Madeline's Secret

Are you a fan of the Madeline books -- the adventures of a little girl in Paris? Then you must go to the Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle Hotel on Madison Avenue and 76th Street.

Ludwig Bemelmans, the author and illustrator of the Madeline books, painted murals on all the walls of the bar at the Carlyle. It's his only public piece of art on display. A true treasure!

This has always been a favorite secret spot of mine. No windows makes it even more incognito. Hide from the crowd in this beautiful bar with your secret friend and take in the world of Bemelmans.

Image via: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alltheparks/5472480542/in/photostream/

Image via Google

Freedom Tower

It’s nice to finally see construction of the Freedom Tower and the World Trade Center moving forward. Ever since post-911 I’ve been obsessed with its reconstruction. I often drive to lower Manhattan from Brooklyn via the West Side Highway to sell furniture. Sometimes I take pictures of the site when I’m stopped at a red light. I am amazed at how long it took to even start construction. It’s such a bittersweet feeling when I drive by, I think of all the stories and all the tragedies that occurred. This city is full of wonderful sights, I look forward to having this added to the collection. Anyway, that’s it for now.

Making it Out Alive: All in a Day's Work

Sometimes I just can’t believe the journey I go on just to get some furniture refinished. I’ve been to several industrial parks in this city before (all business trips, of course) like the ones in East Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Long Island City and somewhere in The Bronx. But these days, about twice a week, I find myself in Sunset Park at the Brooklyn Army Terminal paying a visit to my refinisher and upholsterer.

When I’m driving south down 1st Avenue from 39th Street to 58th Street towards the entrance of the terminal it’s like I’m trapped in a Mad Max movie. No driving rules apply on that 20 block stretch. Not only is the surface of the street a minefield of potholes, train tracks, and cobblestones mixed with black top, but semi’s are always parked along the streets–on the wrong side. Some truck drivers are trying to back up into loading docks with only 2″ clearance. There is usually a sanitation truck convention at all times with vehicles lined up for 3 blocks waiting to take off. As my picker friend Frank Daley would say, “Every time I go down there I lose a year off of my life. It’s a war zone!”

One day when I finally arrived at the gate of the Army Terminal to drop off a Knoll credenza I met a new challenge: a battle with a freight train. Was I really in New York City? Were my other women friends having this same type of encounter getting to work? Was anyone ever going to believe this?

Good thing I had my  trusty camera with me that day. Watch the video. You can’t make this shit up.

Modernism in Brooklyn's Public Housing

From my assistant, Blaise:

Ilya Bolotowsky's first study for the Williamsburg houses mural, 1936.
Photo: www.artnet.com

Photo: www.nyc-architecture.com

I’ve walked by this corner several times in Williamsburg. It’s hard not to notice this striking structure — so different from neighboring buildings — but I never knew its significance until Jim Clark, one of the artists represented by Corinne Robbins Art & Design tipped us off on the history.

The term housing project often brings to mind disregarded, depressing, style-less concrete structures that are simultaneously sprawling and confining. But in 1936 William Lescaze, a Swiss-born modernist (who later taught industrial design at Pratt Institute), teamed up with Empire State Building architects and, in collaboration with the Federal Public Works Administration and the newly formed New York City Housing Authority, embarked on creating the Williamsburg Houses. It was the first instance not only of modernism in American low-income housing, but a demonstration of innovation and care devoted to a gravely overlooked and underserved population. The result was a revolutionary 12.8 million dollar design bringing European aesthetics and International Style architecture to Brooklyn and the U.S. at large.

The Williamsburg Houses is a 4-story, 1,622-apartment complex covering 23 acres that transformed 12 extremely bleak slum blocks bordered by Bushwick Avenue and Leonard, Maujer, and Scholes Streets. The buildings which house roughly 6,000 people are angled at 15 degrees to the grid to allow for more sunlight in the homes and breezes through the courtyards. The housing is adorned with tan brick and blue tiles and stainless steel canopies over the doorways, and boasts landscaped parks, playgrounds, commercial storefronts, a community center, and a junior high school. The New Deal-era Federal Art Project also integrated art into the collaboration and commissioned two murals, one by Francis Criss who created a marouflage of the L train, and the other an abstract work by Ilya Bolotowsky.

By the 1960s the Williamsburg Houses were in steady decline. While hailed by many critics, it was also criticized for its shoddy construction and problematic design mechanics. In the mid-1990s extensive revivification began at the behest of NYCHA.

The restoration project was deemed “the best public housing project ever built in New York” where, reportedly, the quality of living has drastically improved. By 1993, the Williamsburg Houses were designated a city landmark.

Historic aerial view. Credit: www.nyc-architecture.com