New York/Carmine Street

Carmine Street, Greenwich Village


Carmine Street, Greenwich Village

Two storefronts I passed by earlier today.

New York/The Ring Dome

The Ring Dome • Minsuk Cho • Petrosino Park
Adjacent to the Storefront for Art and Architecture


The Ring Dome

I haven't been following the doings at the Storefront for Art and Architecture. It's their 25th anniversary. But I walk by quite often, and it's hard to miss the Ring Dome installation on the scruffy little park between Lafayette and Centre Streets called Petrosino Park.

The dome is a little Buckminster Fuller-ish, but these are circles not triangles, and the issue doesn't seem to be about structural integrity, rather about delicacy, as if an alien bubble landed in the middle of traffic. You can go in the dome, sit in the sun, and feel enveloped and open to the sky at the same time. The pattern above is projected beneath your feet. At certain angles the dome becomes dense like a ball of string, but most often it appears light and diaphanous. It's art, it's fun, it's a ball.

New York/Williamsburg

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

I am swamped with scanning and color correcting the images from my recent jobs. I do it myself for a couple reasons. I have always done my own color printing, and want the control over the final product that is only possible if you do things yourself. That goes for both analog and digital images. I also can make money on the scans, which, assuming I have the time, is better off in my pocket than in the lab's.


Williamsburg, Brooklyn

On Saturday we went over to Williamsburg, Brooklyn to look at apartments. Our lease is ending in December, and we have to do something, either rent or buy. The real estate market in New York is insane. Renting a 2 bedroom apartment in Manhattan costs thousands a month. Those safely ensconced in rent controlled or stabilized apartments stay put. There's no way they can move. Newcomers and those kicked out into the open market are paying double and triple what others are paying. Or moving far out in the boroughs. Or leaving town.


Williamsburg, Brooklyn • Brendan house hunting

Rather than throw our money away at a rental, we've decided to buy. After extensive research of the market, neighborhoods, transportation, etc.--all the factors one has to take into consideration--we've taken initial steps toward buying a loft in a new construction building in Williamsburg just across the East River from Manhattan. The L train is notoriously crowded, but so are many of the subway lines in New York. Despite everything, the city continues to boom. Crime is still going down. Prices are going up. And people are still coming.

New York/New Museum

The New Museum on the Bowery at Prince Street

Almost finished. Should open in November.

New York

Looking north across Soho

Back in New York.

San Francisco/New York

1234 Howard Street • Stanley Saitowitz, architect

Back in New York, I just want to point to two urban infill projects in the Bay Area that I took quick snapshots of. While I was photographing David Baker's 8th and Howard project I came across the building above. I wasn't sure who the architect was, but found it interesting, and took a picture. Looking it up later, I see that it's by Stanley Saitowitz, a prominent Bay Area architect. He's, perhaps, best known for the Yerba Buena Lofts on Folsom Street. Like Baker, much of his work is in the South of Market area of San Francisco.


Blue Star Corner • Emeryville, California • David Baker, architect

On my way to the airport I stopped by Emeryville to see another David Baker project. It's 20 townhouses built around the block from an earlier loft complex that I photographed. The project is in a hodgepodge area of warehouses, big box stores, shopping malls, and highways. Down the street is Pixar, the animation studio, which hides behind a screen of fencing and lush landscaping.

Baker's houses face onto landscaped courtyards–he calls it mews housing–and each unit has a garage. Baker and the developer based the townhouse concept on similar housing in the Eastern Docklands of Amsterdam. The idea is to establish, or re-establish, dense urban structure in places like Emeryville. The small unit footprints, and varying facade treatments produce a richer, less monolithic appearance.

Saitowitz and Baker have very different approaches to the urban environment, but both, in my opinion, lead the way in reinventing the city in the 21st century.

San Francisco

Last night I went to a lecture by David Baker (who I am doing photos for) at the California College of Art, which has an architecture program. Lots of students, of course, as well as people from David's office in attendance. I got mentioned a couple of times because a number of my photos were shown in the presentation. I realized during the lecture that a majority of the projects shown were located only a short distance from the school itself.

David's talk emphasized his concerns about environmentally friendly urban development–which is critical to his work–but I'd like to hear more about the formal aspects of the design itself, something I have been very involved with as the photographer of his projects. But the work speaks for itself I suppose.

A couple of San Francisco non sequiturs before leaving town:


Rausch Street, SOMA


Mariposa and Bryant Streets

San Francisco

Crescent Cove

I finished photographing Crescent Cove on Saturday. Here's a view from beneath the highway access ramps adjacent to the project. I still have a few loose ends to finish on other previously photographed David Baker projects. Tonight David is giving a lecture at the California College of Art, and I'm hoping to go.


Lofts on 16th Street and Rhode Island

I have a rather distorted view of San Francisco–not very hilly, industrial, and lots of modern architecture. That's because most of what I've been photographing over the years has been in the area below Market Street and south into the waterfront area known as China Basin and Dogpatch. The steep hills, cable cars, Victorian houses, and stunning views of the Golden Gate Bridge are found in other parts of town.


Caltrain yard with rear wall of Crescent Cove

On this trip I've been working in an area now called Mission Bay, which is just below the Giants ballpark and adjacent to the vast docklands of China Basin. Across the Caltrain tracks is an area at the base of Potrero Hill where you can see the blank back wall of Crescent Cove. In this area as are a number of new loft buildings like the one above.


Dogpatch from my table at Piccino cafe



Dogpatch



Dogpatch


Dogpatch

On Sunday I went with my sister to a cafe in Dogpatch called Piccino. It's a tiny place in a block with Victorian houses, and down the hill the San Francisco Hell's Angels. We sat outside and I had the finest latte I've ever had made with locally roasted Blue Bottle coffee. From there we walked around the docklands of the neighborhood filled with derelict cranes, massive factory buildings, and junk yards. There's still work going on in the area–both industrial and high tech–but on Sunday it was quite desolate.


Golden Gate Bridge/San Francisco

I do know about the scenic other San Francisco, however. Here it is from a distance.

San Francisco

Crescent Cove

I'm photographing a housing complex called Crescent Cove tucked in between the freeway and a commuter rail line. The crescent is a curved street in which townhouses face inward away from the railroad tracks. The shot above is from the fourth floor of the front apartment building looking toward the townhouses. In the distance is a bit of the San Francisco skyline. I'm out shooting again today. Weather is perfect.

New York/San Francisco

Under I280 in San Francisco

Arrived in San Francisco Wednesday evening. I'm here taking pictures for David Baker, an architect best known for residential projects that engage in complex visual dialogue with the existing urban fabric. This one is a particularly difficult site shoehorned in between railroad tracks and freeway flyovers. The picture above was taken under the highway next to the project.

The weather has been beautiful. Yesterday, the Blue Angels streaked overhead repeatedly in formation. As a New Yorker, however, I'm not sure that I will ever find the sight of low flying jets reassuring.