Scouting NY

An Office With A View

Scout — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 07:10:58 +0000

Pretty decent view to have from your office desk…

-SCOUT

Treasures on the East 25th Street Courthouse

Scout — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:15:56 +0000

One of my favorite buildings in Manhattan is the marble courthouse on 25th & Madison, home to the Appellate Division of the NY State Supreme Court. It’s a charmingly compact building at only three stories high, completely dwarfed by the surrounding skyscrapers (I snagged this picture from Flickr user IneT, as the building was hidden in shadows when I shot it). Built in 1900, it’s covered by some really interesting statuary and artistic flourishes.

Two main statues sit in front, one representing Wisdom, the other (below), Force.

The placard by his feet reads: “We must not use force till just laws are defied.”

I really love this statue because, if you look at his left hand…

…You’ll see that Force is holding back some sort of winged lion, which I can only assume is itching to go berserk raining justice down on various New York law breakers. Very cool touch, and it’s a shame the fingers were broken off at some point.

The other side, with a better view of the creature Force is restraining (thanks for the pic, Wally G!).

Around the corner, you’ll find what I consider to be the most moving Holocaust memorial in the city. With the inscription “Indifference to injustice is the gate to hell” …

..the sculpture simply depicts a raised map of the Auschwitz I concentration camp, with labels identifying a torture chamber, the execution wall, the gas chamber, the crematorium, and the commandant’s house. It find it to be utterly chilling in its simplicity.

Rising up from the sculpture is this column, covered in smoke and flames, and clearly reminiscent of a smokestack. A very appropriate addition to the building.

If you’re going to spend 45 minutes waiting in line at nearby Shake Shack (tourist!), you might as well take 5 to check out all the gems covering this building.

-SCOUT

PS – Interesting tidbit: many of the building’s statues depict various iconic philosophers and religious figures like Plato and Moses. Originally, the building included a statue of Mohammed. However, this statue was removed in 1950 at the request of various Muslim groups, as any depiction of the Prophet is forbidden. Curious where the statue originally stood…

Times Square Recycle Billboard Made From Recyclables

Scout — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:09:32 +0000

I was scouting near Times Square on Friday when I noticed this neat new billboard on 7th Ave…

Apparently, it’s promoting Best Buy’s electronics recycle program, and if you look closely…

…you’ll see that the letters are actually made from recycled electronics!

I wish they had made it a little bit more clear what the incentive is to lug my old VCR all the way to Best Buy versus just tossing it in the garbage…Maybe they just want to make more billboards like this? (Ha, I’m being facetious, of course – see the comments for why you SHOULDN’T just throw this stuff away).

Either way, neat sign.

-SCOUT

Scouting Red Hook II

Scout — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:18:08 +0000

I was scouting around Red Hook today when I noticed this old brick warehouse:

While the building itself is neat, what really caught my attention were all the warning signs:

So in summary: Violators Will Be Prosecuted, possibly by:

And in case those dogs don’t work out:

And hey, because we can’t have too many signs:

I love that that their No Smoking sign is so specific as to include “CARRYING LIGHTED CIGARS PIPES OR CIGARETTES STRICTLY FORBIDDEN.” Pipes, for God’s sake!! Because you really need to be concerned about all the pipe-smoking riff-raff that prowl around Red Hook.

Seemingly out of place is this friendly little hand-painted OPEN sign hanging on a cute red string.

I gotta be honest, of all the buildings on the block, this is the only one that had me wondering what the hell is going on inside.

Later, a few streets over, I noticed this sign for a prop building company. Read closely…

Catch this?

A free sandwich vs. attack dogs? I think I know where I’m doing business.

-SCOUT

Kings Theatre To Return From The Grave??

Scout — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:56:57 +0000

Will Brooklyn’s decaying Kings Theater finally be saved? According to this NY Times article, a developer has made a $70 million dollar agreement to renovate, with plans for it to become a live performance venue. Finally!

Check out my post on the theater for more info. Opened in 1929, the theater (one of the five Loew’s movie “palaces”) closed its doors in 1977 and was abandoned to rot.

Over thirty years later, things haven’t been looking so pretty at the Kings.

But $70 million is a lot of money. How much will be saved of the original theater? According to a rep from ACE Theatrical, the developer, “We’ll be able to recreate what it looked like when it was first put into use,” he said. “We’ll be able to very accurately recreate what is no longer there and restore what is there.”

Fingers crossed!

-SCOUT