this review.  The northeast playground was closed for over a year for renovations.  While it re-opened without official fanfare after the Memorial Day 2011 weekend, the surrounding community of children and adults rejoiced! The playground has a sandbox, three play structure

Where in NYC? (Subway Series, No. 5)

Many visitors to the city alight at this station to see the animals pictured in the friezes below. Let us know the line and station name. More subwayana (thank you Bonnie Hull) at Where in NYC? (Subway Series, No. 4) Where in NYC? (Subway Series, No. 3) Where in NYC? (Subway Series, No. 2) Where in NYC? (Subway Series, No. 1) Update, 9/6/2011: The dinosaurs in bronze relief pictured above are located at the American Museum of Natural History 81st Street station on the C line.  The reliefs and other works in mosaic, glass tile, ceramic tile, and granite named For Want of a Nail were created in 2000 by the collaborative team of MTA Arts for Transit and the Museum. Stay tuned for Series No. 6.

11 recommended summer flowers for hummingbirds

My brother's gardens are in full bloom.  Every time I visit he has added new plants - ornamentals and edibles - so it is no surprise he has plans to expand them.  One of his latest additions is Heuchera sanguinea or coral bells.  It is growing among hostas in one of his shade gardens.  I told him that H. sanguinea is one of the summer flowering plants recommended for hummingbirds, according to the list compiled by Constance Casey in essay for the July 2011 issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine . Image: Ruby-throated Hummingbird ( Archilochus colubris ), Biltmore Estate, Asheville, NC by Dick Daniels ( source ) Casey surveyed ornithologists who study hummingbirds and found that the factors to consider when selecting plants to attract hummingbirds are: (1) shape - trumpet or bell shaped plants are ideal; (2) petal form - ones that fold back and ones that are tubular deter bee landing and extraction; (3) color - shape is more important; and (4) fragrance - most birds have a

Then & Now: Flatiron Building

I have always known the Flatiron Building in New York City was famous but I did not know the reason for its reknown until I read the Madison Square District entry in The WPA Guide to New York City: The Federal Writers’ Project Guide to 1930s New York (1992 (1939)). Image: Flatiron Building, screen capture from NYPL Digital Gallery ( source ) Here is the entry: In the acute-angled triangle made by the scissors-like intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue, at twenty-third Street, is the old twenty-one-story FLATIRON BUILDING, completed in 1902 from plans by D. H. Burnham and Company. Its exterior walls as well as floors are supported at each story by the steel frame. This was a logical advance over the structural system used in the World Building on Park Row. Previously, the area of the base and the thickness of the exterior walls were the main technical factors in determining the height of a building; the development of the new principle made possible greater heights.

Where in NYC? (Subway Series, No. 4)

Have you spotted these ocular friezes?  Let us know the line and station. More subwayana (thank you Bonnie Hull) at Where in NYC? (Subway Series, No. 3) Where in NYC? (Subway Series, No. 2) Where in NYC? (Subway Series, No. 1) Update, 7/13/2011: These mosaics were photographed at the Chambers Street (World Trade Center) A/C/E station.  Appropriately named Oculus , the mosaics, created by Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel in 1998, are based on "the eyes of three hundred individual New Yorkers translated from a photographic study" by the artists, according to nycsubway.org.  Learn more about the artists at http://www.jonesginzel.com .  Stay tuned for Series No. 5.