the fireladders of soho

Wednesday, March 21st, 2007

my matey Mikey B sent me this link to The Fireladders of SoHo. I work in the SoHo area so I’m pretty familiar with – and very fond of – this cast iron district.

Around 200 drawings, all referenced apparently from really low-res camera phone images (click any drawing to get the reference photo section), the drawings show a diverse range of cast-iron escape ladders, from the grand double-sided multi-story ladder of 142 Mercer to the discreet side-of-the-building mounted 5-story single-drop vertical ladder of 113 Greene, from simple but elegant ladders found at 74 Wooster or 53 Mercer to the absolutely gargantuan 13-story monster found at 451 Broome! Potential favorites however may be ladders such as 27 Mercer (so simple!) or 55 Grand (it has it all, and only two stories tall!). The collection also includes the 101 Spring Street building (during its recent renovation time, wrapped and scaffolding-framed), bought nearly 40 years ago by Donald Judd and currently owned and tour-operated by the Judd Foundation.

For the Judd Foundation, tours are an outrageous $30, for the fire escape ladders of SoHo, all they require is your admiration.

more smell in the vicinity!

Friday, January 26th, 2007

this time, it’s obvious where the problem is: black smoke with a terrible odor is pouring out of a manhole lid at the intersection of Grand and Greene in SoHo – the Fire Department have taped off the intersection and all approaching streets. This time you sure can’t blame New Jersey!

art podcasts and walking tours

Wednesday, January 24th, 2007

the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) have online a series of Public Art (notice the Capitals there People!) podcasts audio walking tours of sites and works in – you guessed it! – lower Manhattan. The three thematic (thhhh thh!!) mpTHREEs available are presented by Perry Garvin (who works for the LMCC and also has his own blog) and William Smith, complete with NPR-style slow jazz background music (with the occasional AC/DC guitar riff), whose spoken word message is accented as much by the information presented as by the silence and breaths between the thoughts and sentences.

You can download and enjoy the walking tour at your leisure – that’s the beauty of Public Art.