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131 Buckingham Road

Brooklyn, , , , , , , ,

131 Buckingham Road is widely cited as New York City’s most unusual residence – a century-old Japanese-style wood-frame home, in the heart of Victorian Flatbush.

In the words of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, “The most exotic and certainly the best-known house in Prospect Park South is this Japanese style wood and stucco structure designed in 1902 by Petit & Green for Dean Alvord. The dwelling is further evidence of Petit’s ability to design in many architectural styles, but in order to give the building a genuine oriental quality, he was assisted by three Japanese artisans: Saburo Arai, who worked as a contractor; Shunso Ishikawa, who was responsible for the original color scheme and decorations, and Chogoro Sugai, who designed the original garden.”

According to the Commission, “The cost of building this house was estimated in 1902 as being $12,000, and in 1903 the price for the purchase of the building was quoted as $26,500, very high for a building in Prospect Park South. By advertising this exotic structure, Alvord hoped to attract potential buyers who were curious about this dwelling, but would buy the less expensive structures in the area. Alvord noted in a boldly printed box at the bottom of the advertisement that ‘many other houses equally artistic and distinctive, at varying prices, are ready for inspection.’ “

The Flatbush Development Corporation house tours frequently feature this home – see the FDC website or call 718-859-3800 for information.

This gem is just one of the jewels of the Prospect Park South Historic District and adjacent Beverley Square West development.

131 Buckingham Road Vital Statistics
  • Location: 131 Buckingham Road between Church Avenue and Albemarle Road
  • Year completed: 1902
  • Architect: Petit & Green
  • Floors: 3
  • Style: Japanese
  • New York City Landmark: 1979
131 Buckingham Road Recommended Reading

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2 Park Avenue

Manhattan, , , , , , , , , ,

2 Park Avenue is “one of [Ely Jacques] Kahn’s most dramatic and successful works and survives today as one of the most beautiful and distinctive office towers of the Art Deco period,” in the words of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC).

LPC continued, “Kahn was able to successfully integrate a new decorative type produced by the application of colorful terra-cotta panels in geometric designs to a tall, commercially successful office/loft structure. 2 Park Avenue was one of the important late 1920s buildings that helped create the visually lively and iconic city of the early 20th century.”

According to the commission, the building’s developers were not sure what they wanted to do with the structure. The neighborhood was in transition, and the dominant commercial tenant was unknown. The owners asked Kahn to design a building that could be used as offices and showrooms or for light manufacturing.

2 Park Avenue Vital Statistics
  • Location: 2 Park Avenue between E 32nd and E 33rd Streets
  • Year completed: 1928
  • Architect: Ely Jacques Kahn (Buchman & Kahn
  • Floors: 29
  • Style: Art Deco
  • New York City Landmark: 2006
2 Park Avenue Recommended Reading

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767 Third Avenue

Manhattan, , , , , , , ,

767 Third Avenue represents the personality of developer Melvyn Kaufman more than it stands for an architect or style of architecture.

FxFowle Architects designed a beautiful building, to be sure. Subtle brick detailing outlines the ribbon windows; corners are sinuously rounded; the whole tower is raised on pilotis, revealing a lobby sheathed in oak-framed glass (instead of metal or stone). The more playful details are on E 48th Street, in the courtyard behind the building. A three-story chessboard adorns the wall of 212 E 48th Street; huge steel footprints are welded to the sidewalk utility grates; a stage coach and a 1929 Ford truck are parked in the plaza.

The New York Times’ obituary for Melvyn Kaufman noted, “Though he was not an architect, his buildings were generally acknowledged to have sprung as much from his own vision as from the architect of record’s — a vision Mr. Kaufman realized with the aid of designers like Pamela Waters and Rudolph de Harak.”

The Times continued, “Mr. Kaufman had a lifelong fascination with office buildings as public spaces with which tenants and passers-by could engage. If one was going to erect a leviathan, his design philosophy seemed to go, at least make it leviathan with levity.

“He deplored lobbies, the sine qua non of office buildings since the dawn of recorded history. ‘Marble and travertine mausoleums are bad for the living and terrific for the dead,’ Mr. Kaufman told The Times in 1971.”

Kaufman seemed fond of this stretch of Third Avenue: He built other office buildings at 711, 747, and 777.

767 Third Avenue Vital Statistics
  • Location: 767 Third Avenue at E 48th Street
  • Year completed: 1981
  • Architect: FxFowle Architects
  • Floors: 40
  • Style: International
767 Third Avenue Recommended Reading

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Prospect Park South Historic District

Brooklyn, Collections, , , ,

Prospect Park South Historic District is a neighborhood with a mission: To “illustrate how much of rural beauty can be incorporated within the rectangular limits of the conventional city block.” The myriad home styles were the vision of a single developer: Dean Alvord.

According to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, “The most important event in the progress of suburbanization in Flatbush was the purchase in 1899 of approximately fifty acres of land by the real estate developer Dean Alvord for $280,000. Most of this land had been owned by the Dutch Reformed Church and the Bergen family. Alvord intended to lay out a ‘high-class’ suburban community to be called Prospect Park South.

“…Alvord’s objective in Prospect Park South was, in his own words, ‘to create a rural park within the limitations of the conventional city block and city street.'”

Alvord laid out the utilities, put up brick gateposts, and planned lawns and malls. He hired a landscape gardener, and hired architect John J. Petit to design large comfortable houses in a variety of styles. The LPC notes examples of Colonial Revival, neo-Tudor, Queen Anne, Swiss chalet, and even Japanese pagoda.

“The architecture of Prospect Park South is representative of a phenomenon common among the suburbs that were built up in America at the turn of the 20th century. The buildings erected in these developments represent an eclectic mix with houses of many different styles placed next to each other on each street. Each house at Prospect Park South was designed as a separate entity with no consideration given to the style of the surrounding structures or to the appropriateness of the use of a certain stylistic variant for a specific site…. At Prospect Park South houses with Colonial, Queen Anne, Italianate, French Renaissance, Japanese, Elizabethan, Jacobean and other stylistic details were freely juxtaposed. This free mixture of stylistic forms often resulted in such seeming incongruities as the placement of a stucco Spanish Mission style home beside a frame Swiss Chalet.” [LPC Designation Report]

Prospect Park South Historic District Vital Statistics
  • Location: South of Prospect Park; the area between Church Avenue and Beverley Road, from Stratford Road to Buckingham Road.
  • Year completed: 1900-1930
  • Architect: John J. Petit, lead architect; many others designed homes in the development.
  • Style: Mixed
  • New York City Landmark: 1979
Prospect Park South Historic District Recommended Reading

WikiMapia Map

Mapping New York City

Guides,

Mapping New York City is a full-time endeavor of hundreds, if not thousands, of amateur and professional digital cartographers. Thanks to the paid and unpaid users, it’s getting easier and easier to find anything or any place in the Big Apple.

Here are some of the online maps that I’ve found particularly helpful for planning my explorations and researching buildings and neighborhoods. In the following samples, click the titles to open a new window with that map. Most links will load the location of 711 Brightwater Court in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn – a building that I was researching for a gallery.

Google Map

This is my default map – it loads quickly, and searches intelligently in the areas I browse most frequently. Street View lets me see the lay of the land quickly, and helps me verify the location of buildings that I’ve photographed. When I’m scouting new areas or a particular landmark, Street View helps me find the best vantage points. Google’s Transportation layer shows subways and bus routes – even bus arrival times – a boon when planning a trip to an unfamiliar neighborhood. Just remember to double-check the MTA maps, because Google’s info is sometimes out of date.

Google Earth

Google Earth is like having a personal helicopter – without the noise. Unlike other online maps, you can change the orientation any way that you want: North doesn’t have to be at the top of the screen. And unlike other aerial maps, you can change your angle of view – you aren’t locked in to a two-dimensional straight-down view.

Open Street Map

Open Street Map is a user-supported, open-source map. It contains details that you might not be able to find elsewhere. For example, I recently used this to find the boundaries of Forest Hills Gardens. (The development declined to provide a map, and my usual sources came up blank.)

WikiMapia

Like Open Street Map, WikiMapia is an open-source, user-supported map with lots of historical and architectural details, frequently including links to other sites. You can switch among 11 different interfaces (Google, Bing, OSM, etc.), making this easy to learn and use.

DOT Map

I refer to this whenever I want to find the best times for photographing a building without parked cars. This maps every traffic and parking sign in the city, so you can check to see when street-cleaning rules mandate “No Parking.”

NYC Map

New York City Map is 12 maps in one! And it’s a time machine – just select one of the seven historic aerial views going back to 1924. The default view is linked to the Department of Buildings database, but 11 other map themes lead to 311 service requests, tax maps, census information, Green Infrastructure, NYC Parks, street closures, zoning and more. Before you buy a condo or sign a lease, you’ll want to check the Department of Buildings site for violations, and the Rat Information Portal to make sure that you don’t have any unexpected roommates!

NYC SCOUT

There’s a crater in the middle of the street and you want to find out if it has been reported to 311? Here you go!

The Street Conditions Observation Unit (SCOUT) is a team of inspectors based in the Mayor’s Office of Operations. Their mission is to drive every City street once per month and report conditions that negatively impact quality of life to 311. SCOUT inspectors send reports of conditions they observe to the 311 system, and 311 assigns the conditions to the relevant agency for appropriate corrective action – the very same way that 311 handles complaints from the public.

Ride The City

This map for bike riders will show you how to pedal from point A to point B – so its search function requires a starting and ending address. You can request the direct route, safe route, or safer route – select according to your skill and traffic comfort level.

SunCalc

It doesn’t matter how much you spent on your camera. Your photos will only be as good as your light. Being in the right spot at the right time doesn’t have to be a matter of luck – you can predict the sun’s position with great accuracy using SunCalc. This is built on the Google Map interface, so it’s easy to navigate. Click on the landmark that you want to photograph, input the date (or click the NOW button) and drag the time slider to see how the sun angle changes during the day.

MapQuest

MapQuest is one of the earliest digital maps. It’s current claim to fame is travel – getting from point A to point B and finding a hotel and car rental when you get there.

MTA Subway Map

MTA’s website, mta.info, is complicated but essential for anyone who wants to use public transit in New York, especially on weekends when maintenance is in full swing. The map is interactive, and you can also download a pdf version.

MTA Bus Maps: Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island

Each borough has its own bus map; the links above lead to pdf downloads.

Mapping New York City Recommended Reading

Forest Hills Gardens

Collections, Queens, , , , , , , ,

Forest Hills Gardens is a New York City fantasyland – a pricey, exclusive community that takes its privacy (and rules!) very seriously, yet began with the idea of providing affordable housing.

The Russell Sage Foundation bought 142 acres from Cord Meyer Development Company in 1909 to create a “Garden Cities” community for the working poor. Alas, “affordable housing” soon became a myth. Although architect Grosvenor Atterbury used prefabrication techniques to reduce costs, home prices skyrocketed. It’s fair to say that the only working poor you’ll spot in Forest Hills Gardens are the groundskeepers.

While the working class aspirations of the Russell Sage Foundation have slipped away, the architectural vision, at least, persists. Forest Hills Gardens is beautiful.

Some 800 houses and 11 apartment buildings are precisely laid out on what is now 175 acres, following architectural standards set by Atterbury and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. To this day, Forest Hills Gardens Corporation enforces those architectural standards – right down to the paint colors that homeowners are allowed to use – to preserve the residential, garden community atmosphere.

The West Side Tennis Club moved to Forest Hills in 1913, but became a victim of its own success. The Forest Hills Tennis Stadium drew so many tennis fans (and later, concert-goers) that it became a persona non grata because the crowds brought more traffic and trash than prestige. Closed for 20 years, Forest Hills Stadium is trying to make a comeback as a concert venue.

(Also see Forest Hills Inn, one of the apartment buildings – originally a hotel – located on Station Square.)

Forest Hills Gardens Vital Statistics
  • Location: Forest Hills
  • Year completed: 1909-1960s
  • Architect: Grosvenor Atterbury
  • Landscape Architect: Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.
  • Style: English Garden, Tudor, Georgian
Forest Hills Gardens Recommended Reading

Google Map

Forest Hills Inn

Queens, , , , , , , , ,

Forest Hills Inn is the first thing a visitor sees when entering Forest Hills Gardens at Station Square. The nine-story Tudor-styled building towers over the square and the Long Island Railroad station that it faces.

It’s an Inn in name only: The 1912 relic, surprisingly not landmarked, turned coop in 1967. The Inn is actually three connected buildings on Station Square (a fourth building, Forest Hills Inn Apartments, was added in 1917).

In its heyday, Forest Hills Inn had 150 rooms and hosted public events. Now, it has 50 apartments plus retail spaces including a cafe on Station Square.

Forest Hills Inn Vital Statistics
  • Location: One Station Square
  • Year completed: 1912
  • Architect: Grosvenor Atterbury
  • Floors: 9
  • Style: Tudor
Forest Hills Inn Recommended Reading

Google Map

Bronx County Building

Bronx, , , , , , , , , ,

Bronx County Building (originally Bronx County Courthouse) is a monumental landmark of limestone and marble that blends modern and classical forms. It is made more prominent by its siting, raised on a granite podium between two parks – Joyce Kilmer Park to the north, Franz Sigel Park to the south.

The podium, most visible on the west and north facades, is functional: It contains a garage, among other things.

The design is symmetrical, each side almost identical except for the sculpture. A six-columned portico is centered on each side, flanked by a pair of pink marble sculpture groups. The north and south facades are broken by 13 lines of windows; the east and west facades have 15 bays. Polished copper spandrels separate the windows; the first-floor spandrels have nickel inlays.

The county’s judicial needs have outgrown the building – at one point the building was so crowded that there were reports of juries deliberating in storage rooms. Larger courts have since been built to the east on E 161st Street and to the north on Grand Concourse. The building now serves as the Bronx County municipal building.

Bronx County Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 851 Grand Concourse at E 161st Street
  • Year completed: 1935
  • Architect: Joseph H. Freedlander and Max L. Hausle
  • Sculptors: Charles Keck (frieze), Adolf A. Weinman (Grand Concourse sculpture groups), George H. Snowden (E 161st Street sculpture groups), Joseph Kiselewski (Walton Avenue sculpture groups), Edward F. Sandford Jr. (E 158th Street sculpture groups)
  • Floors: 10
  • Style: neo-Classical, Moderne
  • New York City Landmark: 1976
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1983
Bronx County Building Recommended Reading

Google Map

711 Brightwater Court

Brooklyn, , , , ,

711 Brightwater Court is a colorful six-story Art Deco apartment building in Brighton Beach, “Little Odessa,” a short block from the Boardwalk.

Confession: I didn’t discover this by researching in AIA Guide to New York City or NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. I spotted it in an episode of the sci-fi series “Person of Interest.” (The program uses NYC locales even to masquerade as foreign cities.)

Some of the terra cotta needs repair or replacement, but I hope I look as good when I reach 80 years old!

I couldn’t find the name of the architect – if anyone knows, please let me know via the Contact form. Thanks!

711 Brightwater Court Vital Statistics
  • Location: 711 Brightwater Court at Coney Island Avenue
  • Year completed: 1935
  • Architect: Martyn N. Weinstein
  • Floors: 6
  • Style: Art Deco
711 Brightwater Court Recommended Reading

Google Map

Staten Island Savings Bank

Staten Island, , , , , , , ,

Staten Island Savings Bank is a tall single-story structure filling the triangular plot across Water Street from Tappen Park and Edgewater Village Hall.

According to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, “The bank is a fine example of Beaux Arts classicism. It presents two well-defined facades replete with classical symmetry, recognizable Renaissance motifs such as the rusticated wall and arched windows framed within pilasters, and ideal proportions. More importantly, the subtle insertion of the circular colonnaded portico between the acutely angled facades, thus creating the main entrance, is a masterful means of turning an otherwise difficult acute angle into a positive element. A precedent for this treatment had been established by Sir John Soane in his design for the Bank of England in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century which may be the source for Aldrich’s design.”

Staten Island Savings Bank Vital Statistics
  • Location: 81 Water Street at Beach Street
  • Year completed: 1925
  • Architect: Delano & Aldrich
  • Floors: 1
  • Style: neo-Classical
  • New York City Landmark: 2006
Staten Island Savings Bank Recommended Reading

Google Map