HISTORICAL MAPS

Most people who know me know I am obsessed with both history and geography.  I have found a site that combines these two special things: The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.  The site allows you to zoom in on each map and see an impressive level of detail.  I have spent, and will no doubt spend many more, hours pouring over the 18th and 19th century maps of California and New York.  One of the most interesting finds was viewing this 1844 map of New York Harbor and comparing it with a very similar harbor map from 1866.  You can see how quickly Manhattan grew, and Brooklyn too, in just 22 years.  

The natural features of the harbor and shoreline are detailed beautifully in both maps.  There were so many creeks and swamps and estuaries before it was all paved over and industrialized! A fascinating exhibit currently showing at MoMA outlines urban planning and design solutions for returning a level of natural interface between land and sea here in New York.  I highly recommend seeing it before it closes in the fall.

First map image via Swaen.com

HISTORY

I have always enjoyed history, and recently discovered a couple new blogs that deal with New York City history.  The first and best is The Bowery Boys, whose podcasts and blog really make the history of places we walk every day as New Yorkers come alive with context and humor. The second is Ephemeral New York, which has little tidbits about forgotten areas of the NY and is a great resource for vintage imagery of the city (see above). Another, which I have known about for a while and is the most obsessive and cantankerous of the bunch, is Forgotten New York. There is an entire section on this blog about lampposts! Amazing!

Another great source of historical amusement is the now out of print book New York Then and Now. You can view it online on Google Books. It's great because the "new" comparison shots are from the 70's and look even less familiar than some of the older 19th century ones.

image via Ephemeral New York

EAGLE STREET FARM

The days are long and warm now, and a friend and I spent a few hours last weekend volunteering at the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in Greenpoint.  We prepped beds, planted seeds, painted bee hives and hauled rubble.  The farm is a 6000 square foot roof garden with a fantastic view of the city.  They have great workshops and education programs, and are on the cutting edge of organic urban farming.

The farm sells its produce to several local restaurants including Eat, where we ate breakfast before going up to the farm.  Check out New York Magazine's review here.

Here are the seedbeds.  We planted a mixed lettuce and arugula.  I can't wait to come back in May for chicken day to see how things have grown (and to learn about the use of chickens as pest control and fertilizer!)

With a newly legalized rooftop beekeeping ordinance passed, the farm is expanding their hive count.  I am fascinated by beekeeping.

Afterwards we rewarded ourselves with some tacos from El Diablo Tacos at Union Pool along with some "American" micheladas.

Some of the best tacos in Brooklyn if you ask me.

OSCAR TREAT

In honor of the Academy Awards, a friend and I made up some potato latkes with creme fraiche and a special treat of caviar.

Potato Latkes with Creme Fraiche and Caviar

serves 2 or 3

2 large russet potatoes

1 large egg, whisked

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 shallot

3 tablespoons clarified butter

1-1/2 teaspoon sea salt

fresh ground black pepper

1/4 cup creme fraiche

1 ounce good caviar

Peel the potatoes and grate lengthwise.  Place in a kitchen towel and squeeze out the excess liquid.  Combine in a bowl with grated shallot, egg, flour, salt and pepper.

Melt the clarified butter in a skillet over medium heat, drop a spoonful of the mixture into the pan and flatten with a spatula.  Cook for 2 minutes, turn and flatten again, then cook for another 2 minutes.  Serve hot from the skillet with a dollop of creme fraiche and teaspoon of caviar.

I got my (absolutely tiny) can of caviar from New York's oldest and best purveyor of domestic caviar, Russ and Daughters, on Houston Street.

The inside hasn't changed much in nearly 100 years.

Here is my teeny, tiny 1 oz can of American Osteria caviar.

We also whipped up a quick spinach salad to go along.

The helpful clerk at Uva Wines recommended this "natural" champagne, which was grassy and delicious.  We enjoyed our treats while The Hurt Locker cleaned up the awards show.  It was a fun, mellow evening.

PLAYERS CLUB

We attended a wedding this weekend at a classic institution of late 19th century New York: The Players Club.

Founded in 1888 by Edwin Booth (brother of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes) Mark Twain and General William Tecumseh Sherman, the Players Club became a home for intellectuals, writers, and especially actors of the time.  Members still include many famous names from screen and stage.

The building was originally a private townhome, built in 1847, for a wealthy banker.  During the 1840's the streets around Gramercy Park and the 20's and 30's along 5th Avenue were the most exclusive neighborhoods in the city.  Gramercy Park is one of only two private parks in the city that requires a key for entry, and the only one in Manhattan.  By the time the club was founded in the 1880's the area was no longer the most fashionable place to call home (that title had moved uptown to 5th Avenue just below Central Park).  Gramercy had, however, become a symbol of old New York gentility... and thus an excellent location for a club that celebrated the artistic and intellectual legacy of the city.

Here is the library around 1907

And today...

There is a great accumulation of portraits, books and old stuffs.  Check it out:

This guy had a good spirit.

Images via musuem planet.com, theatre jones and Piera Gelardi

OPEN HOUSE NEW YORK

Open House New York is a fun annual event that opens the doors of the city's most interesting places to the public for tours and educational events. This year, I went inside the nation's largest waste water treatment plant, and one of 14 in New York. The Newtown Creek Water Pollution Control Plant was designed by the Polshek Partnership and is undergoing the finishing stages of a $4.5 billion upgrade project to increase capacity and effectiveness to meet Federal Clean Water Act standards.

The design of the plant is interesting. The architects color coded the different functions of the facility: orange for administrative, blue for water treatment, green for crew access. The entire project was designed to actually stand out in the neighborhood instead of hide from it. It actually harks back to the days when civic architecture was meant to educate the public, inspire trust in government, and foster interest in the technical workings of one's city.

These are the huge "digester eggs" that are actually modeled on the human stomach and detoxify the waste water. Kind of gross, but also totally fascinating.

The view from the top of the eggs down at the facility and Greenpoint beyond.

The original treatment plant was built in 1967 in what was then a declining industrial neighborhood on the shores of Newtown Creek. Since mid 19th century glue factories, oil refineries, ship builders, rope manufacturers, and tons of other industries also worked on the banks of the creek, making it one of the most polluted waterways in the entire country. There is an effort to clean it up, and part of raising awareness of the creek's plight (or just its existence) is the natively planted park along the shores of the treatment plant.

Here is a sculpture of the outline of the creek and surrounding watershed before it was developed. Today all of these inlets and creeks are channelized, filled with 80 year old toxic sludge and seeping oil, and can often be smelled from miles away. The good news is it is moving toward being cleaned up, slowly. Someday more parks like this one will exist along the forgotten, abused waterways of New York and people will marvel that we ever treated our own city, our home, with such disrespect.

Access for kayaking, which I someday hope to do to explore further up the creek, like these guys. No swimming yet though.

CLASSIC SOHO

Here we have a straightforward white loft in Manhattan.  This apartment was designed by my former employer, MR Architecture + Decor, though not when I worked for them.  I love this interior because it is filled with discrete details that almost go unnoticed: plate-less outlets, simple nickel hinges, glazed white floor tiles.  Components like these, which alone don't amount to much, add up to a highly sophisticated design filled with well curated art and furniture.

The space is used as both a home and an office, and the silvery curtain is used to separate these areas when necessary.

I am really loving clean tile floors at the moment, in general.  They are practical, unexpected and can be really elegant.

The crown detail is actually an art piece by Tom Otterness

The little cubby for the toilet tissue holder is a classic MR detail.

Images via WOI

MANNAHATTA

September 2009 marks the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson sailing into New York harbor and "discovering" Manhattan for the Dutch.  In preparation for this milestone, ecologist Eric Sanderson, the Wildlife Conservation Society and The Museum of the City of New York have teamed up for and exhibit and book, Mannahatta.

The Mannahatta project documents, with computer renderings created based on years of research, the original state of the island of Manhattan before colonization, commerce and development turned it into perhaps the most manipulated man-made landscape on earth.

The project maps every inch of the island as it would have been: the grass plains of Harlem, the crystal clear pond and streams where Canal Street now runs, the oyster shell strewn white sand beaches along the Hudson River, and the tall beech and oak forests of midtown.

Looking at some of the images in the book and at the exhibit, I am reminded of the landscapes of Cape Cod-- a series of similar ecosystems that have remained somewhat intact.  Imagine if this is what the corner of Canal and Broadway looked liked at some point:

Fun to think about.  Mannahatta is up at the MCNY until October 12.

Images via Archpaper, midpointmeander

MAD

This weekend is supposed to be really nice here in the northeast (finally, summer!) and I am lucky enough to be able to get out of the city and up to Maine again. DO NOT WORRY, though. I have programed by TiVo to record the premere of Mad Men season 3, Sunday night.

Mad Men is, hands down, the finest show ever produced on television. Character development, plot depth, writting, set design, costumes... nothing can come close. Every time I see an episode, as soon as it is over, I want another. I watched all of season 2 in a weekend. I am not sure how I will make it through waiting a week between episodes.

In celebration of the return, here are some shots of vintage New York. Bask in the glorious dysfunction, fantastic style, hopeless repression and pervasive cigarette smoke of these times. Enjoy the weekend!

Here is where I will leaving town from soon... Eero Saarinen's former TWA (now JetBlue) terminal at JFK-- a relic of the golden age of air travel.

Images via AMC.com, straatis on Flicker, CUNY, NY Dialogue, Ezra Stoller