Boot Scrapers, Part 6: Missing Something
Two boot scrapers on the same block. First, a fairly ordinary wrought-iron scraper next to an ornate cast-iron newel post:
Journal
Our work with old buildings has us studying a lot of different topics in addition to structural engineering – for example, architecture, history, and historic preservation – and we like sharing stories about what we’ve found.
So Skinny
Continuing yesterday‘s thought for a bit, here’s a Wurts Brothers photo from the early 1920s, showing the intersection of Madison
Assembling A Campus
…in postcard form! The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company decided in 1892 to move uptown, to Madison Square. The new company
Sometimes…
…you find the perfect angle for a photograph. Chrysler, September 20, 2019: In 1986, I assembled a cardboard model of
The First R
I’ve talked more than once about the Reuse Reduce Recycle mantra and how it relates to our work. Here’s a
Historic Structural Detail: Backless
During an apartment renovation in a converted 1860s loft building, a view of one of the cast-iron columns that makes
A Short-Lived Mansion
The kind of construction-sequence photos that I showed a while back for 15 Broad Street exist for other buildings and,
I’m Not Laughing
The northwest corner of North 6th Street and Berry Street in Williamsburg (Brooklyn) in 1940: The four-story building on the
From Standard To Remnant
From the 1930s, postcard nostalgia about the “days of the Square Rigger”: “Stokes” in this case is Isaac Newtown Phelps
Proper Decoration
This is pretty far afield for me, but it concerns the built environment, so close enough. Another old photo, from
Waiting For A Flight
More old photos: from Newark Airport in 2019, looking northeast (on the left) and east (on the right): A close-up
July 4, 2019
Fireworks over the East River as seen from Battery Park City: Tastes vary, but I find this more interesting than
Fantasy
Circa 1910, a postcard of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Morningside Heights: There’s only one problem: that’s
There Now, That’s Not So Good, Is it?
From 2018, a nasty surprise after the ceiling was removed: More specifically, the gypsum board ceiling that had been put
Boot Scrapers, Part 5: Simple And Effective
I let this series languish for a while… The stoop of an 1825 rowhouse, with a simple wrought-iron handrail: The
Raising The Roof
More evident alterations at an old subway station, similar to one I discussed a couple of years ago. A view
Never Mind The Title
Max Hubacher, on December 21, 1954, titled this photo “New York City: Third Avenue Elevated”: And, sure enough, there’s the
An Ash Heap
The “valley of ashes” as portrayed in a graphic-novel adaptation of The Great Gatsby: A pile of coal ash in
Two Structural Efforts
In the foreground, the rear facade of the Seventh Regiment Armory, famous for its ornate rooms in front, some designed
Spectacle Is Timeless
From “1922 – 1940” (according to the New York Public Library) a postcard of “Bryant Park in 1853”: Except, of
