New York Songlines: West Street/11th Avenue

W 59th | W 58th | W 57th | W 56th | W 55th | W 54th (DeWitt Clinton Park) | W 53rd | W 52nd | W 51st | W 50th | W 49th | W 48th | W 47th | W 46th | W 45th | W 44th | W 43rd | W 42nd | W 41st | W 40th | W 39th (Javits Center) | W 38th | W 37th | W 36th | W 35th | W 34th | W 33rd | W 30th (High Line) | W 29th | W 28th | W 27th (Starrett-Lehigh) | W 26th | W 25th | W 24th | W 23rd | W 22nd (Chelsea Piers) | W 21st | W 20th | W 19th | W 18th | W 17th | W 16th | W 15th | W 14th | 10th Ave | W 13th | Little W 12th | Gansevoort | Horatio St | Jane | W 12th | Bethune | Bank | W 11th | Perry | Charles | W 10th | Christopher | Barrow | Morton | Leroy | Clarkson | Houston | Spring | Canal | Watts | Desbrosses | Vestry | Laight | Hubert | N Moore | Harrison | Chambers (Stuyvesant High) | Warren | Murray | Barclay | Vesey (Ground Zero) | Liberty

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W <===     WEST 59TH STREET     ===> E

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Con Edison

Block (840 12th Ave): This Con Edison building dates back to 1904 and was designed by Stanford White. It originally belonged to the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, New York City's first subway system, and provided all the power for the IRT trains (the numbered lines).


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Corner: Built 1951










W <===     WEST 58TH STREET     ===> E

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847 (corner): Manhattan Mini Storage, built c. 1925









Corner: Toyota and Volkswagen

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John Jay College

555 (block): CUNY's school of criminal justice, for police and associated professions. It's named for John Jay, president of the Continental Congress and co-author of the Federalist Papers. The extension here was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and is scheduled to be completed in 2009. Replaces a high-tech BMW dealership.




W <===     WEST 57TH STREET     ===> E

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829: Lexus of Manhattan







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CBS Broadcast Center

Block (518-530 W 57th): This is the headquarters of CBS News, from which The CBS Evening News, 60 Minutes and other shows are broadcast. It's also CBS Sports' main broadcast facility, as well as the home of the local WCBS TV and radio affiliates. The longest-running soap opera, Guiding Light, is taped here; As the World Turns and the defunct Search for Tomorrow used to be made here.

The building, which dates to 1937, was formerly a dairy depot for Sheffield Farms. CBS bought it in 1952 and converted it to TV studios in 1963.


W <===     WEST 56TH STREET     ===> E

West:

Corner: Mazda




799: Auto Tech Nissan




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798 (block): Potamkin Cadillac











W <===     WEST 55TH STREET     ===> E

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787 (block): Manhattan Automobile Company, formerly Manhattan Ford Lincoln Mercury (also Jaguar)








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790 (block): Clinton Tower, 1975 pink concrete high-rise by Hoberman & Wasserman










W <===     WEST 54TH STREET     ===> E

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DeWitt Clinton Park

Mottled Frog by CarbonNYC, on Flickr

This park, opened in 1905, is named for U.S. senator, NYC mayor and New York governor DeWitt Clinton, best remembered as the politician most responsible for the Erie Canal, which connected the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean and ensured New York City's place as the commercial capital of the United States. He was also the first president of the New-York Historical Society. Lone Horsey by CarbonNYC, on Flickr

The park gave its name to the surrounding neigh- borhood, Clinton, adopted as a euphemism for Hell's Kitchen.

The playground here is the Erie Canal Playground, named for Clinton's greatest accomplishment.

Maria's Perennial Garden features 19th Century flowers as well as those that attract butterflies and bees. NYC: DeWitt Clinton Park - Clinton War Memorial by wallyg, on Flickr

The Clinton War Memorial known as Flanders Fields (for the John McCrae poem inscribed on its pedestal) features a doughboy statue by Burt W. Johnson; it was dedicated in 1929 as a memorial to the neighborhood's World War I dead.

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AT & T

Block (811 10th Ave): A "windowless colossus" (AIA Guide) that houses telephone switching equipment. A 1964 effort by Kahn & Jacobs.















W 53RD ST         ===> E






















W <===     WEST 52ND STREET     ===> E

West:


Daily Show Studios

Outside The Daily Show by wallyg, on Flickr

733: Here's where Jon Stewart produces "fake news" that's better than the real thing. It moved here in 2005 after giving up its previous home to The Colbert Report.

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Corner: Clinton Housing Preservation & Development















W <===     WEST 51ST STREET     ===> E

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711 (corner): Manhattan Jeep Chrysler Plymouth









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W <===     WEST 50TH STREET     ===> E

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700: Acura Martins Manhattan (also Honda)










W <===     WEST 49TH STREET     ===> E

West:

Munson Diner by wallyg, on Flickr

Corner (600 W 49th): Was the site of the Munson Diner, a beautiful old-school stainless steel diner built 1945. It was moved to the Catskills in 2004 to make room for the expansion of a Volvo dealership.


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W <===     WEST 48TH STREET     ===> E

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653 (corner): Ink48 Hotel. On the roof is the Press Lounge, noted for its Hudson River views. On the TV show Daredevil, Wilson Fisk takes Vanessa here on a date.






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646 (block): Nissan of Manhattan










W <===     WEST 47TH STREET     ===> E

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636 (block): Ogilvy & Mather, the advertising giant, is planning to move here after wrapping the 11-story building, built in 1913 as the Auerbach Chocolate Factory, in a glass curtain wall.








W <===     WEST 46TH STREET     ===> E

West:



Penthouse Executive Club

nice curves  by ~BostonBill~, on Flickr

Corner (603 W 45th): A high-end topless club that includes a top-notch restauarant, Robert's Steak House.

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Landmark Tavern

NYC - Landmark Tavern by wallyg, on Flickr

626 (corner): An Irish saloon that has been operating here since 1868, Prohibition notwithstanding. When the place opened, the other side of 11th Avenue was the Hudson River.









W <===     WEST 45TH STREET     ===> E

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W <===     WEST 44TH STREET     ===> E

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571 (block): This United Parcel Services building dates to 1962. Previously on this block, with the address of No. 573, was a studio for Carl Laemmle's Independent Moving Pictures company.


















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Market Diner

Market Diner by superdubey, on Flickr

572 (corner): Classic diner, the last remaining on 11th Avenue, opened in 1962, closed in 2006 and reopened in 2008. It was a hangout for the likes of Frank Sinatra and the Irish crime gang the Westies, who once ate here after dismembering a body on 10th Avenue. It was featured in a Seinfeld episode as a source for black-market showerheads.


W <===     WEST 43RD STREET     ===> E

West:

Corner (605 W 42nd): The address of another Costas Kondylis-designed project, a 57-story wedge-shaped tower with a skinnier twin that together would have 938 condo units. The effort seems to have fallen victim to the housing bust.







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Block (560 W 43rd): Riverbank West, 1987 high-rise apartments. They were the site of club kid Michael Alig's 1996 murder of Angel Melendez. Includes the Signature Theatre, which features the work of a different playwright each year; also houses Signature's Peter Norton Space.







W <===     WEST 42ND STREET     ===> E

West:

Silver Towers at River Place

New York by Brian Einarsen, on Flickr

600 (corner): Two 60-story residential towers built by Larry Silverstein and designed by Costas Kondylis.

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W <===     WEST 41ST STREET     ===> E

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W <===     WEST 40TH STREET     ===> E

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Lincoln Tunnel

Dyer Avenue / Lincoln Tunnel Expressway - Manhattan, New York by Brian Einarsen, on Flickr

These on-ramps and off-ramps connect to the busiest vehicular tunnel in the world, handling 120,000 vehicles a day. Opened in 1937, it was the first major tunnel project to be completed without a single worker fatality.


W <===     WEST 39TH STREET     ===> E

West:

The Javits Center

javits by s tansil, on Flickr

This convention center, built in 1986, is a series of glass boxes designed by James Ingo Freed, an associate of I.M. Pei's.


Javits Center Interior by edenpictures, on Flickr














Jacob Javits by Mitch Wagner, on Flickr

It was named for Jacob Javits (1904-1986), who was U.S. senator for New York from 1956 until 1980. He's remembered for his work passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the War Powers Act of 1973.


















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W 38TH ST         E ===>






W 37TH ST         E ===>

Homage to Richard Estes by edenpictures, on Flickr

452 (corner): The River Diner, opened in the 1930s, closed in 2004. It was featured in Shaft--the Samuel Jackson remake.


W 36TH ST         E ===>






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W <===     WEST 34TH STREET     ===> E

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Copacabana

The Copacabana! by DouG!!, on Flickr

560 (corner): Huge salsa dance club. ''One of the few places where major figures like Willie Colon play for dancers''-- Time Out. Considered the reincarnation of the legendary nightclub of the same name that opened in the 1940s on 60th Street.


W <===     WEST 33RD STREET     ===> E

West:

John D. Carmmerer Westside Yard

Train yards for the LIRR and MTA. Named for a New York state senator who headed the transportation committee.

Plans for a new Jets football stadium envisioned putting it here, with the train yard remaining underneath.

The High Line

NYC: The High Line by wallyg, on Flickr

Bridging the avenue here is a disused elevated railroad that was used to transport freight along the Westside waterfront, replacing the street-level tracks at 10th and 11th avenues that earned those roads the nickname "Death Avenue." Built in 1929 at a cost of $150 million (more than $2 billion in today's dollars), it originally stretched from 35th Street to St. John's Park Terminal, now the Holland Tunnel rotary.

Partially torn down in 1960 and abandoned in 1980, it now stretches from Gansevoort almost to 34th--mostly running mid-block, so built to avoid dominating an avenue with an elevated platform. In its abandonment, the High Line became something of a natural wonder, overgrown with weeds and even trees, accessible only to those who risked trespassing on CSX Railroad property.

In 2009 part of it was opened to the public as New York City's newest park, with another section--ending at 30th Street--opening in 2011. This section, an east-west spur, is still unreconstructed; there are plans to add it to the park at some indeterminate point.

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John D. Carmmerer Westside Yard

Under the Jets stadium plan, this area would have become a park, with the railyards underneath.




The High Line






Next High Line by edenpictures, on Flickr

























W <===     WEST 30TH STREET     ===> E

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W <===     WEST 29TH STREET     ===> E

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282 (corner): Manhattan SUV


W <===     WEST 28TH STREET     ===> E

The West Chelsea Historic District goes from here to 26th Street, with a couple of buildings to the south also included.

West:

Terminal Building

Terminal Building by edenpictures, on Flickr

261 (block): Fortres-like brick building was erected in 1891 as the Terminal Stores, aka the Central Stores, a million-square-foot fireproof warehouse complex run by the New York Central Railroad that boasted of being the only warehouse in New York with direct road, river and rail access. Gimbel's and Wanamaker's were among the companies that stored goods here. The Tunnel by shamam, on Flickr

From 1987-2001, part of the complex was the Tunnel nightclub, owned by Peter Gatien, which took advantage of the multileveled, mazelike space. It was featured in the film Kids, the TV show Sex and the City and the novel American Psycho. Vin Diesel was once a bouncer here.

In 2003, NYPD officers shot and killed Ousmane Zongo, an unarmed African art dealer, at Chelsea Mini-Storage here, mistakenly believing him to be part of a CD counterfeiting ring.

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Manhattan Motorcars by edenpictures, on Flickr

270 (corner): A five-story structure originally owned by the New York Terminal Warehouse Company. It has been substantially altered over the years, serving as a space for the Spear Box Company and, Bugger! (x2) by CarSpotter, on Flickr in the 1980s, the Dia Art Foundation. Currently houses Manhattan Motorcars -- Porsches, Rolls Royces, etc.










262 (corner): This four-story building was originally built in 1890 as a hotel/boardinghouse. Since 1916 it's been an annex to No. 270 and has had the same occupants.


W <===     WEST 27TH STREET     ===> E

West:

Starrett-Lehigh Building

Starrett-Lehigh building by richard winchell, on Flickr

245 (block): Nine miles of strip windows surround this 19-story, block-filling former factory-warehouse, now lofts; the AIA Guide calls it a "landmark of modern architecture" since its construction in 1931. Houses offices for Martha Stewart Living, the headquarters of Club Monaco and Hugo Boss, the multimedia company Palm Pictures, the International Poster Center, the Pilates studio Stretch and several photography studios.


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Otis Elevator Building

Otis Elevator Building by edenpictures, on Flickr

260 (block): A seven-story Italian Renaissance Revival building designed by Clinton & Russell and completed in 1912. It was built for the famous elevator company, which while it was based here provided lifts for the Woolworth Tower, Chrysler Building, Empire State Building and World Trade Center, not to mention the Sears Tower in Chicago.

In the late 1970s, the building housed the disco/cabaret/restaurant Les Mouches, which featured performers like Patti Lupone, Grace Jones, Eartha Kitt and Cab Calloway.


W <===     WEST 26TH STREET     ===> E

West:

239 (corner): Completed in 1913 as a terminal warehouse for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, this nine-story neo-classical structure is said to be the first building to use a flat slab construction technique to eliminate interior beams. Now home to the Waterfront NY gallery. The last building on this side of the avenue in the West Chelsea Historic District.

Departmet of Santitation Vehicle Repair Shop

A six-story structure from 1991.

U.S. Postal Service Vehicle Maintenance Facility

Post Office  Facility by edenpictures, on Flickr

Corner: Built in 1987, this post office repair garage is surprisingly non-hideous for a modern postal facility.




















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W 25TH ST         E ===>

Pro Arts Building

Art Building by edenpictures, on Flickr

210 (corner): An 11-story neo-gothic office building from 1912 that is home to several art galleries, including Art Raw, Art @ Urban Architecture, Cavin-Morris, Chambers Fine Art, DFN, Edition Schellmann, Edward Thorp, Fischbach, Phoenix, Rhizome, Robert Mann, Sears-Peyton, Senior & Shopmaker and Walter Wickiser.

Originally known as the Zinn Building, from its original oweners, Arthur Zinn and sons, "manufacturers of fancy metal goods." This was one of the first buildings to use pneumatic cassions for its foundation. From 1926 until the late 1980s this was home to the Royal Paper Corporation; its ad could be seen at the top of the south wall in 2002, but has since been lost.

The West Chelsea Historic District is gerrymandered to include this building.


W <===     WEST 24TH STREET     ===> E

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Chelsea Waterside Park

Smith Park Pillars by edenpictures, on Flickr

A small parcel of land acquired by the city's Department of Docks in 1907, and given to the Parks Department in 1915.



Smith Park Monument by edenpictures, on Flickr

In 1923 it was named for Rep. Thomas F. Smith (1863-1923), Tammany Hall's chief patronage dispenser for a quarter of a century.



















Gyro Equipment by edenpictures, on Flickr Expanded, refurbished and renamed in 2000.








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200 (corner): Stainless steel luxury condo building completed in 2011--features a car elevator known as the Sky Garage. Nicole Kidman bought a penthouse here.

184: Chelsea Highline Hotel--a hostel, actually, and reportedly rather sketchy. Sapphire Go-Go Lounge  by edenpictures, on Flickr

Corner (565 W 23rd): Privilege New York, upscale strip club in the Giuliani-free zone. In the 1980s was Jerry's Bar & Mesquite Grill, a trendy restaurant where the likes of Billy Idol and Duran Duran hung out. Later home of The Vault, noted S/M club. Scheduled to be replaced by a luxury condo development.


W 23RD ST         E ===>

11th Avenue U-Haul by wallyg, on Flickr

170 (corner): This attractive three-story U-Haul outlet dates to 1921.







162 (corner): Once the International Longshoremen's Association Union Hall--headquarters for the corrupt NYC - Chelsea: International Longshoremen's Association Union Hall by wallyg, on Flickr president Joe Ryan who inspired the movie On the Waterfront. Now the Sanford Meisner Theater, named for the legendary acting teacher whose students included Robert Duvall, Gregory Peck, Grace Kelly, Diane Keaton and Joanne Woodward.


N <===     12TH AVENUE / WEST 22ND STREET     ===> E















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Hudson River Park

Chelsea Piers

Back when Manhattan was one of the country's major seaports, the Hudson waterfront was bustling with shipping, transoceanic travel and ferries taking residents to and from the mainland. As New York deindustrialized, jets replaced ocean liners and the island was linked with bridges and tunnels, the waterfront became a sleepy, rather shabby zone with a forgotten feeling. DSC06634 by Kramchang, on Flickr

Starting in 1998, the city decided to stop turning its back on the sea and this project, stretching from 59th Street to Battery Park City, was begun. The first segment opened in 2003.

Chelsea Piers

Chelsea Piers

A waterfront complex designed by Warren & Wetmore and opened in 1910, these piers were a major hub for both freight and passenger liners; many immigrants actually docked here first before being taken by ferry to Ellis Island. Troops departed from here to the European front in both world wars. Chelsea Piers

As passengers took to the air and freight traffic shifted to New Jersey, the Chelsea Piers declined, until by the 1980s they were almost demolished for the West Side Highway project. When that fell through, the piers were turned over to a private entity, Chelsea Piers Management, for development into a sports complex--which opened in stages starting in 1995.

Pier 62

SKATEBOARDER IN THE POOL  CHELSEA PIERS NYC

The northern most pier of the sports complex is mainly devoted to a roller rink, featuring launchboxes, spines, quarterpipes, mini ramps, flat rails, a vert ramp and a funbox. If you know what all those are, this is the place for you. For everyone else, there's also a little park at the end of the pier. During the piers' lost years, a U.S. Customs Impound Station was located here.

The Field House at Chelsea Piers by WBUR, on Flickr

The Field House between piers 62 and 61 houses gymnastics, rock climbing, soccer, basketball and baseball programs.

Pier 61

Features the Sky Rink, an ice rink so-called because it was formerly located atop the Westyard Distribution Center at 10th Avenue and 31st Street. Features hockey, figure skating and general skating.

Silver Screen Studios, located here, was used to shoot such films as You've Got Mail, Big Night and Everyone Says I Love You, as well as TV shows like Law and Order, Special Victims Unit and Spin City.

Pier 60

Jesse Owens sailed from this pier in 1936 aboard the S.S. Manhattan to take part in the Berlin Olympics. Now houses the Sports Center at Chelsea Piers, featuring swimming, running, cycling, rock climbing, basketball, sand volleyball, boxing, weight lifting, yoga, pilates and more. Also the Pier 60 event space.







DSCN1286 by jenniever, on Flickr

300 New York, Chelsea Piers' bowling alley and video arcade, is located between piers 60 and 59.

Pier 59

IMG_6366 by psycht, on Flickr

Houses Chelsea Piers' Golf Club. The Ice Theatre of New York is also based here.





























Pier 57

Built in 1957 and designed by Emil Praeger using "floating pier" technology he developed during World War II. The pier rests on three buoyant concrete boxes built in Haverstraw, N.Y., and towed down the river into place. In 2011, the Hudson River Park Trust was looking for a private entity to develop the site. Marine and Aviation Pier

















































Pier 54

Semicircular metal structure on the riverfront marks the Cunard Piers, where the Titanic was supposed to dock on April 17, 1912; instead, the Carpathia arrived here on April 18 with 705 survivors of the disaster. Another doomed ship, the Lusitania, sailed from here on May 1, 1915. Today the pier is used for events like the park's RiverFlicks and RiverRocks series.










The first ship to travel through the Erie Canal, the Seneca Chief, docked here November 4, 1825 after a nine-day trip from Buffalo. It was piloted by Gov. DeWitt Clinton, the politician most responsible for the construction of the engineering marvel.








Gansevoort Peninsula

Landfill used by Sanitation Department, salt storage, FDNY Marine Company No. 1. Contains a remnant of New York's lost 13th Avenue, which was removed to allow longer ships to dock at New York piers.










































Pier 51

cute toddler getting water by pengrin™, on Flickr

A neat little playground with lots of water features, including a stream running through it based on Greenwich Village's lost Minetta Brook. The jungle gym is meant to evoke the White Fort, the War of 1812-era fortification that gave Gansevoort Street its (translated into Dutch) name.



















































AIDS Memorial

Un saluto

A 42-foot-long curved stone bench serves as New York City's permanent memorial to those lost to AIDS, looking out over the pilings of the former Pier 49. Dedicated in 2008.


























































Pier 46

Hudson River Park - Pier 46 Charles Street by Structures:NYC, on Flickr

Features a synthetic turf lawn for active recreation. The piles of the missing outer half of the pier have been left as a fish habitat.












From this shore on August 17, 1807 Robert Fulton launched the first commercially viable steamship, the North River, later renamed the Clermont.










Pier 45

Christopher Street Pier. Saturday at the Beach. The Christopher Street Pier, an 850-foot structure with wood decking and grass lawns, has been a longtime source of Nobody else likes this stretch of railing...by Ed Yourdon, on Flickr controversy because of its use by transexual sex workers and the homeless, and more recently by gay youth of color. Note bow notch to its north, cut to allow ships to dock here that were too long for the pier. Autumn tango at Pier 45, Sep 2010 - 70













































Pier 40

NYFest at the Tribeca Film Festival

At 14 acres, this is the largest of the Hudson River Park's piers, much of which is dedicated to sports fields. It's the starting point for boat excursions and a Greenwich Village walking tour, and houses the offices of the Hudson River Park Trust. The pier was built in the early 1960s for Holland America Cruises, just as intercontinental jet travel was killing off the trans-Atlantic cruise line business.



















Pier 34

View from the Hudson River by guillermogg, on Flickr

Consists of two slender walkways that provide access to the Holland Tunnel ventilation shaft emerging from the Hudson; the southern walkway is open to the public.















































































Pier 26

Under construction in 2011.









Pier 25

Mp3 experiment rave

Features a skate park and a miniature golf course.



































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East:

Chelsea Art Museum

Chelsea Art Museum by  edenpictures, on Flickr

Corner (556 W 22nd): An institution that features the work of artist Jean Miotte and kindred spirits.

154: The site of Longshoremen's Rest, set up by the Church Temperance Society in 1910 to provide alternatives to drinking.


































READ xxx You GO GiRL! by edenpictures, on Flickr

142 (corner): Was the Eagle's Nest, gay bar where part of the homo- phobic film Cruising was shot with Al Pacino.


W 21ST ST       ===> E

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120 (corner): This red-brick building was a factory making Life Savers starting in 1913; the candy had been invented the year before, and named in the wake of the Titanic disaster. Was The Spike, the largest leather bar of the pre-AIDS era. Now converted into luxury condos known as the Lifesaver Lofts.


W 20TH ST       ===> E

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Bayview Correctional Facility

Bayview Correctional baby by timstock_nyc, on Flickr

Corner (550 W 20th): A medium-security women's prison. Built in 1931 as the Seamen's House YMCA; converted to drug rehab center in 1967, and to a prison in 1974. The south wall features a red-and-pink abstract mural called Venus, painted in 1970 by Knox Martin--now mostly eclipsed by the condo next door. The inmates were evacuated during Superstorm Sandy and the prison has been empty ever since. 201104171357_DSC_0041.JPG by leonelponce, on Flickr

100 (corner): A luxury condo development known as Vision Machine, by architect Jean Nouvel--noted for its crazy-quilt rectilinear facade and its six-story vertical garden.


W 19TH ST       ===> E

East:

IAC Building

IAC Building by edenpictures, on Flickr

Block (555 W 18th): Star architect Frank Gehry's first major New York City building serves as the headquarters of Barry Diller's InterActive Corp.


W 18TH ST       ===> E

East:





W 17TH ST       ===> E

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W 16TH ST       ===> E

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W 15TH ST       ===> E

East:

Sapohanikan Park

14th Street Park, NYC  by La Citta Vita, on Flickr A three-quarter-acre park maintained by the Hudson River Park Trust and the Chelsea Improvement Company, much of which is a grassy oval. Also known as 14th Street Park.

W 14TH ST       ===> E

At 14th Street, West becomes 11th Avenue.

East:

Liberty Inn

Liberty Inn by mercurialn, on Flickr

500 (block): A short-stay hotel. Used to be the Strand Hotel, a sailors' haunt built in 1908 by the Conron Brothers poultry dealers. In 1912, it served as the New York Times' headquarters for covering the Titanic disaster. Later (1974-86) The Anvil, a decadent gay club frequented by German director Werner Rainer Fassbinder. Felipe Rose was discovered dancing here in an Indian costume, inspiring and becoming the first member of the Village People.


10 AVE           ===> N

East:

Point (40 10th Ave): This was the divey gay dance club Alex in Wonderland.



W 13TH ST     ===> E

East:

The Standard

standard hotel by  Ralph Hockens, on Flickr

Corner (848 W 13th): A 20-story boutique hotel built in 2006 to straddle the High Line, then in the process of being transformed into a park. The hotel drew some controversy when it was discovered to be a great place to be an exhibitionist.



LITTLE W 12TH ST     ===> E

East:

Block: Gansevoort Meat Market



GANSEVOORT ST     ===> E

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Block: West Coast Apartments



HORATIO ST           ===> E

East:

507: When novelist Herman Melville was a customs agent from 1866 until 1885, inspecting goods coming into the Gansevoort Street wharves, he worked out of this address.


The Jane

20081023-janeHotel.jpg by chromewaves, on Flickr

Corner (113 Jane): This 1908 building, designed by Ellis Island's William A. Boring with a distinctive octagonal tower on the corner, was originally the American Seamen's Friend Society Institute, intended as a berth "for seamen of all ranks and all nationalities visiting the Port of New York" and "a temporary refuge for 'seamen in distress.'" Accordingly, surviving crew members from the Titanic were taken here in 1912. It became a YMCA in 1944, and later a hotel known variously as the Jane West, the Hotel Riverview and, starting in 2008, The Jane. Also houses the Jane Street Theatre, formerly the hotel ballroom.


JANE ST           ===> E

East:




493: The site of 12 West, popular 1970s gay disco. Later the RiverClub. The building now on the site was designed to look like a converted warehouse.


W 12TH ST           ===> E

East:

Superior Ink Factory by sibertekt, on Flickr

Block (400 W 12th): The Town- houses at Superior Ink, a 17-floor 2009 condo building designed by Robert A.M. Stern. In 2013, it was the fifth most expensive residential building by square footage in New York City--and the only one in the top 10 below 14th Street. Mark Jacobs is one owner

The name derives from the Superior Ink Building, an industrial structure originally built as a Nabisco cracker factory in 1919--part of the same complex, designed by A.G. Zimmermann, as the Oreo factory on 16th Street that is now Chelsea Market. Despite its significance in the history of industrial architecture, the building was demolished in 2006.


BETHUNE ST           ===> E

East:

Westbeth

Once the Bell Telephone/ Western Electric Labor- atories, this full-block complex created or helped to develop some of the most important inventions of the 20th Century: the vacuum tube (1912), radar (1919), sound movies (1923) and the digital computer (1937). One of the first demonstrations of television transmission NYC - West Village: Westbeth by wallyg, on Flickr occurred here, April 27, 1927. Westbeth was also the original home of the NBC radio network.

The complex was converted to an artists' colony in 1969; photographer Diane Arbus committed suicide here, July 28, 1971. Actor Vin Diesel grew up here.


BANK ST     ===> E

East:

Corner (166 Bank): Singer Grace Jones has lived here.



W 11TH ST     ===> E

East:

425: The Rusty Knot, good bar for sunset-watching -- used to be known as West.

Perry Street Towers

Corner (173 Perry): This and the other glass building across the street were designed by modernist Richard Meier in 2003. Celebrities like Nicole Kidman, Martha Stewart and Calvin Klein have bought apartments here, but the project was marred by shoddy construction.


PERRY ST     ===> E

East:

44.WestsideHighway.Village.NYC.31aug07 by ElvertBarnes, on Flickr

Corner (176 Perry): The other Perry Street Tower. Hugh Jackman has owned a unit here. There's a restaurant called Perry Street here, part of the Jean-Georges food empire.

Corner (165 Charles): Another Richard Meier building went up in 2005. Burned by cost-cutting on the Perry Street Towers, Meier got the developer to agree to self-finance most of this development in order to give the architect a large degree of control over the construction.


CHARLES ST     ===> E

East:

404 (corner): T.R.E.C.; photography and lighting rental

Site of Newgate State Prison

Block: At the foot of 10th Street (then Amos Street) was Newgate State Prison, opened in 1797 as New York's first prison and the second prison in the country. Despite some progressive policies--the co-ed convicts were taught trades, a physician and a pharmacist were hired, and the first warden lived in the prison along with his family--the institution was plagued by overcrowding, riots and smallpox epidemics. It was closed in 1829 when its inmates were sent "up the river" to the newly opened Sing Sing. In its day, the prison was apparently a tourist attraction; it's memorialized in a mosaic in the Christopher Street subway stop.

396 (corner): Antica Venezia, Italian, was Uguale, Italian-French. Once upon a time was Peter Rabbit's, bar catering to young gay black men.


W 10TH ST     ===> E

East:

394: Was The Ramrod, gay leather bar. In 1980, a former transit cop shot into the bar with a semi-automatic weapon, killing two and injuring six. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

392: Sneakers, non-leather gay bar, distinguished by shoes hanging from ceiling, is in a building that dates to c. 1790-- perhaps the oldest in the Village.

390: Underground Erotic Emporium


CHRISTOPHER ST     ===> E

East:


388: Badlands, leather bar featured in the movie Cruising

384 (corner): Was Keller's, perhaps New York's first leather barrow-street-hotel-2by dandeluca, on Flickr bar--dating to the 1950s. It's also been credited as the birthplace of disco; the Village People were photographed here for an album cover. Closed in 1998. Originally the Keller Hotel, built in 1898.


BARROW ST           ===> E

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MORTON ST           ===> E

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Block: 1 Morton Square


LEROY ST           ===> E

East:

357 (corner): Lunchbox Food Company, stylish diner

354 (corner): West World Video, porn store named for a science fiction movie featuring Yul Brynner as a killer robot cowboy. Now gets second billing to another adult business in the same building, the West Side Gentlemen's Club.


CLARKSON ST           ===> E

East:

305 (block): This 1933 building, with almost a million square feet of space, stretches for several blocks along West Street.





HOUSTON ST           ===> E

There's an underpass here allowing Houston to travel through 305 West to connect to the waterfront.

East:












SPRING ST           ===> E

East:

Block (553 Canal): This two-story building dates to 1920.





CANAL ST           ===> E

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Canal Park







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288: An 1856 red-brick loft building, once used as a spice warehouse, now luxury condos known as the Medium Lipstick Building. Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany bought the penthouse here for $6 million.


WATTS ST           ===> E

East:

Block (34 Desbrosses): A 15-story luxury apartment building built in 2009 with the unlikely name of Truffles Tribeca.



DESBROSSES ST           ===> E

East:

Corner (39 Desbrosses): Ponte's Restaurant, since 1967 the home of the "angry lobster"





VESTRY ST           ===> E

East:

Corner (67 Vestry):





LAIGHT ST           ===> E

East:

Corner (79 Laight): U.S. Sugar Building

250 (corner):


HUBERT ST           ===> E

East:

Shearson Lehman Plaza







N MOORE ST           ===> E

East:







HARRISON ST           ===> E

East:






West:

Stuyvesant High School

Educational Edifice by Leepak, on Flickr

This is the most prestigious public high school in Manhattan-- and maybe in the country. Founded in 1904 as a vocational school for boys, it moved to 15th Street in 1907, where it remained for 89 years. It began admitting female students in 1969. It moved to this new 10-story facility in 1992. Stuyvesant High School by unforth, on Flickr

Its students have included four Nobel laureates; writers like Lewis Mumford, Richard H. Price and Hubert Selby; musicians like Thelonious Monk and Steely Dan's Walter Becker; actors including James Cagney, George Raft, Tim Robbins and Lucy Liu, along with classic filmmaker Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Stuyvesant High School by philmaxwell, on Flickr

The political figures who come out of Stuy are a surprisingly right-leaning lot, including Dick Morris, Roy Innis, Thomas Sowell, Samuel P. Huntington, Ron Silver and Albert Shanker--though Obama adviser David Axelrod and Manhattan Rep. Jerry Nadler are graduates too.

The school was the setting of the teen cyberthriller Hackers, as well as the student politics documentary Frontrunners. NYC - TriBeCa: TriBeCa Bridge by wallyg, on Flickr

The Tribeca Bridge was built in 1992 to allow Stuyvesant students to cross over busy West Street.

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Borough of Manhattan Community College

CUNY - Borough Of Manhattan Community College by Leepak, on Flickr

199 (corner): A business-oriented college that opened in Midtown in 1964. It moved to this facility in 1983; the campus has been compared in size to the Empire State Building lying on its side. Almost 20,000 students are pursuing degrees here, while 10,000 more are in continuing education programs.

Affiliated with the campus is the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, established in 1983 and formerly known as The Triplex.



















Washington Market Park

The joy of summer by t_a_i_s, on Flickr

This green space, commem-orating what was once New York's main produce market (now relocated to Hunts Point), is ''one of the city's best small parks''--AIA Guide.


W <===     CHAMBERS STREET     ===> E

West:

Tribeca Bridge Tower is a 26-story apartment tower that rises above PS/IS 89, completed in 1998.















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The Independence School

1988, Greenwich St by  CORNERSTONES of NY, on Flickr

170 (corner): P.S. 234, a creative school design by Richard Dattner, completed 1988. The kids here had to flee the September 11 attacks up the West Side Highway; there was much concern among parents that the school was reopened before it was fully decontaminated.


W <===     WARREN STREET     ===> E

West:

Battery Park City Ballfields









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W <===     MURRAY STREET     ===> E

West:

Goldman Sachs Headquarters

200 West Street by edenpictures, on Flickr

200 (block): Forty-three stories built from 2005-09, designed by Pei Cobb Freed, with a parabolic eastern facade and a deconstructivist western face. The company built at about the same time another similarly sized office tower across the Hudson in Jersey City. Founded in 1869 by Marcus Goldman and (later) his son-in-law Samuel Sachs, it's probably the most politically connected corporation in the world -- having produced three U.S. Treasury new-goldman-sachs-building by dandeluca, on Flickr secretaries, a White House chief of staff, a New York Fed chief, an Italian prime minister, a New Jersey governor.... The list goes on.


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Block (125 Barclay): This 10-story building from 1932 is the headquarters of District Council 37, the powerful coordinating body for the area's AFSCME unions, and many of its affiliated locals.


BARCLAY ST         ===> E

Barclay-Vesey Building

NYC - Financial District: Barclay-Vesey Building by wallyg, on Flickr

140 (block): Built from 1923-27 for New York Telephone, this 32-story brick-and-limestone structure designed by Ralph Walker is considered the first Art Deco skyscraper. Noted for its dramatic setbacks, its communication-themed murals and its Guastavino-vaulted pedestrian arcades. It was seriously damaged during the September 11 attacks but survived thanks to its solid masonry construction. It now serves as the headquarters of Verizon Communications.


W <===     VESEY STREET     ===> E

West:

World Financial Center

Ground Zero and 2 & 3 World Financial Center by TGIGreeny, on Flickr A group of office buildings designed by Cesar Pelli and built in 1985-88 on landfill from the construction of the original World Trade Center.





3 World Financial Center

#3 World Financial Center by Wells Photos, on Flickr

Corner (200 Vesey): At 51 stories, this 1986 post-modern skyscraper is the tallest building in the World Financial Center. It's distinguished by the pyramid on its roof. It serves as the world headquarters of the American Express corporation, which owns the building. Other tenants include the Security & Exchange Commission and the Royal Bank of Canada.












Winter Garden

New York 2009 - The WFC's Winter Garden by Jorbasa, on Flickr

A glass-vaulted atrium connecting World Financial Center's Nos. 2 and 3, it was first opened in 1988 and basically destroyed during the September 11 attacks in 2001. It was reopened in September 2002 after 2,000 panes of glass, 60,000 square feet of marble and 16 40-foot palm trees were replaced--the first major structure to be rebuilt after the disaster.



















2 World Financial Center

2 World Financial Center by jay.sustain, on Flickr

Corner (225 Liberty): This 1987 building is 57 stories crowned with a dome. It houses the Merrill Lynch World Headquarters, as well as offices of Commerzbank, Deloitte & Touche and France Telecom.

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Ground Zero

Freedom Tower

FREEDOM TOWER /  One World Trade Center Plaza   -   Lower Manhattan, NYC  -   01/17/11 by imhemp2002, on Flickr

The single tower that is replacing the Twin Towers as the high point of the World Trade Center will have 104 stories, six fewer than the previous buildings, but will match the height of the taller of the twins, at 1,368 feet. (Counting its antenna, it will a symbolic 1,776 feet--though the connection between post-terrorism rebuilding and independence from Britain is somewhat murky.) When completed, it will be New York's and the U.S.'s tallest building, and the third tallest building in the world.

The start of construction was delayed until 2006, largely due to squabbling between the state government and developer Larry Silverstein.

The project's popular name was given it by then-Gov. George Pataki, though the Port Authority prefers that it be referred to as One World Trade Center, and insists this has nothing to do with the fact that the first major tenant is the China Center. sp20_005 by imhemp2002, on Flickr

Completed in 1975, this eight-story building housed the U.S. Customs House and other government offices, including the Export-Import Bank of the United States and the Peace Corps' regional office. It was destroyed on September 11, 2001, by debris from the North Tower and subsequent fire.

Site of North Tower

One World Trade Center by sun dazed, on Flickr

The WTC towers were not exactly twins; both were 110 stories, but the North Tower was slightly taller, at 1,368 feet, making it (briefly) the tallest building in the world. (With its TV antenna, it was 1,728 feet.) Construction lasted from 1966-73; the towers opened in 1975. Windows on the World, located here, was the world's highest restaurant. September 11th, 2001 by cliff1066™, on Flickr

It was hit by American Airlines Flight 11 at 8:46 a.m. and collapsed at 10:28--the first tower to be hit but the second to collapse. One thousand, four hundred and two workers died in the attack, including 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees. Including the passengers on the plane and the rescue workers, the majority of those killed on September 11 died at this address.

The site of the towers will become reflecting pools as part of the September 11 memorial.

Site of 3 WTC

World Trade Center & Marriott Hotel by David Paul Ohmer, on Flickr

Corner: This was the address of the Marriott World Trade Center, destroyed in the September 11 attacks. Opened in 1981 as the Vista Hotel, it took heavy damage in the 1993 attempt to bring down the World Trade towers. It was sold to Marriott in 1995.


W <===     LIBERTY STREET     ===> E





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