Random photographs while walking around Greenpoint, Queens a few days back.
Franklin Street — © Brian Rose
Franklin Street – Brian Rose
Franklin Street — © Brian Rose
Commercial Street — © Brian Rose
Commercial Street — © Brian Rose
Archive for the ‘Greenpoint’ Category
New York/Greenpoint
New York/Greenpoint
Commercial and Franklin Streets, Greenpoint, Brooklyn — © Brian Rose
An abandoned factory building from the 1930s, and now an environmental superfund site. Made plastic sheeting. Very simple moderne architecture–unlandmarked. Very difficult to track down much on the building, but found this in the Brooklyn Paper. And this from the New York Times. The chain of ownership with regard to this property may be more complicated than the articles imply–who or what is 49 Dupont Realty, the owner of the property and many others nearby. And neither article addresses the legal responsibility of the owners, past or present, for allowing chemical storage tanks to leak into the ground water.
New York/Greenpoint
Greenpoint flags.
Franklin Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn — © Brian Rose
Franklin Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn — © Brian Rose
Franklin Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn — © Brian Rose
Without comment.
New York/Greenpoint
Greenpoint, Brooklyn — © Brian Rose
And Jesus! Wit dat, he pulls it out of his pocket, an’ so help me, but he’s got it – he’s tellin’ duh troot – a big map of duh whole f______ place with all duh different pahts mahked out. You know – Canarsie an’ East Noo Yawk an’ Flatbush, Bensonhoist, Sout’ Brooklyn, duh Heights, Bay Ridge, Greenpernt – duh whole goddam layout, he’s got it right deh on duh map.
“You been to any of dose places?” I says.
“Sure,” he says. “I been to most of ‘em. I was down in Red Hook just last night,” he says.
“Jesus! Red Hook!” I says. “Whatcha do down deh?”
“Oh,” he says, “nuttin’ much. I just walked aroun’. I went into a coupla places an’ had a drink,” he says, “but most of the time I just walked aroun’.”
“Just walked aroun’?” I says.
“Sure,” he says, “just lookin’ at t’ings, y’know.”
Thomas Wolfe, Only the Dead Know Brooklyn, 1935
Greenpoint, Brooklyn — © Brian Rose
Greenpoint, Brooklyn — © Brian Rose
Greenpoint, Brooklyn — © Brian Rose
Greenpoint, Brooklyn — © Brian Rose
Car accident shrine, Greenpoint, Brooklyn — © Brian Rose
New York/Greenpoint
Newtown Creek wastewater treatment plant (the eggs) — Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Polshek Partnership Architects — © Brian Rose
Over the weekend I went to the Newtown Creek sewage plant to tour the famous digester eggs, iconic sludge stomachs that tower over Greenpoint and can be seen from many vantage points around the city. The tour was part of Open House New York, a yearly event, in which architectural landmarks, not usually accessible, are open to the public.
Newtown Creek — © Brian Rose
Adjacent to Newtown Creek wastewater treatment plant — © Brian Rose
The eggs dominate a post-apocalyptic industrial landscape, the site of the largest oil spill in US history–still lurking beneath the surface–where ancient crumbling infrastructure meets futuristic high technology.
Newtown Creek sewage plant — © Brian Rose
Nature walk — © Brian Rose
Nature walk — © Brian Rose
On Saturday I walked around with my digital camera after going up on the catwalk above the eggs. There’s a “nature walk” that takes one along Newtown Creek, a walled in pathway leads through and around the treatment plant. It’s both wonderful and alien. The light from a leaden sky pressed down.
N. Henry Street — © Brian Rose
On Sunday I returned with my view camera–brilliant sunshine this time–and walked over the bridge that crosses Newtown Creek, and went up to an immense cemetery that overlooks the area. As to be expected I was chased out as soon as I set up my tripod. Photography not allowed. Fortunately, however, I was not picked up as a suspected terrorist while framing the eggs through the oil tanks next to the creek or the fluttering sunflowers on N. Henry Street.
Greenpoint Avenue — © Brian Rose
God Bless America.
