Sunday, December 27th, 2009
On May 31st I took the above shot of some prefab “brick” walls sitting in some yard. I stumbled upon the lot during a walking tour of Long Island City south of the Plaza. Next door to the prefab pieces was the beginnings of some steel-structured building that I either didn’t get a photo of or didn’t upload to my Flickr. Regardless, during another walking tour today I stumbled upon the result:
the panels are seamless because they’re mounted from the inside, probably via some bolt and nut or rivet-esque system. Who the fuck knows. It’s ugly as hell and probably not even real clay to begin with. The glass top is nice and those two corner windows are kind of interesting, but the gridded smaller windows are too prison-y for my tastes, and again those faux brick panels are a complete put-off, and that’s coming from a guy who has a bricks tag in his cloud.
These images and more from my ongoing views around LIC/Astoria set
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
I’m thinking a lot lately about green roofs (not only green in terms of sustainability and renewal but simply color also!) and I’ve always been confused by how parts of Manhattan have always been considered ‘undesireable’ simply because they’re more than two whole blocks from a subway or aren’t pre-existing dense residential neighborhoods like Greenwich Village or Murray Hill. Sure it would suck having to hunt for food and you’d always have to go ‘back there’ to get home but you’d still be on the island and it’s all within walking distance from my experiences (I used to walk from SoHo to Bryant Park from spring to fall because the walk was pleasant, the weather nice, and I preferred taking the 7 train to the R or V to get to where I used to live in Queens, and the lost time walking was worth the reward of sights, people and adventures). Those days will one day be over and the west side of Manhattan completely redone, rezoned and re-bought, thanks to impressive architectural projects like Clinton Park designed by TenArquitectos slated for construction in Hell’s Kitchen. More impressive than their inclusion of a uniformed southpaw baseball player in their render is of course the green stepped roof atop a zig-zag building. I’d love to know what’s going in the courtyard areas below too but the roof itself is pretty genius. Lots of space there for catching and running water to feed the garden, and to absorb and convert solar heat. I hope they do it right.
[from TenArquitectos - I hate flash popup websites though!]
Monday, October 8th, 2007
(will update this continually in the coming days)
Google Map link
Thursday 11 October: sorry everybody I am off work today, so I don’t have any updated photos at the moment. It is raining here at the moment so I don’t suspect they’ll get terribly far today, but I will post updates as I take them.
Friday 12 October:
you can see the scaffolding is missing from the left side now, so that side is done; the wires are hanging on the right side; they have to whitewash the wall first, then draw out the design before painting.
they did the whitewash so fast!
how to draw a billboard on the side of a building! the art is printed on some paper, they roll it out a couple feet at a time, line it up, and do a rubbing. sort of like a giant paint by numbers.
by evening, nothing new to report really. they finished the template art and obviously paced themselves to take a solid day to lay it down.
i might add, those guys are having so much fun! they hoot and holler at streetwalkers and are just making the most of being 30 feet off the ground painting a building! it’s hilarious to watch.
Saturday 13 October:
morning! Indeed, they are at work today. I too am at work and will step out a couple times to take some extra snaps. unfortunately in the template art that is on the wall, I don’t see any text. but the graphic-to-be looks incredible!
Sunday 14 October:
unfortunately I won’t have another update today because I’m going kayaking in the East River and won’t be heading to that part of town! so I’ll leave you to mull over how it was at dusk when I left work on Saturday, yesterday. will they be working on Sunday anyhow? actually, probably, yes. I’ll have images up Monday then!
(she’s got those big brown eyes…. hey, is that a cherry she’s popping in her mouth?!)
Monday 15 October:
updated photos coming shortly. you should all be quite pleased with the progress!
finish tomorrow??
Tuesday morning 16 October:
you can see the building, and thus the billboard, from a couple blocks away!
walking back to work I overheard on the street,
man 1: Whoah. Is that paint?
man 2: Yeah.
man 1: Holy shit!
it’s a very impressive piece of work! but it looks like it will take one more day yet. Lola’s cleavage is done but there’s still a fair amount of hair to paint, the Rockstar logo, and touchup on the ‘V’ in ‘IV’ for the game title.
Wednesday 17 October:
overcast and cloudy day. they’re finishing up on the logo, then will probably blaze through the rest of the right side. unfortunately i can’t say i see room for a release date or any last-minute guerilla tactics, but it’s still a fucking impressive ad campaign!
lunchtime:
nearly done!
packing up the gear a little after 7pm. I wasn’t able to get a ‘finished’ shot in the daylight because they were literally still touching up at dusk, and didn’t remove the scaffolding and equipment out of the shot until after sunset. will post completed shots ASAP (i’m not supposed to be at work tomorrow, but maybe I make a special trip for all of you!).
Thursday 18 October:
Finished, final shots. This post is officially closed! Sorry it was an overcast day again, so the photos aren’t saturated with color. But you get the effect. It’s an impressive billboard. It’s been fun watching this thing transform, and I really appreciate all the visitors and comments. But alas, we wait for a release date, and more importantly, to play! GAME ON!
update:
one more final shot that shows the building in good sunlight with saturated color, and also exemplifies the number of pedestrians who parade up and down Canal Street every day – tourists #$^!&*!! and thanks to Patrick from WikiGTA.org for the animated gif!
(see here for previous incarnations)
(or here for these images larger from my Flickr)
Update 2 Jan 2008:
As you can see, the billboard has been painted over. It ran for just over two months. Thanks everyone for watching!
Saturday, September 1st, 2007
walking back after getting my morning bagel, the moon in the sky, a September sky, skyscrapers way off in the distance.
