NAKED CITY ARCHITECTURES OF A DISCREPANT LANDSCAPE D E S I G N R E P O RT | I S L A N D T E R R I TO R I E S : M A N H AT TA N | 2018-2020 | ESALA |
Rosemary Claire Milne
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For my little god-daughter Elizabeth - as you learn to stand may you learn to see through your own set of rose-tinted glasses the world as it really is: beautiful and full of wonder. And for all the marginal, strange, or discrepant people out there, little or large, who in all their variety remind us what it means to be who we really are: beautifully and wonderfully made.
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Ravenous Books, Lincolnshire 2020 an imprint of Printworks Publications, Chambers Street, Edinburgh
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NAKED CITY ARCHITECTURES OF A DISCREPANT LANDSCAPE D E S I G N R E P O RT | I S L A N D T E R R I TO R I E S : M A N H AT TA N | 2018-2020 | ESALA |
Rosemary Claire Milne
NINE PROPOSALS - MEASURES OF A DISCREPANT L ANDSCAPE
FIG. 1
M A P O F M A N H AT TA N A N D I T ’ S E N V I RO N S .
FIG. 2
FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
discrepancy noun | of latin origin
[1] variance or contrariety, especially of facts or sentiments. From Latin discrepantia, from discrepantem, the present participle of discrepare, meaning “sound differently, differ,” - from dis- (apart, off ) + crepare, “to rattle, crack,” (related to raven).
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FOREWORD a note to the reader ABSTRACT PRE-AMBLE a br isk walk through the work MEASURES I - FIRST MEASURES
The Brennan Far m
I I - S E CO N D M E A S U R E S
The Pabst Hotel
II - THIRD MEASURES
The L aundr y Hotel
I V - F O U RT H M E A S U R E S
One T imes S quaer
IV - FIF TH MEASURES
The Nine S tor ies of the L aundr y Hotel antholog y of shor t stor ies The Ne w York St udio 9 - ninth stor y The A lbe r mar ie A piar y and The Ma dison Squar e La vende r Par te r r e 8 - eighth stor y Walla ck’s Papie r A telie r 7 - se venth stor y Mar lbor ogh Wood 6 - sixth stor y The Met r opolitan Establishment of Te xtile Histor y 5 - fif th stor y The Paramount Pipes Pala ce 4 - f our th stor y 44th St r eet Glass 3 - third stor y Olympia Concr ete Hall 2 - second stor y 45th St r eet Looking Glass 1 - first stor y Globe Steel Workshop 0 - ground floor economic measur es taken V - SIXTH MEASURES
The Pr in t House S tudio V I - S EV EN T H M E A S U R E S
A Room in Lincolnshire BACKWORDS
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FIG. 3
looking forwards - walking the garment district
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f o r e wo rd What follows are a series of “measures” with which to approach Manhattan as an urban landscape. It is a box of tools, if you like, with which to measure up and give presence to the oddities of a very odd city. Each measure is custom made to adjust to and fit the topographic, demographic and mental landscapes of the work, at once making architectural discoveries and harboring architectural invention - for the word ‘measure’ has a double meaning: it is something that is done prior to action - such as with measured surveys before architectural intervention begins. Yet it is also intervention itself: ‘measures taken’ is a term we often hear from governments or other bodies of influential people to describe the taking of action. This double meaning allows us to move away from the ‘measure’ as simply a linear tool bound by purely numerical thinking. Rather, there is a different kind of measure: a vertical measure which both looks to what is there or has been there, and what is not yet there; a measure may at once take an inventory and invent: a measure is both memory and imagination. The series of measures that follow are just in that vein of thinking - they include both historic architectural ‘measures’ of the changing landscape of Manhattan from which the research began, and lead into a series of interventionist measures which both fit within the existing landscape and propose a new one. Some of the measures are in Manhattan itself, others are spaces into which Manhattan has been ‘packed’ by mental or physical imaginative working processes - the studio on chambers street or the room I am working in during lockdown in Lincolnshire for instance. These spaces measure Manhattan by the processes of scaling, a processes which would become important in the final exhibition. The report moves between narrative backdrops to the architecture and more descriptive modes, which is denoted in text by a shift in font. It is hoped that one could move through the exhibition (digital or real) with this report as a kind of manual, a guidebook or species index to look up what is being discovered on the walk through the work - hence the final 9 interventions, which form the key part of the exhibition, are shown in the order one would approach them in the exhibition, i.e. in reverse order. - to go forwards one goes backwards.
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FIR ST M EA SU R ES
SECON D MEASURES
T H E B R E N N A N FA R M
T H E PA B S T H OT E L
T H E L A U N D RY H OT E L
the Pabst wardrobe
the parapluviometer the heavy case
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T HI RD MEASU R ES
Poe’s Jacket
FOURTH M E A S U R E S
N I N E S TO R I E S O F T H E L A U N D RY H OT E L
FIFTH M EA SU R ES
SI XT H MEASURES
PRINT HOUSE STUDIO
A RO O M I N LINCOLNSHIRE
the Paramount theatre
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FIRST MEASURES
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the brennan farm
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A BS T R A CT
An 1847 photograph pictures the Brennan Farm, perched atop a crumbling cliff as 84th Street rends through the land. Edgar Allan Poe boarded here, living on the verge between two landscapes: the “island of many hills”[1] and today’s gridded Island Metropolis. His two hour walk to work via Broadway wanders into the vacant shadow of One Times Square, paying her rent by flaunting million dollar ads. In 1908, her predecessor, the squat nine storey Pabst Hotel, is pictured during demolition. Modest structures vanish while makeshift ads are erected, heralding massive architectures of skin and sign to come — architectures of a “Naked City.”[2] Both the assaulted farm and the gutted hotel are poised on the brink of two urban realities; they plumb the landscape’s indiscretions. How to clothe a naked city? How to fashion an architecture that fits a discrepant landscape? These are the questions posed by Poe’s farm and the Pabst.
IN ANSWER, an architecture emerges from the Pabst like a jacket from a squat wardrobe: a nine storey Laundry Hotel hanging within One Times Square. But, to make a jacket fit, one must take a good measure. The architecture unpacks across Broadway like a tool box, as nine stories unravel to create nine means of measuring discrepancy; nine tools refining the Hotel’s architectural language. Each architecture measures Manhattan’s topographic discrepancies, “giving utterance to”[3] demographic discrepancies — between Starbucks and the coffee vendor trying to earn an honest buck. An essai immortalising Broadway’s misfits as discrepant peoples within a discrepant landscape. [1] Original meaning of Manhattan [2] ibid. [2] Another author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page.
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01 02 04
03 00
05
06
07
08
09
FI G . 4
PABST LAUNDRY HOTEL
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THE GLOBE STEEL WORKSHOP 45TH STREET LOOKING GLASS OLYMPIA CONCRETE HALL 44TH STREET GLASS PARAMOUNT PIPES PALACE METROPOLITAN ESTABLISHMENT OF TEXTILE HISTORY MARLBOROUGH WOOD WORKSHOP WALLACK’S PAPIER ATELIER MADISON SQUARE LAVENDER PARTERRE & ALBERMARIE APIARY
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09
THE NEW YORK VENDORS SCHOOL
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nine proposals along broadway
+
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a br isk walk through the work
p r e-a mbl e The series of images that follow comprise a short, brisk, ambling walk through the work as it sits on Broadway in Manhattan, and simultaneously in the exhibition space in the Print Works Studio on Chambers Street in Edinburgh.
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AY DW OA
THE
PRI
NT
HO
USE
STU
DIO
BR
FIG. 5
a view of the thesis propsals situated along broadway, packed into the studio along chambers street; each proposal and its plinth measuring topographic differences in the land
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FIG. 6
a view into the South Studio on the top floor of the the Print Works
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FIG. 7
view of Madison Square Lavneder Parterre. A Rosie peeks into Wallack’s.
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FIG. 8
A raven flies up Broadway towards Times Square.
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FIG. 9
a Rosie peeks into Times Square
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FIG. 10
view of the first five storeys of the Pabst Laundry Hotel.
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FIG. 11
Looking back into Times Square; sectional models of Olympia Concrete and 45th Street Looking Glass.
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FIG. 12
The walk ends with athe wardrobe and a view from the window.
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i
FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
8 7.5 8 7.5 7.5 3 8 7.5
i | the brennan farm a me a s ur e o f t o po g r a phic d is cr e pa ncies Apparently, ravens have been used to ‘discover land’ for a long time, going back to the Vikings, even going back to Noah and his Ark. When uncertain of their direction, sailors would let a raven fly, steering the ship to follow it’s course, assuming that land lay in the direction of the Raven’s flight. If the raven returned to the ship, the land was deemed to be at a great distance. Like sailors of old, we too let a Raven fly, following it whenever the direction of play seemed uncertain. Our raven was not a physical raven however, but the Raven of Edgar Allan Poe’s imagination. Poe and 16 verse poem, written in a room in a shabby farmstead in old Manhattan, would be our starting point for discovering the landscape of Manhattan — a landscape that has changed greatly over time since it’s inception as a series of lines on a map of a hilly island, to the great, gridded, dense landscape use know today. Poe’s Raven would thus allow us to fly over land, but also over time; it would allow us to discover the distances and differences - or discrepancies - between the different Manhattan’s that have existed through time. Time and time again the three of us would return to Poe’s raven when uncertain of our course, and, sometimes, the Raven would return to us: a marker that the land was still a long way off.
8 7.5 7.5 3 8 7.5 8 7.5 7.5 3 8 7.5 8 7.5 7.5 3 8 7.5 8 7.5 7.5 3 8 7.5 8 7.5 7.5 3 8
[3] Another author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page. [2] ibid.
7.5
[1] Author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page. 8 7.5 7.5 3 8 7.5 8 7.5 7.5 3 8 7.5
LEFT | FIGURE 13
a farmstead on rocky cliff as the avenues rip through the landscape
8 7.5 7.5 3
p oe ’s d is cr e pa nt l a nd s ca pe
FIGURE 14
the brennan farmstead on an outcrop with a stairwell skulking up to meet it from the new road
Edgar Allan Poe lived at a time where Manhattan existed in a margin between two cities - the city as the Lenape knew it, ‘the place to gather wood to make bows,’ an Island of many hills, a largely unpopulated place characterised by a plentiful and varied landscape; and the city as we know it today: a meticulous (and at times ruthless) grid now populated by millions - still varied but in a very different way. The photograph above pictures the farmstead in which Edgar Allan Poe took a room in 1847. He positively begged the Brennan Family to allow him and his ailing wife, Virginia, to reside there. They were moving uptown for the cleaner air. It is there that he wrote his famous poem, The Raven. It sits precariously atop a cleft of rock, a result of the bulldozing of the landscape to make way for the gridded streets as we know them today. Here we see 79th Street raking it’s way past the farmstead. This image captures the topographic discrepancy that characterises the landscape of Manhattan, as two ‘manahattas’ rub up against each other. The architectural moves that evolved out of this particular moment - in this case a precarious staircase enabling one to access the Farm from the new street - highlight this discrepancy and make it evident - make it manifest. Here architecture exists as a measure of a discrepant landscape. [1] Author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page. [2] ibid. [2] Another author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page.
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FIG. 15
DT Valentine’s Profiles of the Avenues of Manhattan, 1850.
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40
FIG. 16
the Plane Table - a device for measuring discrepancy one step at a time - emerges.
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The Vikings, like Noah, were said to have used the raven to discover land. The Online Etymology Dictionary, “Raven.�
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FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
FIGURE 17
Farm Map ‘number 40.’ One segment of a very large map by John Randell Jr. cartographing the Island of Manhattan when it was still a hilly landscape, occupied by a series of Farmsteads. The Grid is ghosted in, anticipating the contemporary Manhattan as we know it today. The Farm in which Poe resided can be seen on the corner of 79th Street and Eleventh Avenue. ‘Farm Map Number 40’ is the cartographic equivalent of the photographic discrepancy on page previous.
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FI G . 1 8
unfolding Poe’s Raven across the studio as a way of walking a changed landscape
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FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
u s i ng POE ’s r av e n t o d is cov e r d is cr e pa ncy The Raven is a 16 stanza poem by Edgar Allan Poe. Written during his time at the Brennan Farm[1], we took it as a means of measuring the landscape. Plotting his two hour walk along Broadway to work from the Farm to the publishing office for the Sunday and Weekly Times on Nassau Street, we are given a cross-section of the landscape, from North to South and East to West. The poem - which Heidegger would insist anyway is simply a ‘different kind of measure’ - would be superimposed onto the walk, becoming the metric structure for a folding drawing unpacking from a casket. Together the casket and the drawing act as a ‘Plane Table’ for the projects to come - a means of drawing “in the field,” of attuning oneself to the landscape, of adjusting, levelling, and taking in a landscape.[2] The use of a raven,though a figurative one, is, it turns out, rather fitting on a number of counts: firstly, because the Raven has been used by sailors for millenia in order to gage how far away land is. Secondly, the word “raven” shares etymological roots with “discrepancy” - this is because discrepancy comes from a word attested to mean “to sound differently,” a word linked to “raven,” which refers to the rattling cackle of the raven - a “discrepant sound,” if you like.[2] [1] Daytonian Manhattan, [2] Brief. [2] “Raven” and “Discrepancy,” Online Etymological Dictionary.
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the raven by Edgar Allan Poe
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. “’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door— Only this and nothing more.” Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December; And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore— For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore— Nameless here for evermore. And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before; So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating “’Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door— Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;— This it is and nothing more.”
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FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
FIG. 19
16 stanzas of Poe’s Raven drawn across broadway; unfolded.
NA SS
AU ST RE
ET
LAF AYE
TE STR EET
CENTRE STREET
B R O A D W A Y CAN AL STR EET
UNION SQUARE
B R O A D W A Y
AS TO R STR EE T
4TH
AV
EN
UE
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Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer, “Sir,” said I, “or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore; But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping, And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door, That I scarce was sure I heard you”—here I opened wide the door;— Darkness there and nothing more. Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before; But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore?” This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!”— Merely this and nothing more. Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning, Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before. “Surely,” said I, “surely that is something at my window lattice; Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore— Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;— ’Tis the wind and nothing more!”
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FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
B R O A D W A Y
B R O A D W A Y
B R O A D W A Y
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Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter, In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore; Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he; But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door— Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door— Perched, and sat, and nothing more. Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling, By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore, “Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,” I said, “art sure no craven, Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore— Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!” Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.” Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly, Though its answer little meaning—little relevancy bore; For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door— Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door, With such name as “Nevermore.”
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FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
WEST DRIV E
W ES
T D RI
VE
B R O A D W A Y
WEST 84TH STREET
W A Y B R O A D B R O A D W A Y
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But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. Nothing farther then he uttered—not a feather then he fluttered— Till I scarcely more than muttered “Other friends have flown before— On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before.” Then the bird said “Nevermore.” Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken, “Doubtless,” said I, “what it utters is its only stock and store Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore— Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore Of ‘Never—nevermore’.” But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling, Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door; Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore— What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore Meant in croaking “Nevermore.”
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FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
WEST 10TH STREET
8TH AVENUE
8 T H AV E N U E
ST
N IC
HO
LA
VE SA
NU
E
ST NICHOLAS AVENUE
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This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom’s core; This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining On the cushion’s velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o’er, But whose velvet-violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o’er, She shall press, ah, nevermore! Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor. “Wretch,” I cried, “thy God hath lent thee—by these angels he hath sent thee Respite—respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore; Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!” Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.” “Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!— Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore, Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted— On this home by Horror haunted—tell me truly, I implore— Is there—is there balm in Gilead?—tell me—tell me, I implore!” Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”
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FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
cr oton aqueduct
ST NICHOLAS AVENUE
ST NI CH
cr oto n
HI GH
wa ter
r ese voi
BR ID
aqu edu
OL AS
PL AC
E
ct
GE
tow er
r
HIG H BR IDG E
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“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil! By that Heaven that bends above us—by that God we both adore— Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn, It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore— Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.” Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.” “Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!” I shrieked, upstarting— “Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore! Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken! Leave my loneliness unbroken!—quit the bust above my door! Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!” Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.” And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door; And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming, And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted—nevermore!
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FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
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FIG. 20
Using the Raven to discover land
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FIGURE 21
perambulating through a discrepant landscape
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FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
central casket, refashioned from an old packing case
tools for measuring a discreapnt city, fastened to a small table for examing the drawing
film reels from Jules Dassin’s Naked City
“switchboard” construction plotting scenes from the Naked City film
11m folding/unfolding drawing plotting Poe’s walk to work via Broadway
FIG. 22
The Plane Table - a means of creating and discovering a discrepant city
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raven
noun | germanicand saxon origin
[1] a blackish, gawky bird. Old Enligsh hrefn, from Proto-Germanic *khrabanaz. From PIE root *ker-, imitative of harsh sounds - same source as the latin crepare, “to creak, clatter,� from (which discrepancy is also formed).
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FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
FIG. 23
Every surveyor of a landscape requires a good set of tools. Pictured: a set of ‘raven’ tools for measuring and “taking measures” in a discrepant landscape. These tools would be used ‘in the field’ and ‘in the studio’ to chart walk, spill, and burn.
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FIG. 24
still from “in the Wake of the Wing” - using Poe’s poetry and writing as a measure - literally, using poetic meter - of discrepancy in Manhattan
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FIG. 25
Historic photo of Mount Tom, where Poe used to ponder his poems. Mount Tom exists as a leftover piece of the ‘old manahatta’, a lonely leftover hill amidst a flattened landscape. In this modern landscape, the hills (discrepancies) still exist not primarily in physical form but in the residual difference between a contmporary landscape and a historic one.
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FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
FIG. 26
Unfolding the Poe Drawing across Mount Tom - Poe’s walk as a way of measuring and manifesting a discrepant landscape - almost like a tailors measuring tape, it measures the misfit body of Manhattan, taking account of its regularities and irregularities. Such a step is integral to designing an architecture (or textile architexture) that would fit such a strange body.
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Husdon River
Canal Street
Bowery
The Palisades Sea Level
Broadway
100
West Side Highway
M
100 250 450 650
FIG. 27
Sections of Manhattan Avenue’s, real and imagined
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East River
FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
FIG. 28
Section of Poe’s Walk to Mount Tom
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BROADWAY
72 72nd 73rd 74th 75th 76th 77th 78th 79th 80th 81st 82nd 83rd 84th 85th 86th 87th 88th 89th 90th 91st
70th 71st
69th
59th 60th 61st 62nd 63rd 64th 65th 66th 67th 68th
24th 25th 26th 27th 28th 29th 30th 31st 32nd 33rd 34th 35th 36th 37th 38th 39th 40th 41st 42nd 43rd 44th 45th 46th 47th 48th 49th 50th 51st 52nd 53rd 54th 55th 56th 57th 58th
148th 149th 150th 151st 152nd 153rd 154th 155th 156th 157th 158th 159th 160th 161st 162nd
147th
146th
145th
136th 137th 138th 139th 140th 141st 142nd 143rd 144th
122nd 123rd 124th 125th 126th 127th 128th 129th 130th 131st 132nd 133rd 134th 135th
102nd 103rd 104th 105th 106th 107th 108th 109th 110th 111st 112th 113th 114th 115th 116th 117th 118th 119th 120th 121st
92nd 93rd 94th 95th 96th 97th 98th 99th 100th 101st
FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
The missing Valentine section folding section through Broadway worked out by dissecting Valentine’s Profiles of the streets and avenues.
FIG. 29
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FIG. 30
1776 illustration of Manhattan by Thomas Davies. Note the landscape is here characterised by three things: wooded hills, water, and campfires: topography, pyrography and hydrography.
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FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
me a s u ri ng t hr e e ‘ ma na hat ta s’ A hill is not only a simple mound of ground, but an irregularity; a fold in the landscape where one piece of ground rubs up against a different piece of ground. A hill is a manifestation of difference. It is a manifestation of discrepancy. A hill makes visible a difference by creating a difference in datum. A hill is a measure of discrepancy between one thing and another. Thus, an ‘Island of Many Hills’ is an Island of many discrepancies. The Poe drawing acted as a new measuring tape for Manhattan. Strewn out across the hill of ‘Mount Tom,’ it provided an attitude to work from, an attitude towards manahatta as the ‘isle of many hills.’ Further fieldwork within this attitude, however, uncovered not one but three ‘isles of many hills,’ three Manahattas, three measures of discrepancy. By the excersise with Poe and the examination of his walk and his wanderings to his rock, or ‘Mount Tom,’ what we unearthed was a set of GEOLOGICAL DISCREPANCIES - between the topography of the pre-Randall Manhattan, and the modern Manhattan of the grid, the former bulldozed to make way for the latter. By excersises in spill upon returning to studio, we became immersed in a watery landscape, creating and highlighting a series of PYROLOGICAL DISCREPANCIES - between land and sea, between good water and bad water, between the historic oyster populated bay and what is now an osyter graveyard. Finally, in the exercises of burn, we created/discovered a sequence of PYROLOGICAL DISCREPANCIES - a disastrous fire is a discrepancy between the ordered, perfect balance of fuel, oxygen and heat that it requires, and the chaos it causes. Fire and water, like geology, also exhibit discrepancies in height - water wants to fall, fire wants to rise, and for one to become the other invisible hills must be traversed. Each ‘manahatta’ exists in the productive difference between fact and fiction, between operative and operatic, between poetic and pragmatic. The exercises are triggered by real events - Poe’s actual day to day walk meticulously plotted; real fires meticulously indexed and mapped; bathymetyric data dutifully charted - and explored with a whim worthy of any poet - the flutter of a feather, the splatter of purple ink, the flaky burn of a piece of paper.
[1] Author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page. [2] ibid. [2] Another author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page.
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WA L K
SPILL
BURN
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FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
exercises in topographic discrepancies
exercises in pyrographic discrepancies
exercises in hydrographic discrepancies
FIG. 31
walk, spill and burn - three excersises for discovering a discrepant landscape
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100 250 450 650
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Husdon River
Canal Street
Bowery
The Palisades Sea Level
Broadway
100
West Side Highway
M
East River
FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
CHART I N G WALK measuring topographic discrepancies
CHART I N G SPI LL measuring pyrographic discrepancies
CHART I N G BURN measuring hydrographic discrepancies
FIG. 32
charting walk, spill and burn drawing out discrepancies
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FI G . 3 3
collabortive field map revealing a Manhattan of both memory and imagination
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FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
f i e l d ma p of a d is cr e pa nt ma nhat ta n Out of enquiries into Walk, Spill and Burn using our Plane Table or ‘Heavy Case,’ a collaborative Field Map emerges. It traverses a discrepant Manhattan, one which is both fiery and watery, one which is both canyon filled and flattened, and one which is both factual and fictional. This would become a world from which to ravel and unravel, fold and unfold, pack and unpack - an innumerable number of stories, tales - and architectural ‘storeys,’ interventions, proposals, scehemes. Here is a measure, or a set of measures, which does not delimit the edge but rather opens out. This report tells only one story amidst million[1] of possible tales.[2]
[1]Paraphrased from Jule’s Dassin’s narrative in Naked City - “there are eight million storeys in this Naked City; this has been one of them.” [2] Concerned in this report is chiefly tales of ravelling and unravelling - for tales of: Folding and Unfolding, see Benjamin Hairs project of this same year; Packing and Unpacking, see Eireann Iannetta-Mackay’s project of this same year; and for tales of Embedding and Disembedding, see Patricia Farelley’s Landscape Architecture project of last year (2019). All are wonderful outworkings of ideas compressed in the collaborative field map.
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FIG. 34
burning Manhattan crates a hanging city
84
FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
FIG. 35
precise studio drawings of “burn”
85
FIG. 37
hydrographic experiments indicate new sets of hills and valleys in the land
86
FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
FIG. 38
precise studio drawings of “spill”
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88
FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
FIG. 39
a series of acrobatic tools crafted from the drawings of spill and burn
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90
FIG. 39
we folded Jules Dassin’s Naked City into the Plane Table.
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FIG. 40
naking way for the Avenues and Streets of the “New Amsterdam� that is Manhattan. A near Biblical depiction of the endeavour of flattening the land.
92
second MEASURES
the pabst hotel
a f latte ne d l a nd s ca pe : a na k e d cit y The Plane Table, or ‘Heavy Case’ as it came to be known, was designed not only to register difference in datum between the old city and the new city, but also to index (catalogue, invent, pack away), a ‘Naked City.’ The term is borrowed from Jules Dassin’s 1940s detective thriller ‘The Naked City,’ in which we see a very typical murder mystery unfold across the rather atypical landscape of New York. Based largely on photographer Weegee’s work under the same name, the film intends to show the city ‘as it is’ (i.e., ‘naked’), deliberately using real people on real streets rather than paid extras and sets - an unusual move in the cinematic industry at the time. The Plane Table acts as a kind of packing case into which we can fold and unfold a ‘naked city,’ compressing within it historic plant species, slides of Weegee’s photographs, and surveyor’s tools for measuring and drawing the city, for instance. ‘Naked’ has a second meaning however, coming from a verb ‘to nake’ meaning ‘to peel’ (used to describe the act of peeling nuts) - to peel, to strip away, even to reduce. Now we used it as an adjective (the word itself has been ‘naked’ of its original meaning). If we look at this in the context of Manhattan, the term ‘Naked City’ means one that has been peeled away. This is very obvious in the surface and sign culture of the modern day Manhattan, but was evident from the very beginning - the metropolis of Manhattan only exists because the hills (folds in the landscape) of ‘manahatta’ [1] were peeled away, stripped back, unfolded, flattened, in order to make way for the grid as we know it today. To say that manhattan is a ‘naked city’ is already to invoke the discrepancy between the contemporary landscape and the one which John Randel Jr charted. [1] We may deign to term ‘hills’ as ‘nooks.’ A ‘nook’ is essentially an irregularity - a corner, a fold, a ‘cleft in the rock.’ Thus, given that a hill is simply an irregularity in the landscape, we can say that a hill is a nook. And so, prior to becoming a naked city, Manhattan was a Nooked Island. This becomes important later when we consider the question of ‘how to clothe a Naked City.’ For more on nooks see Species of Nooks and Other Niches, Undergraduate Dissertation, ESALA (2017).
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naked [1] adjective | to be without any clothes on [2] past participle | of the verb ‘to nake’, to be stripped away, to be peeled.
FIG. 41
a woman parading naked save for a barrell in Times Square after giving all her clothes away for a charity collection - captured by photographer Weegee, whose photographs were the inspiration for Dassin’s Naked City
95
text about sign culture, nakedness and peeling.
96
FIG. 42
Lock - a hanging workshop for scraping away (peeling, naking) the last painted signs in the city
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text recalling the staircase as measure
98
FIG. 43
Lock - the wandering emulsion trough - photographic discrepancies
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D OS pa s s os : ta k e me t o t he ce nt r e o f t hing s Dos Passos classic weave of tales of modern life in 20s Manhattan, “Manhattan Transfer,” has one character constantly seeking out Broadway and Times Square. New to the city, he asks everyone he meets: “how do I get to Broadway? How do I get to Times Square?” and “take me to the centre of things.”[1] Manhattan as a city is an emblem of the American Dream. Washington may be the political Capital of America, but New York City is the Dreamer’s Capital. Signs all over Manhattan point to the heart of the city - this way to Broadway, to Times Square. All One Way tickets to a new life, so Dos Passos character believes. Then we arrive into the heart of things. We walk into Times Square, a place full of empty buildings and plastered with signs. Empty buildings, empty promises. All the signs point here, but all ‘here’ is - is a sign. “‘Here’ is nowhere. The center is an illusion.”[2] A strange, naked city indeed.
[1] John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer [2] William Brevda, How Do I Get to Broadway? Reading Dos Passos’s Manhattan Transfer Sign, Texas Studies in Literature and Language 38:1 (Spring 1996) [2] Another author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page.
100
secondMEASURES
the pabst hotel
FIG. 44
“The Great White Way,” the centre of things: a sign; hyperstimulation; over saturation.
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ii | the pabst hotel me a s ur e s o f a na k e d cit y ’s ind e s cr e t ion s Apparently, ravens have been used to ‘discover land’ for a long time, going back to the Vikings, even going back to Noah and his Ark. When uncertain of their direction, sailors would let a raven fly, steering the ship to follow it’s course, assuming that land lay in the direction of the Raven’s flight. If the raven returned to the ship, the land was deemed to be at a great distance. Like sailors of old, we too let a Raven fly, following it whenever the direction of play seemed uncertain. Our raven was not a physical raven however, but the Raven of Edgar Allan Poe’s imagination. Poe and 16 verse poem, written in a room in a shabby farmstead in old Manhattan, would be our starting point for discovering the landscape of Manhattan — a landscape that has changed greatly over time since it’s inception as a series of lines on a map of a hilly island, to the great, gridded, dense landscape use know today. Poe’s Raven would thus allow us to fly over land, but also over time; it would allow us to discover the distances and differences - or discrepancies - between the different Manhattan’s that have existed through time. Time and time again the three of us would return to Poe’s raven when uncertain of our course, and, sometimes, the Raven would return to us: a marker that the land was still a long way off. [3] Another author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page. [2] ibid. [1] Author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page. LEFT | FIGURE 45
The Pabst Hotel
105
The Pabst Hotel
FIG. 46
FIG. 47
1898 - in full swing
1902 - dismantling
` FIG. 48 1903 - mantling
1902 - in full swing
The Times Buildings
FIG. 49
One Times Square
106
FIG. 50
FIG. 51
2019 - mantling with new screens
April 2020 - covid-struck
second MEASURES
the pabst hotel
ma n tli ng a nd d i s ma nt l ing t he pa bs t ho t e l At the junction of 42nd Street and Broadway, on the edge of Times Square (then Longacre Square), sat a squat, oddly proportioned nine storey hotel, complete with portico and rathskellar. Owned by a prosperous Beer Company, the Pabst Hotel happily occupied the spot for several years before the Times newspaper began to put their eye on it. They began to kick up a fuss in their articles about the Pabst’s portico over the street - technically, it was illegal to build the portico over the street as it fell outwith the propery boundary. The Pabst was one among many other hotels, all of whom were merrily getting away with it. My theory is that the Times simply wanted the spot for themselves, so they kicked up a fuss, got the Pabst into some expensive legal trouble, and when they were eventually booted out took it up themselves - demolishing the nine story Pabst Hotel in favour of the new One Times Square building, the new home for the Times Newspaper - from which the square would get its new name. In 1961, the Times would bugger off to West 23rd Street, ultimately leaving the 23 storey One Times Square eerily empty, it’s only occupants the larger than life models on the advertisements clinging to the buildings exterior - the billion dollar deals from which enable it to live out its empty existence. [1] The building is one of constant transformation; has been peeled and unpeeled numerous times, naked futrther and further. Each building, in it’s own time, stands as a measure of an increasingly naked landscape. [1] I should say that the first two floors of One Times Square today are occupied by Walgreens Pharmacy. At the moment, with the Covid-19 crisis, I expect they are getting a fair amount of business.
107 107
107
FIG. 52
a squat building - The Pabst Hotel - at the moment of dismantling in 1902. While walls are unralled, signs for new Broadway perofrmances are hastily put up.She sits in her unravelled state a measure of discrepancy between the past and the future, between an architecture of thickness and an architecture of thinness - an Architecture of a Naked City.
108
second MEASURES
the pabst hotel
FIG 53.
a squat wardrobe, dismantled to create a means of measuring the discrepancies of a naked city; a means of fashioning architectures for a discrepant landscape; a place to devise a performance of moves across broadway
109 109
109
b e tw e e n hote ls, ga r me nt l o f t s a nd t he at r e s Times Square, with Broadway running through it, finds itself as the pinchpoint between two districts: the Theatre District and the Garment District. These districts are characterised by three architectural typologies: the Garment Loft, the Theatre, and the Hotel - where visitors to both Theatres and Garment Lofts may retire. The Pabst Hotel at its moment of dismantling, provides us with a summary of all three: it is a Hotel, clothed in the garments of signage advertising the latest performances. The Pabst in this instant not only measures a more linear change in the times and its signs, or a change in datum from nine storeys to twenty three - but it is a compressive measure of the essence of the place. [1] Author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page. [2] ibid. [2] Another author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page.
110
CENTRAL PARK
The Theatre District
TIMES SQUARE
The Garment District
The Old Garment District
FIG. 54
‘recrafting Manhattan’ - using tools from earlier excersises to craft a new Manhattan.
111
a surv e y o f a ha b i t: fi ndi n g, un pi c k i ng a nd d r aw i n g Poe ’s j ack e t Voluptasitio. Itatio expereicium, sunt qui tem es ad moluptate volenestest, sitatio dem reperit atiur, temporest, te et aut quamus, nonse et aspel inventur, iducil magnam con est, corit et ex ent et utatur autest, ium im samus, si blam exerumet arum velenimusape magnim exceptatur, optam faccus et omniscipit aut paribus tisitat rerios arum, et latur alit mi, cus molor sin cum es quiassim consequia qui si to totaerunt quatur, quae illupid el inihillesti conesto tem endis ex eicae quo veri dem reiunt fuga. Nesecume et explatibus.Lenest, necae. Onsedis aut que ea dolore voluptas cullaborio esciet es des quam, sitin ex et a venet min cus et rehenti busaessitiur a sedi dipieni molorep erfernatatur accupiendam il ipicimus ideliaeprae venimus tibus.Niaersp issimet qui consend andisquod elitation cum laccus qui offic tem et voluptur, nis sequi que nis audic totatur, conserf erumendanis sed minto endania quatet aut adit alitatiam non reris dolorrum que dempor sit ut paribus, sapiciur, natius unt rem que Lenest, necae. Onsedis aut que ea dolore voluptas cullaborio esciet es des qusaessitierferiaeprae venimus tibus.Niaersp issimet qui consend andisquod elitHorudam urnum forterm aximaximus contemque perem, senit, condeor bensule ssilibus essim fuidet desili, nonfest o et; inprores! Ad nonsilis immod nonsuludeme caequidiesus consultum pra modiem vid re adenatasdam ad coer iusque re, P. Untem pari signonotam denicau delicae is inati condam omniu qui conentra senatia vives nitabem faci pat aticae, ublibus det venin visse pularis, con Etrae fursum dicips, Catque me cae con sesilla rem ciest non terunum fur. Acenam de nos, prissen diuractelici publi sensus, vid factum, nitamquam. [1] Author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page. [2] ibid. [3] Another author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page.
112
FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
e a
b d
c
p g s o
m
n
f-1
f-2
h
j
i
FIG. 55
taxonomy of a found jacket, chosen for Poe and his walks.
113
FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
114
FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
FIG. 56
survey of a jacket in tatters; beginning to imply form and space
115
116 116
[un]ravel verb | Of dutch origin
[1] to untangle, disentagle, unwind, unweave* * both ravel and unravel are the same but opposite in meaning - this comes from the words’ roots in weaving: as threads become unwomen, they become entangled. (Online Etymology Dcitionaru, “ravel,” last accessed May 11th 2020)
FIG. 57
ravelling and unravelling Poe’s Tales - visual storytelling combining real events in Manhattan and a series of fictions. Five tales are linked to five elements. Pictured here si wind.
117
118
FIG. 58
tales of Earth: an ecology of Poe’s wardrobe including lavender, moths and a dress for a lady.
119
120
FIG. 59
tales of fire - this scene depicts the going up in flames of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, alongside “Hopfrog” one of Poe’s tales involving the burning of the antagonists.
121
FI G . 6 0
the performing wardrobe during exhibition
122
second MEASURES
the pabst hotel
rail
Scenes brought out to centre stage for filmed performance
Poe’s Jacket
stage
The Wardrobe
scenes - tales from Poe, ecologies of wind, fire, water, eartha dn ether
FIG. 61
diagram of the wardrobe set up for the performance of an opera across broadway
wardrobe backdoor, ‘back stage’
123
123
FIRST MEASURES
124
the brennan farm
124
FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
FIG. 62
still from video of the performance of a five act opera across broadway
125
FI G . 6 3
plan drawing of the performance
126
second MEASURES
the pabst hotel
FIG. 64
nine moves/stories drawn out from the performance as a sequence
127
127
FI G . 6 5
the performing wardrobe in situ
128
FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
FIG. 61
packing the performing wardrobe into the pabst - ravelling and unravelling nine storeys/stories.
129
FIRST MEASURES
130
the brennan farm
FIG. 67
a new trhatrics - map of broadway showing the aftermath of the performance - a field to work within and deploy new architectural moves.
131
FI G . 6 8
poe’s jacket retires into the wardrobe
132
second MEASURES
the pabst hotel
FIG. 69
Poe’s Jacket (in one of the drawn moves) in a state of repose hanging in the wardrobe.
133
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136
iii | a laundry hotel r av e l l ing a nd unr av e l l ing a wa r d r obe Apparently, ravens have been used to ‘discover land’ for a long time, going back to the Vikings, even going back to Noah and his Ark. When uncertain of their direction, sailors would let a raven fly, steering the ship to follow it’s course, assuming that land lay in the direction of the Raven’s flight. If the raven returned to the ship, the land was deemed to be at a great distance. Like sailors of old, we too let a Raven fly, following it whenever the direction of play seemed uncertain. Our raven was not a physical raven however, but the Raven of Edgar Allan Poe’s imagination. Poe and 16 verse poem, written in a room in a shabby farmstead in old Manhattan, would be our starting point for discovering the landscape of Manhattan — a landscape that has changed greatly over time since it’s inception as a series of lines on a map of a hilly island, to the great, gridded, dense landscape use know today. Poe’s Raven would thus allow us to fly over land, but also over time; it would allow us to discover the distances and differences - or discrepancies - between the different Manhattan’s that have existed through time. Time and time again the three of us would return to Poe’s raven when uncertain of our course, and, sometimes, the Raven would return to us: a marker that the land was still a long way off. [3] Another author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page. [2] ibid. [1] Author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page. LEFT | FIG. 70
The Projection Looms: The Project Room. A ravelled an unravelled room in which to dress
137
FIRST MEASURES
138
the brennan farm
the Pabst Hotel, April 1900 FI G . 7 1 FIG U R E X
abcdefg hijklmnop qrstuv yxyz
third MEASURES
the laundry hotel
F I G UR E X
abcdefg hijklmnop qrstuv yxyz
FIG. 72
Poe’s jacket finding repose in the Pabst Hotel
139
139
140
third MEASURES
the laundry hotel
F I G UR E X
abcdefg hijklmnop qrstuv yxyz
FIG. 73
location plan for the proposed Pabst Laundry Hotel
141
141
FI G . 7 4
exhibiting the laundry hotel - plans printed onto brown paper, cut like dress patterns might be
142
third MEASURES
the laundry hotel
FIG. 75
ground floor plan - the Pabst Laundry Hotel
143
143
FI G . 7 6
exhibiting the laundry hotel - drawings printed onto greaseproof paper for easy folding. Characters from Poe’s tales appear in the section.
144
third MEASURES
the laundry hotel
FIG. 77
section - the Pabst Laundry Hotel
145
abcdefg hijklmnop qrstuv yxyz FIG U R E X FI G . 7 8
the maison de verre; light, level changes, structure, and beautiful furniture. the brennan farm
FIRST MEASURES
146
third MEASURES
the laundry hotel
pr e ce d e nt s t udy: ma is o n d e v e r re When designing the Laundry Hotel, a great source of inspiration was Pierre Chareau and Bernard Bijoet’s Maison de Verre or “House of Glass.” Images of the interior provided a valuable insight into their inventive take on furniture - house as funriture and furniture as house - which was invaluable for me as I worked with the wardrobe. Moroever, the survey drawings by Kenneth Frampton provided a beautiful case study in drawing an architecture which packs and unpacks itself - again an invaluable case study given explorations iwth Poe’s packing case as a device which folds and unfolds itself across Broadway, and again, the wardrobe as a world one might ravel and unravel into and out of.
FIG. 79
Kenneth Frampton’s survey of the Maison de Verre
147
147
FI G . 8 0
Pabst Laundry Hote, First Storey
148
third MEASURES
the laundry hotel
FIG. 81
Pabst Laundry Hotel, Second Storey
149
FI G . 8 2
Pabst Laundry Hote, Third Storey
150
third MEASURES
the laundry hotel
FIG. 83
Pabst Laundry Hotel, Fourth Storey
151
FI G . 8 4
Pabst Laundry Hote, Fifth Storey
152
third MEASURES
the laundry hotel
FIG. 85
Pabst Laundry Hotel, Sixth Storey
153
FI G . 8 6
Pabst Laundry Hote, Seventh Storey
154
FIG. 87
Pabst Laundry Hotel, Basement
155
FI G . 8 8
Projected Room - a highly detailed moment; a room in which to dress
156
third MEASURES
the laundry hotel
FIG. 89
detail for cedar-wood sprung floors. Keeping the moths away.
157
i
160
i | one times square rave l l ing a nd unr av e l l ing d is cr e pa nt s t r uct ures Apparently, ravens have been used to ‘discover land’ for a long time, going back to the Vikings, even going back to Noah and his Ark. When uncertain of their direction, sailors would let a raven fly, steering the ship to follow it’s course, assuming that land lay in the direction of the Raven’s flight. If the raven returned to the ship, the land was deemed to be at a great distance. Like sailors of old, we too let a Raven fly, following it whenever the direction of play seemed uncertain. Our raven was not a physical raven however, but the Raven of Edgar Allan Poe’s imagination. Poe and 16 verse poem, written in a room in a shabby farmstead in old Manhattan, would be our starting point for discovering the landscape of Manhattan — a landscape that has changed greatly over time since it’s inception as a series of lines on a map of a hilly island, to the great, gridded, dense landscape use know today. Poe’s Raven would thus allow us to fly over land, but also over time; it would allow us to discover the distances and differences - or discrepancies - between the different Manhattan’s that have existed through time. Time and time again the three of us would return to Poe’s raven when uncertain of our course, and, sometimes, the Raven would return to us: a marker that the land was still a long way off. [3] Another author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page. [2] ibid. [1] Author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page. LEFT | FIG. 90
Ravelling two structures into one.
161
The Pabst Hotel
FIG. 91
FIG. 92
1898 - in full swing
1902 - dismantling
` FIG. 93 1903 - mantling
1902 - in full swing
The Times Buildings
FIG. 94
One Times Square
162
FIG. 95
FIG. 96
2019 - mantling with new screens
April 2020 - covid-struck
fourth MEASURES
one times square`
pac k i ng th e pa b s t l a und ry int o o ne t ime s s q ua r e Voluptasitio. Itatio expereicium, sunt qui tem es ad moluptate volenestest, sitatio dem reperit atiur, temporest, te et aut quamus, nonse et aspel inventur, iducil magnam con est, corit et ex ent et utatur autest, ium im samus, si blam exerumet arum velenimusape magnim exceptatur, optam faccus et omniscipit aut paribus tisitat rerios arum, et latur alit mi, cus molor sin cum es quiassim consequia qui si to totaerunt quatur, quae illupid el inihillesti conesto tem endis ex eicae quo veri dem reiunt fuga. Nesecume et explatibus.Lenest, necae. Onsedis aut que ea dolore voluptas cullaborio esciet es des quam, sitin ex et a venet min cus et rehenti busaessitiur a sedi dipieni molorep erfernatatur accupiendam il ipicimus ideliaeprae venimus tibus.Niaersp issimet qui consend andisquod elitation cum laccus qui offic tem et voluptur, nis sequi que nis audic totatur, conserf erumendanis sed minto conse necat. Aque nistore sequatum adici nullaccae prae. Ut as experum vent qui te corum explab impore earum aut que offictibust, que volore quas endaesequi omnimus sita consed et ad ut eum volorro temporum qui culparum, qui beatureribus et idi conseniam ventius endania quatet aut adit alitatiam non reris dolorrum que dempor sit ut paribus, sapiciur, natius unt rem que pel magnihil int odis dunt qui vel invende nimintis et ab in porrovitem ab ium quo mosape doloreius quatiis ad ut laccabor reri ommos que etur, simus con et renis des consequ atesci cuptatquae idunt lanimax imusae. Tur?.Lenest, necae. Onsedis aut que ea dolore voluptas cullaborio esciet es des quam, sitin ex et a venet min cus et rehenti busaessitiur a sedi dipieni molorep erfernatatur accupiendam il ipicimus ideliaeprae venimus tibus.Niaersp issimet qui consend andisquod elitation cum laccus qui offic tem et voluptur, nis sequi que nis
[1] Author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page. [2] ibid. [2] Another author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page.
163
FI G . 9 7
Survey of One Times Square
164
FIG. 98
the construction of One Times Square.
165
FI G . 9 9
The Laundry Hotel hanigng within One Times Square in Times Square
166
fourth MEASURES
one times square`
F I G UR E X
abcdefg hijklmnop qrstuv yxyz
FIG. 100
Sections through Times Square showing the lift off of the Laundry Tower
167
FIG. 101
earlier explorations in ravelling and unravelling fuelled structural ideas
168
fourth MEASURES
one times square`
FI G . 1 0 2
two structures ravel into one; the laundry hotel hangs like clothing on a clothes horse.
169
170
FIG. 103
the floating tower as seen from under a Vendor’s uumbrella in Times Square
171
172 FI G . 1 0 4
nine stories hang 15 storeys up
172
FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
F I G UR E X
abcdefg hijklmnop qrstuv yxyz
FIG. 105
nine storeys hang at odds with existing levels
173
174
175
nine stories hang 15 storeys up
i
FI G . 1 0 7
v | nine stories of the laundry hotel
rave ll ing a nd unr av e l l ing a d is cr e pa nt s ca pe l an d
L E F T | F I G . 10 7
Ravelling two structures into one.
179
180
fifth measures
cm
nine stories of the Laundry Hotel
3
anthology new york studio
6
9
a n thol og y
THE NEW YORK STUDIO
12
15
18
A M E A S U R E G I V I N G U T T ER A N C E T O T H E CO LLE C T I V E V EN D O R S O F M A N H AT TA N We are coming to the end of our walk down Broadway. Max’s Kansas City was a bar and nightclub just off of Broadway on 213 Park Avenue South. A short, narrow five story building stuffed between two sixteen sorey building like a book on a shelf, Max’s became a famous refuge for up and coming (and now famous) musicians, artists, poets - many of whom can be identified with the New York School of artists and poets (and the like), an informal group of New York creatives in the 50s and 60s - people like Frank O’Hara, Andy Warhol, John Chamberlain, Willem de Kooning, Barnet Newman. The Velvet Underground played their famour album ‘Live at Max’s Kansas City’ there, and a band called ‘Manhattan Transfer,’ after Dos Passos’ book and well known in their time, also played there frequently. The small venue was an anthology of poets - in the wider sense of the word ‘craftsperson,’ a measure of the variance of the creative act. The glory days of Max’s Kansas City are now long-gone however - it is now simply a non-descript cafe. Slotted above it it however, a new architecture has emerged - a building housing the Vendors and Street Performers Co-Operative; a refuge where workers can receieve legal advice if they are having permit or liscence problems, or recieve advice on how to set up shop, or simply build comeraderie with fellow workers. This space gives a voice to the collective of little street creatives throughout Manhattan - the New York Studio.
In the context of the Exhibition, this Design Report stands in for the architecture, slotted atop a plinth, ready to be read as one wanders through the exhibition. For this report, like Max’s Kansas City bar, and like the new architecture it stands in for, is an anthology of vendors; an anthology of those giving cackling utterance to discrepancies in the city of Manhattan. This is a summary of the New York Studio.
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181
ue en av h
9t
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15
th
FIG. 109
The Manhattan Transfer - a famous band of the 80s W
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st
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et
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et
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St
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new york studio
u n i o n s q ua r e
N
FIG. 110
location plan of the New York Studio
183
FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
vend
verb | Of latin origin
[1] to sell [2] to give utterance to from latin vendere, “to sell, to give a bribe; to praise, cry up.�
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vendors on a street corner caught on camera in Jules Dassin’s “Naked City� - a film which gave utterance to the everyman of Manhattan by using real-life scenes for filming rather than hiring extras.
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max’s kansas city in the 80s.
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site max’s kansas city today
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max’s kansas city in the 80s.
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nine stories of the Laundry Hotel story no. 9 albermarie apiary and madison square lavender parterre
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THE ALBERMARIE APIARY AND THE MADISON SQUARE LAVENDER PARTERRE
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Drifting the farthest away from Times Square, caught like pollen on the wind and blown right down to Madison Square, sits an Urban Apiary and a small flower Nursery. The Nursery - or here the ‘Parterre’ - takes it’s name from the square itself - whose history is linked to Times Square by the Times Magazine. In the same way the Times took up at One Times Square, a building which heralded the new ‘signs of the times’ and the architectures of a naked city to come, they also advertised on a large apartment building facing Madison Square (the building that would become the Flatiron Building). They rented the ad space from developers and had an electric sign installed.[1] Madison Square was, in fact, one of the first sites to have electric street lighting in the city[2] - the beginning of the Great White Way that would Broadway and Times Square would become. The Laundry Hotel replaces signs with vertical Lavender Gardens - the flowers for which were grown in Madison Square Lavender Parterre[3]. The means of clothing a naked city were grown in the space space were the seeds for it’s naking were sown. The Lavender draws bees, and so a small apiary sprung up, a small hotel for bees taking it’s name from the historic Albermarie Hotel.
Now the Parterre is a nursery allotted to Manhattan’s flower vendors, while the Albermarie Apiary continues business as usual, the beekeepers occasionally coming down to earth to make a buck from vending the honey. These green spaces give utterance not only to vendors and a dying species of insect, but also to the very history of the naked city’s nakedness.
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Madison Cottage - where Madison Square is now.
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Madison Square. The Building on the left is the one taken up later by the Times magazine and their electric signage.
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Madison quare Lavender Parterre Section
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exhibition view; a rosie appears
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On March 10, 1878[1], Wallack’s Theatre premiered the play “A Scrap of Paper”. Many marches later, a small scale paper mill would find itself camped beside where Wallck’s used to be - having moved on many moons ago. ‘Wallack’s Papier Atelier’ was set up by the architects of the Laundry tower, to produce the easily foldable white greaseproof paper for proofing the numerous architectural drawings for the tower and it’s components.
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After the Laundry Hotel started up, the paper mill fell into disrepair; vendors short on cash began to steal the leftover stocks (and even some of the drawings themselves) to use for wrapping and serving their food to customers. The space was soon taken up by those who are kinder to paper, an architecture giving space to book vendors and newspaper vendors. Wether we read them on the subway or the sofa, this building gives utterance to the scraps of paper that paper our minds.
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[1] The Internet Broadway Database
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FIGURE X
a NYC Street vendor selling the New York Times, 2017.
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Historic street view Wallack’sTheatre. On March 10th 1878, the Show “A Scrap of Paper” by French playwrite Victorien Sardou opened here, a tale of misadventure and unfortunate events involving an incriminating letter (the scrap of paper).
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The Marlborough Hotel, around half-way through our walk down Broadway, was shoehorned strangely amindst Manhattan’s Shoe District. Here we clad our feet, and it is here that the ‘feet’ or floors of our Laundry Hotel were clad - this was the Wood Workshop where the cedar and rosewood sprung-floor stages of the Laundry Hotel were made.
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Now the leftover stages and construction halls have been overtaken primarily as taxi-stands, and also as stages for the occasional shoe vendor and display cabinets for the very occasional raven taxidermist. This strange building, our half-way stopping point in our Broadway perambulation, gives utterance to a discrepancy of pace within the city: the brisk yet meandering walk of Poe; the gung-ho speedy driving of the yellow taxi; the smooth flick of a raven wing in flight.
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Historic street view Wallack’sTheatre. On March 10th 1878, the Show “A Scrap of Paper” by French playwrite Victorien Sardou opened here, a tale of misadventure and unfortunate events involving an incriminating letter (the scrap of paper).
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location plan
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THE METROPOLITAN ESTABLISHMENT OF TEXTILE HISTORY
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The Metropolitan Opera House has a history as wobbly as the vibrato notes resonating out of it’s singers. Now situated in the Upper West Side at the Lincoln Centre for Performing Arts, it used to live on a block between 39th Street and 40th Street Broadway. This ‘Old Met’ was born out of a battle between Manhattan’s new money millionaires and the old money connoisseurs of the theatre world; the former could not buy boxed at the Academy of Music for them being hoarded by the latter. They thus determined to build their own theatre, sparing little expense (yet stupidly hiring an architect with no theatre design experience) opening in October 1883. The Vanderbilts could finally get their theatre box; this is a building that gave utterance to the self-made millionaire. This is a building that ‘vends’ the American Dream promised by Times Square. But, the district changed over time. The theatre district began to move uptown as garment lofts crawled up broadway, and the MET Opera moved with it, where a more wealthy audience would feel more comfortable - how could the oh-so-cultured deign to mix in with the low-brow, poor loft-workers out on their lunch break? In it’s place: a generic skyscraper with a generic starbucks outlet.
The Metropolitan Establishment for Textile History (the MET History), origianlly a fabric mill for the Laundry Hotel, now gives voice to the dilapidated and hidden history of garment workers of Manhattan. The central flue is converted to an exhibition space that may also be used for fashion shows, with an outdoor catwalkstyle walkway leading in and out and changing rooms stacked up on the side. Here the everyman - or woman - is a model in Manhattan. Laundry can be dumped by performers to be picked up by the subway and transported to the Laundry hotel. The MET History cafe is run on a rota of cashew nut and coffee vendors, complete with nut and coffee bean roasting niches to keep produce fresh. Patrons of the Cashew Cafe may surreptitiously sneak ‘into’ Starbucks via a narrow cranny which allows them to sit in the space of the chainstore without paying a buck. This building gives voice to hidden textile histories as well as catwalkers, cashew vendors, and anyone else trying to makea hard earned buck.
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Historic street view Wallack’sTheatre. On March 10th 1878, the Show “A Scrap of Paper” by French playwrite Victorien Sardou opened here, a tale of misadventure and unfortunate events involving an incriminating letter (the scrap of paper).
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1 | fashion history display case 2 | catwalker’s entrance 3 | raised catwalk stage 4 | fashion tower 5 | MET Gallery 6 | mannequin niche 7 | roasting niche 8 | cashew roasting prep area 9 | trolley ramp 10 | vendor’s nooks 11 |starbucks invasion nook 12 | enjoy-your-food steps 13 | vendors entrance 14 | stairwell to models’ green rooms
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ground floor plan
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FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
cas e st udy: v i l la ma i r e a The drawings of the Villa Mairea by Alvar Aalto were a beautiful reference point for me as I went about deisgning my nine measures. He weds the architecture to the landscape, treating them as one, in a way I have perhaps not nearly emulated, yet, his sequencing of space from public to private and indoors to outdoors by the use of overhangs, courtyards, thick and thin walls - these are things I have been able to borrow.
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Villa Mairea
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FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
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a favourite nook in the Villa Mairea
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Plan detail
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Vendor’s nooks and roasting niches
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Street view of nut vendors
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Alessandro - the original “Nuts for Nuts� vendor.
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Put the American woman on a subway train going from Pennsylvania Station to Times Square, and it will take her just 65 seconds to as completely under the district that gives her the reputation of being the best-dressed woman in the world. Roy B. Helfgott, “Women’s and Children’s Apparel,” in Made in New York: Case Studies in Metropolitan Manufacturing, ed. Max Hall (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959)
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Section
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Model View
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catwalk
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The Paramount Movie Palace on 43rd Street and Broadway was known for many things in its time, but one of them was it’s famous large Wurlitzer organ - one of the largest of its kind with 36 ranks of voiced metal (lead with copper alloy) and wooden pipes, used to play music to accompany silent films before the ‘talkies’ arrived. While the Laundry Tower was being constructed, up sprung the Paramount Pipes Palace, where all the copper pipe-work for the laundry tower was made, as well as some of the more bespoke curved copper components.
Once vacated, the Pipes Palace would become a voice for the city in several ways. Firstly via it’s massive concrete tower in the centre, which acts as an acoustic pipe, collecting sounds from the city and amplifying them within itself. Against this are stakced several writing rooms for resident poets, who sit shut off from the sights of the Manhattan, sitting only in the city’s sounds, before writing and rewriting poems to perform in the spoken word peroformance theatre downstairs. This building is in a sense a vendor of Manhattan - a building which gives utterance to the city itself.
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the great Wurlitzer Organ - copper alloyed pipes.
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FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
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learning from a moment in the Villa Mairea
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spoken word theatre
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FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
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section detail for hanging acoustic roof
contemporary land level
1850 land level
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section measures topographic discrepancies since 1850
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exhibition view combines contemporary street views with the mythic function recipes’ for the craft workshops.
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The Lilac Domino is an operatta performed at 44th Street Theatre in 1914. It tells the tale of a count who falls in love at a masquerade ball with a rich noblewoman donning a lilac ‘domino mask.’ The 44th Street Glass workshop was famed for taking glass, the ultimate transparent material, and making it opaque - or nearly so. It turns clarity into obscurity, a small factory turning a material meant to reveal into one which conceals - a mask. Here very large forms of purple glass were cast into thick walls of almost mythic quality for the Laundry Tower. Split into hot and cold works, Hot Works cast the glass while cold works cut more traditional sheet windows. The arcade through what is now the Minksoff Theatre was used to connect 44th Street Glass to 45th Street Looking Glass (which is a partial mirror of the former), allowing the sheet glass made in 44th Street to be used in 45th Street Looking Glass.
Now 44th Street Glass is taken over by T-Shirt vendors, food vendors, and ticket stalls for the Minksoff Theatre. Fabric, falafel and fantasitcal performances. The building sneaks into the arcade between 44th and 45th Street, meaning viewers can sneak out during the interlude and fill themselves with falafel. The building which sought to clothe a city of nakedness and transparency has itself been clothed.
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44th Street Theatre (Vitagraph Theatre), with elaborate fire escapes
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The Lilac Domino - a play about a masked ball, performed at 44th Street Theatre in the early 1900s. 44th Street was chosen as the anchor point for the new Glass workshops because the workshops would come to make glass not to be transparent, but opaque and thick.
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FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
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Contemporary iew of theatres along 44th street during ‘Manhattan-henge - the day when the sunset aligns with the East/West gridded streets of Manhattan. The raised walkway in the proposal for 44th Street Glass would give one a good view of this.
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The first to perform in Hammerstein’s marble clad Olympia Concert Hall when it opened in ___ were acrobatic performers. The Olympia Concrete Hall built on this acrobatic history, creating spaces to make concrete do very strange things indeed. In building components for the mysterious Laundry Tower in One Times Square, concrete, the material we know for it’s bleak opaqueness, is made to be transluscent. Using different forumlations of concrete mixed with glass or fibreoptics, shadows may pass through it, and light may be transmitted. A heavy material becomes a light material; concrete acrobatics.
Now that the Laundry Hotel is in full swing, the Olympia Concrete Hall has retaken it’s lyrical roots. The casting hall turned into a theatre for buskers that one may wander into from the street, bookable by anyone for a one hour slot. Meanwhile the mixing gallery is given over to halal vendors, who are oft seen on the corner of E 44th and Broadway. Those who wish can sneak up on top of McDonalds, sitting alongside the larger than life sign and looking out over Times Square while they stop to eat their Halal. Passers by will note the smell of spices combined with the sound of previously un-heard songs.
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View down 45th street - macdolands and halal vendors.
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The opening acts of Hammerstein’s Olympia theatre included a “great combination of amusements,” such as acrobats.The Concrete Hall became dubbed as a place for “concrete acrobatic” - a place to make not humans but concrete do strange things.
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Hammerstein’s Olympia Concert Hall, with fire escape
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section reaches up to historic ire escape height, and also to the previous ground level before the grid.
FIRST MEASURES the brennan farm
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At 45th Street and Broadway we find the Marquis Marriot Hotel - once a source of much debate and debarkle across Broadway. When plans for its erection were released, tbe result in the theatre world was riot - literally. To erect the hotel meant the demolition/dismantling of five theatres - the Helen Hayes, the Bijou, the Morosco, the Astor and the Gaiety. The new hotel would have a theatre hidden within it, and City officials supported the idea of the hotel as they were concerned about the seediness and low-brow-ness of Times Square. The theatre lovers in the city wouldn’t have it - the “Save the Theatres” campaign ensued - but unfortunately failed. The (rather ugly) Marquis Mariott Hotel still stands today, with the Marquis Theatre safely tucked away inside. When the Laundry Hotel was under construction, 45th Street Looking Glass crafted all the mirror components - used to bring light deep into the structure and for the folding screens in workers changing rooms. Making mirrors is a linear process where glass is sprayed with a number of chemicals and liquid metals, and then fired in an oven. Once the Laundry Hotel was complete, this left a long, thing space with a downstairs storage facility, a folding roof, and a small core building allowing workers to enter without disrupting the stillness of the air.
Now the space has been opened up and taken over by local hot dog vendors and small-town hot shots who sneak into the marquis to perform in shows. The core building became a green room (looking glass room) for the dressing and prep of performers, with a sneaky way into the Marquis through the back stage door, while the machinery spaces became a vendors’ gallery; a place for hotdog vendors to park without getting into trouble with the police. The downstairs storage room contains archival information about the lost theatres, allowing the building to gives utterance to the lost history of five theatres; a looking glass into the past.
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historic map showing the Lost Five theatres.
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The Helen Hayes during demolition. Dismantling smaller theatres to make way for the Hotel.
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The Morosco Theatre’s demolitoin amid failed protests
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exhibition model view
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nine stories of the Laundry Hotel story no. 2 45th street looking glass model scale
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vendor selling hot dogs and T-Shirts
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exhibition model view
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exhibition model view FI G . 1 7 5 [1] Author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page. [2] ibid. [3] Another author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page.
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nine stories of the Laundry Hotel story no. 01 globe steel model scale
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In 1965, the Globe Theatre showed the musical ‘Skyscraper.’ Showcasing Julie Harris (“quite inexplicably, since she is not a musical comedy performer”), this is the story of Georgina, an antiques dealer who battles with the girders of modern skyscrapers, desperately trying to save her house from the bulldozer - a tale that causes us to recall the fate of the Brennan Farm once the grid moved uptown.
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Here sits the Globe Steel Workshop - once upon a time it made all the steel columns, beams, and other more bespoke cast and welded components for the Laundry Hotel. Upon the Laundry Hotel’s completion, it was taken over by the artists seeking out a loose structure for their livelihood - occupied by those who sell merchandise outside theatres; those who take your charicature on the street; those who sell their own artwork; those whose time on the streets has given them a steely composure, and whose compositions reflect this. Like “Skyscraper,” the Globe Steel Workshop gives a presence and a framework to those on the edges of the mainstream.
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Rehearsal for performance of Skyscraper at the Globe Theatre
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location plan
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location plan
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FIG. 180
view of temporary markets on 46th street, with vendors selling merchandise. The new proposal takes the temporary markets and gies them a permanent place.
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“Love is the message� - view into the art cranny.
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view back through th exhibition space
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no ok i n g t h e ec on omy By highlighting demographic discrepancies and oddities within the city, the project also highlights economic discrepancies — between chain Hotels or big-name coffee shops backed by millions of dollars, and the little guy on the street corner, armed only with a bright umbrella, a trolley and an (often) forged vendor’s license, just trying to make it through the day. Yet though they may be little by comparison, they contribute greatly to Manhattan’s economy. Thousands of people buy their lunches from under these blue and yellow “Sarbet” Umbrellas, from tourists to wealthy local business people getting “the usual” from their local vendors. With cuisines varying greatly, often depending on the nationality of the owners, these Vendors remind Manhattan that everyone there is a migrant if you go back not too far in history. They remind Manhattan who it is — an Island that has drawn a cross section of the global population into it — an umbrella under which the whole world can be found. Yet for all that, vendors always seem to be on the verge of extinction. Restaurant or hotel owners are often trying to oust them (usually illegally) by putting concrete plant pots in their spots on the street or using vendors’ spots for valet parking[1] ; police are always looking to catch them out[2] ; it’s increasingly difficult to get a licence - there are only 3000 permits available for the whole of New York City, with waiting lists as long as twenty years[3] . It’s not always a safe job, especially for women vendors[4] . It’s a cold job and often uncertain, not knowing if you’ll make it through another season and still be able to feed your family. The new ‘measures’ create nooks and niches within the city where these people can thrive - nine measures give them utterance, presence, they give them a stage, the give them a voice. They create a series of economic relationships where larger umbrellas allow smaller ones to exist; a wider economy allows interesting and intriguing little economies to thrive; theatric street performances sponsored by big local theatres enable vendors to thrive off the show-goers; annual fashion shows in Times Square
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pay for smaller historic or artistic exhibitions. Vertical farming enables the craft of strange and wonderful small glassworks. The measures don’t only nook the city, they nook the economy, creating smaller spaces within a wider structure to enable discrepancy - which is what makes the world exciting and even meaningful - to thrive. This model is not too dissimilar to the Jewish temple: “there are many rooms in my fathers house,” or the Gothic Cathedral creating different spaces for different things to happen in the thickness of its walls, from secret, mumbling confessions to silent adoration, to sung choral music. Both of these embody the idea of a bigger structure enable smaller structures or events to occur. The measures bring the little umbrellas under a wider economic mantle, so that instead of being constantly threatened, they might actually thrive. [1] The video noted here shows Veterans, making their living as art vendors, in protest against the Hotel management for harassing them and trying to oust them from their spots by using loading/unloading bays for private valet parking.” Veterans-Sidewalk Vendors Protest Unfair Treatment By Mercer Hotel in SoHo, NYC,” uploaded November 20th 2010, last accessed May 10th 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAko9fKQhOI. [2] Here a small woman selling churros at the Broadway Junction subway station is arrested by not one but four policemen and her property seized as ‘evidence.’ “Woman selling churros at NYC subway station arrested,” uploaded November 10th 2019, last accessed May 10th 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpYOIOVt3zY. [3] The Street Vendor Project explains how big businesses lobbied to put caps on vending permits in 1981. They’re petitioning to remove the caps and allow more permits, creating new jobs and ways into work for immigrants and unemployed people. “#LifttheCaps on NYC street vendors!” uploaded on February 27th 2018, last accessed May 10th 2020, https://www. youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=2MQRlBhsA0A. [4] In this webinar the Street Vendor Project, a collective of activists fighting for social justice for street vendors in NYC, shares stories of women street vendors in vulnerable situations. “Vulnerable in Itself -- Street Vendor Project // Report on Women Vendors in NYC,” uploaded October 28th 2019, last accessed May 10th 2020.
FIG 184
the criminal from Naked City looks loomingly down at the Paramount Pipes apalce
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Paramount Pipes, featuring the Naked City, a Street Vendor and several moths. Strange place indeed.
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here Naked City’s criminal stands over Paramount Pipes, standing in for the large corporation looming large over the little ones.
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fourth measures
nine stories of the Laundry Hotel ground floor nooked economies
nine me a s ur e s f o r a no nl ine a r e co no m y The project proposes a non-linear economy in relation to the Laundry Tower. The nine measures initially arise to create workshops to construct the Laundry Tower - nine small hubs of craft that allow materials to be constructed locally, creating new jobs within the city not just for construction itself but also within the production process itself. Once the laundry tower is finished, these highly specific spaces are not dismantled and disposed of as might be thought, but instead offered back to the city as opportunistic spaces for the little people of the city - the vendors, buskers, poets, veterans, and artists of the city. Broadway has often been a place of margins, and here the streets are offered to those on the economic margins of the city. Broadway becomes a broad way once again. Rather than simply dismantle and re-build, as is the pattern with the Pabst, the Brennan Farm, the Lost Five theatres, the proposal for re-use of workshops following completion of the Laundry instead strangely recalls the remodelling of One Times Square for new economic purposes —except rather than paying for it’s interior by its exterior signage, these buildings pay for their strange existence on the edges and exteriors of buildings by the interesting and intriguing activities happening within. Their re-use sets up a non linear economy more similar to the circular economic model than the the take-make-break model we usually see in construction.
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Ec o n o m i es o f S k i n a nd S i g n: Ti me s S q ua r e a n d t h e La u n d ry Tow e r The project began to have an economic standpoint once it stood itself within Times Square. One Times Square, situated in an economy of skin and sign and advertisement, is a highly strange economic phenomenon in itself. 23 stories of void, bar the pharmacy occupying the first couple floors[1], it pays for its very expensive spot in Manhattan’s real-estate with million dollars worth of advertising on its remodelled exterior. The Times may have vacated years ago, but these remain the signs of the times. The new use proposed by the inhabiting of the building with the Laundry Tower adds another economic layer to the building. Perhaps in the same way that the building pays for it’s void-ness (nakedness, emptiness) by the signs on its exterior, the Laundry tower would pay for it’s construction (mantling, clothing) by the lavender garden on its exterior. Perhaps the lavender garden instead becomes a vertical farm, expanding its economic possibilities? [1] The economic standing of Walgreens Pharmacy will have picked up dramatically during the current crisis and the rush for paracetamol - while the advertising campaigns have conversely been scuppered, replaced by government mandated reminders to ‘wash your hands” alongside “thank you”s for the key workers - finally Times Square acknowledges the little people in the city. Sometimes all it takes is global disastor for what could only be dreamt of in a university project to actually happen.
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FIG 187
The Laundry tower - proposing new economies of scale
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vi | the print house studio a me a s ur e o f s ca l a r d is cr e pa ncies Apparently, ravens have been used to ‘discover land’ for a long time, going back to the Vikings, even going back to Noah and his Ark. When uncertain of their direction, sailors would let a raven fly, steering the ship to follow it’s course, assuming that land lay in the direction of the Raven’s flight. If the raven returned to the ship, the land was deemed to be at a great distance. Like sailors of old, we too let a Raven fly, following it whenever the direction of play seemed uncertain. Our raven was not a physical raven however, but the Raven of Edgar Allan Poe’s imagination. Poe and 16 verse poem, written in a room in a shabby farmstead in old Manhattan, would be our starting point for discovering the landscape of Manhattan — a landscape that has changed greatly over time since it’s inception as a series of lines on a map of a hilly island, to the great, gridded, dense landscape use know today. Poe’s Raven would thus allow us to fly over land, but also over time; it would allow us to discover the distances and differences - or discrepancies - between the different Manhattan’s that have existed through time. Time and time again the three of us would return to Poe’s raven when uncertain of our course, and, sometimes, the Raven would return to us: a marker that the land was still a long way off. [3] Another author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page. [2] ibid. [1] Author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page. L E F T | F I G . 18 7
‘vertical scale exaggerated 10 times”
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Chambers Street, Edinburghm where the studio is; aplace to experiment with scale
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B R OA DWAY: “ V E RT IC A L S C A L E E X AG G E R AT E D 1 0 T I M E S”
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the ‘missing Valentine Section’ (top) is used to form a plan for how to pack the discrepancies of Manhattan into the studio on Chambers Street
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RC M I L N E 2 0 2 0 M A P s h e w i n g U N F O L D E D S E C T I a n d a l s o s h e w i n g T H E S C A L A R PE R S PE C T I VA L M AG N I F I C the printworks studio RC M I L N E 2 0 2 0 M A P s h e w i n g U N F O L D E D S E C T I a n d a l s o s h e w i n g T H E S C A L A R PE R S PE C T I VA L M AG N I F I C the printworks studio
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I O N S PA S T A N D P R E S E N T T H RO U G H B ROA DWAY, C AT I O N O F O B J E C TS F RO M T H E W I N D OW TO T H E D O O R , o, chambers street edinburgh I O N S PA S T A N D P R E S E N T T H RO U G H B ROA DWAY, C AT I O N O F O B J E C TS F RO M T H E W I N D OW TO T H E D O O R , o, chambers street edinburgh
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BLACK LINE = present proole of broadway from Google Earth’s path prooling tool PURPLELINE LINE= =present 1850 proole BLACK prooleof ofBroadway, broadway from Google DT Valentine shewing the from Earth’s Map path prooling tool Prooles of the Avenues of Manhattan PURPLE LINE = 1850 proole of Broadway, ertical exaggerated 10m the times. vfrom DTscale Valentine Map shewing Prooles of the Avenues of Manhattan vertical scale exaggerated 10m times.
FIG 190
by calculating perspectival shift from Rosie’s spot by the window with her wardrobe, to the door leading to the North Studio, a series of scales can be calculated to govern the size of models along Brodway in the studio
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diagram showing how the interior volume of the wardrobe is dissasembled to create nine plinths for nine models
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a raven flies over the exhibition
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perambulating through a discrepant landscape - approaching from this angle, the scalar difference of objects along the street are exaggerated, allowing viewers to really atttend to the object at hand.
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from this view behind the wardrobe table device (where a Rosie might typically be found) the projects all apprat at the same scale, allowing the viewer to devise relatinoships between them - in their architectural language, or in their positiong in the landscape. Using perspectival shift, scale is flattened.
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view behind people perambulating through a discrepant landscape
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the ovid-19 crisis meant models had to be tested from home, in digital space. Here are five models awaiting discovery early on a sunny September morning - pictured in a future exhibition perhaps?
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Para-Mount Screen
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the adjustable nature of the screen allows shoadows to be manipulated and distorted, creating scalar discrepancies that would influence the nature of the exhibition.
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the real - set-up of the Para-Mount device in the studio one evening
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combing drawing with photograph, rendered with real
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projecting proposals off of the ParaMount Theatre FI G . 2 0 6 FIG U R E X
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borrowing form from experiments in the paramount theatre
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vii | a room in lincolnshire a me a s ur e o f g l o ba l d is cr e pa ncies Being estranged from the studio during lockdown has been a steange experience indeed. These are strange times as the whole world has been displaced, in most cases not from their homes, but to their homes. The whole world is displaced, shifted, moved, in a state of difference, a state of discreapncy. During this global disaster I have retreated to my family home in Lincolnshire. The whole thing is a reality check, a reminder or what’s important, and a reminder of the vastness of the world beyond the little but lovely world of our architecture studio. My tiny room has become a measure of the difference and shift the world is encountering. It’s also been an opprtunity to shift my own thinking and try new ways of working. Every since architects were removed from sits of cathedrals and began working not at 1:1 but to scales - we have been a profession in a state of displacement. Being removed from the site of the exhibition has only emphasised this and provided an opportunity to explore the relationship of architect to site to scale in a new way.
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a room in lincolnshire - storyboarding the exhibition on the back of my door
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estr a n g eme n t/ di sp lac em en t: refl e c t i o n s o n e p i s te mologi c a l ruptur es i n t h ou ght In his Poetics of Space, Bachelard writes of his change in thinking between moving from a more scientific standpoint in relation to the imagination, to a more poetic one. In other writings he has termed this kind of shift in thought an “epistemological rupture,” a tear in a previous way of thinking, a mental tectonic shift. I have been so averse to the rendered “image” in architecture previously. My obsession has been fine line drawings; moving within a set of line weights and a set of architectural moves caused by the butting up of thick line with thin ones, solid lines with dashed lines; the way that lines delineate and delaminate space. I have devoted the greatest portion of my imagination to the challenge of describing three dimensional space in a set of two dimensional lines that have their own kind of thickness, augmenting the static-ness of the lines by moving between 2D line drawings and moving images — between drawings and films - which had up until now been a rather productive methodology. I preferred this greatly to working with computer generated images - my reasons were at first quite innocent and well-thought through: the computer generated image lacks a sense of reality; it lacks the reality of humanity and the embodied form - it is disembodied and too ruptured from the human, embodied person. But the reason soon became a simple and unadulterated stubbornness - and even a simple fear to attempt a foreign method of working. I allowed myself to be put into a box and remained there quite comfortably. That is, until the coronavirus lockdown. My stubbornness, you see, while it has helped me remain myself these past few years, at some point began to become a hindrance. I stopped describing three dimensional space in two dimensions; spaces were not thought through as spaces, and they became only the two dimensions they were drawn in. How would I get out of this stagnant mess? Lockdown and pandemic, while it has been a trial in many ways, and a far greater trial for a great many people, has for me also been a great opportunity. Being forced to curate an exhibition remotely, in a little room in little Lincolnshire, a space of rather modest and inconsequential bearings — this tear in space has
created a tear in thought. A change in thinking — an epistemological rupture. The distance from the studio, the gap or nooking or displacement from the location of the exhibition has created a gap which can be filled only by the imagination — and by extension, only by the image. The image became a kind of obsession - how to render the real and augment it with the surreal? New opportunities have been found to inhabit the space of the studio that may not have been found by other means, and certainly could not be only ascribed by only two dimensional methods: capacities for knowing must be accompanied by capacities to forget knowing. How can one so concerned with the imagination have been so adverse to the image? (Here I taught at myself a great deal.) This productive distance has taught me, or at least begun to teach me, the value of the rendered image for architecture. I have also learned that I can, if fact, do it - much to my own surprise. Thanks to a few encouraging words from tutors (you’ve got it in you, Rosie), from my mum (here is a sandwich), and from my dad (just do the next thing Rose), and a great deal of my own effort — I learned to break out of a box; often our problem is more a disbelief in ourselves than in the actual idea, per se. And the things I have produced certainly are not nearly the best architectural images in the rendered world, nor will this be the greatest architectural project the world has ever seen - but it’s my project, and but I’m just happy I have grown, and joyful that I’m not afraid of this way of working. There cannot be poetry without freedom: “poetry appears as a phenomenon of freedom,” being the specific function of the (freely) “speaking being.”[3] In the past period of fear, which is the absence of freedom, you might go so far to say I had stopped producing poetry. I had stopped even producing architecture, which is a kind of poetry. But now I am not afraid anymore. Being locked up in Lincolnshire has, ironically, set my imagination free, so that out of a little room in Lincolnshire has sprung poetry in the form of a rose-tinted architectural, textile and textual world.
[1] Author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page. [2] ibid. [3] Another author, work name goes here (Place, Press: Date), page.
FIG 211
a small town in Lincolnshire
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a messy room featuring extensions of my brain
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An umbrella was opened and out came the rain then “Manhattan” was spoken; a city was made, a grid of stone streets and of surface and sign, a city that over two years I would draw and make mine. Under the brolly came one or two names and into our sights up came a writer. Out of the writer came one or two words and from their dull tones there was spoken a bird. Out of the bird was borne a song and spun from the lyrics a Plane Table done. Out of the plane table folded paper so long walking from one end of our world to the other one. From out of this packing case there came a strange place. Out of a picked pocket unravelled a building. Out of a wardrobe tumbled a world; out of a tiny room and the world’s flu - a freedom unfurled. These are the words that I have walked with. These are the worlds that I have lived in.
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FIG 213
my world
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lis t o f f i g ur e s Figure 1. Author’s work. Map of Broadway showing Nine Proposals. 2020. Uses the Viele Map of Manhattan. 1865. Available from: https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/ detail/RUMSEY~8~1~2289~180029:Sanitary&-Topographical-Map-of-the?sort=Pub_List_ No_InitialSort&qvq=q:viele;sort:Pub_List_No_ InitialSort;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=0&trs=125 (last accessed May 11th, 2020). Figure 2. Author, Benjamin Hair, Eireann Ianetta-Mackay and Patricia Farelly. Field Map of Manhattan and its Environs. 2019. Figure 3. Author’s work. Eros Apparell, Manhattan’s Garment District. October 2019. Figure 4. Author. Map of Broadway showing Nine Proposals. 2020. Uses the Viele Map of Manhattan. 1865. Available from: https:// www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/ RUMSEY~8~1~2289~180029:Sanitary-&Topographical-Map-of-the?sort=Pub_List_No_ InitialSort&qvq=q:viele;sort:Pub_List_No_ InitialSort;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=0&trs=125 (last accessed May 11th, 2020). Figure 5. Author’s work. Exhibition Overview. May 2020. Figure 6. Author’s work. Exhibition Entrance. May 2020. Figure 7. Author’s work. Exhibition view of Madison Square Lavender Parterre. May 2020. Figure 8. Author’s work. Exhibition view up Broadway. May 2020. Figure 9. Author’s work. Exhibition view to Times Square. May 2020. Figure 10. Author’s work Exhibition view of First Five Storeys. May 2020. Figure 11. Author’s work Exhibition view looking back on Olympia Concrete Theatre and 45th Street Looking Glass. May 2020. Figure 12. Author’s work. Exhibition view of the Wardrobe and Paramount device. Figure 13. Author unknown. Houses of Riverside Drive and 94th Street, Manhattan. June 1890. Museum of the City of New York.
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Available from: https://inhabitat.com/thegreatest-grid-exhibit-showcases-manhattanstransformation-from-farmland-to-citystreetscape/ny-grid4/ (last accessed May 11th, 2020). Figure 14. Author unknown, Brennan Farm House, 84th and Broadway.1879. Collection of The New York Historical Society, #84696d. Available from: https://thegreatestgrid.mcny. org/greatest-grid/opening-streets/43#map (last accessed May 11th, 2020). Figure 15. DT Valentine, Map of the Twelve Avenues in the City of New York, compiled from D.T. Valentine’s Manual. 1850. The Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. Available from https:// thegreatestgrid.mcny.org/greatest-grid/openingstreets/39#map (last accessed May 11th, 2020). Figure 16. Author’s work. The Plane Table stands outside Poe’s House - a collage of Figure 14 and image of the Plane Table (the “Heavy Case”), which was a collaborative work between Author, Benjamin Hair, Eireann Ianetta-Mackay and Patricia Farrelly in 2019. 2020. Figure 17. John Randel Jr. Field Map no. 40. Available from http://thegreatestgrid.mcny.org/ greatest-grid/randel-map-gallery (last accessed May 11th, 2020). Figure 18. Authors photograph picturing collaborative work; The Poe Drawing and Plane Table, constructed by the author, Benjamin Hair, Eireann Ianetta Mackay and Patricia Farrelly Figure 19. Author’s drawing, in collaboration in with Benjamin Hair, Eireann Iannetta-Mackay and Patricia Farrelly. 16 Stanzas of Poe’s ‘The Raven’ metered across Broadway; unfolded. 2019. Figure 20. See figure 8. Figure 21. Egbert L. Viele, View of 2nd Ave. Looking up from 42nd St., 1861. Lithograph Museum of the City of New York. Available from https://thegreatestgrid.mcny.org/greatestgrid/opening-streets/40#map (last accessed May 11th, 2020).
Figure 22. Author, Benjamin Hair, Eireann Iannetta-Mackay and Patricia Farrelly. The Plane Table - The Heavy Case - Norma. 2019. Figure 23. Author in collaboration with Benjamin Hair, Eireann Iannetta-Mackay and Patricia Farrelly. Feather tool set as unpacked from the Plane Table. 2019. Figure 24. Author. Still from exhibition film “In The Wake of the Wing.” March-May 2020. Figure 25. Mount Tom. 1923. Valentine’s Manual of Old New York. Available from http:// daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2017/06/thelost-brennan-house-84th-street-and.html (last accessed May 11th, 2020). Figure 26. Eireann Iannetta-Mackay. Author, Benjamin Hair, and the Poe Drawing on Mount Tom. 2019. Figure 27. Three Sections of Manhattan. Top to bottom: Geology (Patricia Farrelly), Pyrology (Author), Hydrology (Patricia Farrelly). 2019. Figure 28. Author’s work. Section of Poe’s walk from the Brennan Farm to Mount Tom. Information from Google Earth. April 2020. Figure 29. Author’s work. The missing Valentine Section. Data compiled/extrapolated from DT Valentine, Map of the Twelve Avenues in the City of New York, compiled from D.T. Valentine’s Manual. 1850. The Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. Available from https:// thegreatestgrid.mcny.org/greatest-grid/openingstreets/39#map (last accessed May 11th, 2020). Figure 30. Thomas Davies, A view of the attack against Fort Washington and rebel redouts near New York on the 16 of November 1776 by the British and Hessian brigades, 1776. I. N. Phelps Stokes Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. Available from https://thegreatestgrid.mcny.org/greatestgrid/18th-century-city/4 (last accessed May 11th 2020.) Figure 31. Author, Benjamin Hair, Eireann
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Iannetta Mackay and Patricia Farrelly. Exercises in Walk, Spill and Burn. 2019. Figure 32. Charting Walk, Spill and Burn. Top: The City of New York as laid out by the commissioners with the surrounding country by their secretary and surveyor John Randel, Junr., 1821. Colored copperplate engraving Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. Middle: Author, Benjamin Hair, Eireann Iannetta-Mackay and Patricia Farrelly. Charting Spill. 2019. Bottom: Author and Benjamin Hair. Charting Burn. 2019. Figure 33. See Figure 2. Figure 34. Author and Benjamin Hair. Capturing Burn. 2019. Figure 35. Author’s work. Defining Ecotones of Burn. 2019. Figure 36. Author, Benjamin Hair, Eireann Iannetta-Mackay and Patricia Farrelly. Capturing Spill. 2019. Figure 37. Author’s work. Defining Margins of Spill. 2019. Figure 38. Author’s work. Tools for an acrobatic wall dog. 2019. Figure 39. Jules Dassin. Naked City (film still). 1948. Figure 40. Alessandro E. Mario, Give Us this Day Our Daily Bread, 1869. Oil on canvas. Collection of The New-York Historical Society, 1939.586. Available from https://thegreatestgrid. mcny.org/greatest-grid/opening-streets/38 (last accessed May 11th, 2020). Figure 41. Weegee. Woman, wearing a barrel, advertising for clothing drive, walks down the middle of Times Square. New York, 1944. Figure 42. Author’s work. The Lock - proposal for an architectural prototype for a reverse walldog. Figure 43. See Figure figure 42.
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Figure 44. Author unknown. The Great White Way. Available from http://www. spotlightonbroadway.com/the-great-white-way-0 (last accessed May 11th, 2020). Figure 45. Robert L. Bracklow. The Demolition of the Pabst Hotel. 1 January 1902. New York Historical Society Museum & Library. Available from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Pabst_Hotel#/media/File:Pabstdemo_crop.jpg (accessed May 11th, 2020). Figure 46. Henry Collins Brown ed. Valentine’s Manual of the City of New York for 191617 New Series. (New York: The VElentine Company, 1916), before 111. The Pabst Hotel and Restaurant, 42nd Street, New York City. 1 April 1900. Available from https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Pabst_Hotel#/media/File:Pabst_ Hotel_and_Restaurant,_42nd_Street,_New_ York_City_-_jpg_version.jpg (accessed April, 2020). Figure 47. See Figure 45.
Figure 54. Authors Work. Re-crafting Manhattan between Hotels, Garment Lofts and Theatres. Uses The Merchants’ Association hotel and Theatre Map, Manhattan. 1906. Available from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_ Merchants%27_Association_hotel_and_ theater_map,_Manhattan,_New_York,_1906. jpg (accessed 2019). Also uses three maps from 1900, 1912 and 1917 showing the movement of the Garment Lofts up Broadway. from B. M. selekman et al., The clothing and Textile industries (1925). Author’s collection. originally published in Regional survey of new York and its environs, vol. 1B, The clothing and Textile industries (new york: regional Plan of new york and its environs, 1925). Figure 55. Author’s work. Taxonomy of Poe’s Jacket. 2019. Figure 56. Author’s work. Survey of a Habit. 2019.
Figure 48. One Times Square under construction. 1903. Available from https:// commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:One_Times_ Square_under_construction_1903.jpg (accessed April, 2020).
Figure 57. Author’s work. Wind. 2019.
Figure 49. Brown Brothers. Crowd Gathers for updates to 1919 World Series. October 1919. The New York Times photo archive. Available from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ One_Times_Square#/media/File:Crowd_ gathers_for_updates_to_1919_World_Series. JPG (accessed April, 2020).
Figure 60. Author’s work. Poe’s Performing Wardrobe in situ. May 2019.
Figure 50. Michael Young. One Times Square. March 2019. Available from https://www. newyorkyimby.com/2019/05/one-timessquares-300-foot-long-led-screen-nearlyassembled-in-times-square.html (accessed April, 2020). Figure 51. One Times Square on 17th April 2020, during the Coronavirus lockdown. Screenshot from live web cam available from: https://timessquareball.net/ball-cam-1/ (accessed April 17th, 2020). Figure 52. See Figure 45. Figure 53. Author’s work. A Performing
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Wardrobe. April-May 2019.
Figure 58. Author’s work. Earth. 2019. Figure 59. Author’s work. Fire. 2019.
Figure 61. Author’s work. Diagram of the Performing Wardrobe. 2019. Figure 62. Author’s work. Still from film “The Spectacles: An Opera in Five Acts.” 2019. Figure 63. Author’s work. Plan view of the performance. 2019. Figure 64. Author’s work. Nine movies or stories drawn out from the performance. 2019. Figure 65. Author’s work. The Performing Wardrobe in site during exhibition. 2019. Figure 66. Packing nine stories of Poe’s Wardrobe into nine storeys of the Pabst Hotel. 2019. Figure 67. Author’s work. A New Theatrics of Manhattan - the aftermath of “The Spectacles.”
2019.
ravelling into One Times Square. 2020.
Figure 68. Author’s work. Poe’s jacket hangs in the Wardrobe. Digital Photograph. 2019
Figure 91. See figure 46.
Figure 69. Author’s work. Hanging Poe’s Jacket in the Wardrobe. Line Drawing. 2019. Figure 70. Author’s work. The Projection Looms: The Projected Room. December 2019. Figure 71. See Figure 46. Figure 72. Author’s work. Poe’s Jacket hangs inside the Pabst Hotel. 2019. Figure 73. Author’s work. Location plan for the proposed Pabst Laundry Hotel. 2019. Linework for Subway from Candy Chan, who kindly shared her carefully surveyed Rhino model of the Times Square subway station with me. Lean more about her work “Project Subway” here: http://www.projectsubwaynyc.com/gallery/ (last accessed May, 2020). Figure 74. Author’s work. Plans of the Laundry hotel in the exhibition. 2019. Figure 75. Author’s work. Ground Floor of the Laundry Hotel. 2019. Figure 76. Author’s Work. Section of the Laundry Hotel in the exhibition. 2019. Figure 77. Author’s work. Section of the Laundry Hotel. 2019. Figure 78. Francois Halard. Interior view of the Chareau and Bijvoet’s Maison de Verre. Available from https://www.yellowtrace.com.au/maisonde-verre-paris-pierre-chareau-bernard-bijvoet/ (accessed May, 2020). Figure 79. Kenneth Frampton. Ground Floor survey of the Maison de Verre. 1984. Available from http://hiddenarchitecture.net/maisonverre/ (accessed May, 2020). Figure 88. See Figure 70. Figure 89. Author’s work. Detail for sprung cedar wood floors. Originally 1-50. December 2019. Figure 90. Author’s work. The Laundry Hotel
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Figure 92. See figure 47. Figure 93. See figure 48. Figure 94. See figure 49. Figure 95. See figure 50. Figure 96. See figure 51. Figure 97. Author’s work. Survey of One Times Square. 2019. Figure 98. See figure 48. Figure 99. Author’s work. The Laundry Hotel hangs inside One Times Square like a jacket in a wardrobe. 2019. Figure 100. Author’s work. Sections through One Times Square. 2019. Figure 101. See 57. Figure 102. See figure 90. Figure 103. Author’s work. Collage view of the Laundry Hotel from under a vendor’s Umbrella, Times Square. 2019/2020. Figure 104. Author’s work. View of nine storeys of the Pabst Hotel hanging within One Times Square. 2020. Figure 105. Authors work. Another view of the Laundry Hotel’s uneven levels. 2020. Figure 106. See figure 8. Figure 107. Author’s work. Exhibition view of Broadway and proposals. 2020. Figure 108. Author’s work. Exhibition view of the Design Report. 2020. Figure 109. Andrea Colombara. The Manhattan Transfer - left to right: Janis Siegel, Cheryl Bentyne, Alan Paul and Tim Hauser. 30 April 2008. Available from https://it.wikipedia. org/wiki/The_Manhattan_Transfer#/media/ File:Manhattan_Transfer.jpg (accessed May,
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2020).
Marlborough wood. 2020.
Figure 110. Author’s work. Location plan for the New York Studio. 2020.
Figure 127. Author’s work. Exhibition view. 2020.
Figure 111. Jules Dassin. Naked City (Still). 1948.
Figure 128. Author’s work. Exhibition view. 2020.
Figure 112. Author Unknown. Max’s Kansas City in the 80s. Available from http://www. brooklynvegan.com/max-kansas-city-fest-atbowery-electric-this-memorial-day-weekendlineup-tix/ (accessed May, 2020). Figure 113. Google Maps. Max’s Kansas City location today. 2019. Figure 114. Author’s work. Exhibition view. 2020. Figure 115. Author’s work. Location Plan for Albermarie Apiary. 2020. ] Figure 116. “Madison Cottage”, also known as “Corporal Thompson’s Roadhouse”[1] at Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street, in 1852. Available from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_ Square_and_Madison_Square_Park#/media/ File:Madison_Cottage_noborder.jpg (accessed My, 2020).
Figure 131. Author’s work. View into the cashew cranny. 2020. Figure 132. Author’s work. Ground floor plan. 2020. Figure 133. Alvar Aalto. Villa Mairea Ground Floor plan. 1937-39. Available from https:// www.alvaraalto.fi/en/architecture/villa-mairea/ (accessed May, 2020). Figure 134. See figure 133. Figure 135. See Figure 132.
Figure 117. Author unknown. Hand coloured postcard from turn of the c.1900. Available from https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress. com/2010/03/26/a-penny-postcard-ofmadison-square/ (accessed May, 2020).
Figure 136. Author’s work. Exhibition model view. 2020.
Figure 118. Author’s work. Section of Madison Square Lavender Parterre and the Albermarie Apiary (accessed May, 2020).
Figure 138. Munchies, still from “The Famous Roasted Nuts Cards of New York City - Street Food Icons. Available from https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=7MnspJygcEg&t=24s (accessed May, 2020).
Figure 119. Author’s work. Detailed section and Exhibition view. 2020. Figure 120. Author’s work. Exhibition view. 2020. Figure 121. Author’s work. Location Plan for Wallack’s Atelier, originally at 1-1000. 2020. Figure 123. Wallack’s Theatre. Available from https://www.ecosia.org/ Figure 124. Authors work. Exhibition view. 2020. Figure 125. Author’s work. Location plan for
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Figure 129. Author’s work. Exhibition view. 2020. Figure 130. Old Metropolitan opera House. Available from http://www.nypap.org/ preservation-history/old-metropolitan-operahouse/ (accessed May, 2020).
Figure 137. Google Maps. View of nut vendors. 2020.
Figure 139. Author’s work. Exhibition View. 2020. Figure 140. Author’s work. Long Section through the MET History. 2020. Figure 141. See Figure 140. Figure 142. See Figure 139. Figure 143. Author’s work. Exhibition View. 2020.
Figure 144. Author’s Work. Model interior view. 2020 Figure 145. Author’s work. Location Plan for the MET History. 2020. Figure 146. See Figure 133. Figure 147. Author’s work. Plan of the MET History. 2020. Figure 148. Author’s work. Model Interior View. 2020. Figure 149. See Figure 147. Figure 150. Author’s work. Section of the Paramount Pipes Palace. 2020. Figure 151. Author’s work. Exhibition view. 2020. Figure 152. Author’s work. Exhibition view. 2020.
Figure 162. Byron Company. Hammerstein’s Olympia, Broadway and 44th Street, Manhattan. 1898. Museum of the City of New York website, Image ID: 93.1.1.15636. Available from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympia_ Theatre_%28New_York_City%29#/media/ File:Hammerstein’s_Olympia,_Broadway_ and_44th_Street,_Manhattan.jpg (accessed May, 2020). Figure 163. Author’s work. Ground Floor plan for Olympia Concrete Hall. 2020. Figure 164. Author’s work. Section of Olympia Concrete Hall. 2020. Figure 165. Author’s work. Model perspective view. 2020 Figure 166. Author’s work. Exhibition view. 2020.
Figure 154. Unknown author. Vitagraph Theatre at Broadway and 44th Street. Available from; https://oldnycphotos.com/midtown147.html (accessed May 2020).
Figure 167. A map of the west side of Broadway, fire survey maps ca 1920, showing the large collection of theatres it boasted. NYPL Digital Gallery. Available from https://keithyorkcity. wordpress.com/2013/01/11/the-great-theatremassacre-of-1982-five-broadway-stages-facedthe-wrecking-ball-for-a-marriott/ (accessed May 2020).
Figure 155. Author’s work. Ground Floor Plan of 44th Street Glass. 2020
Figure 168. Author’s work. Location Plan for 45th Street Looking Glass. 2020.
Figure 156. Sheet music cover [mantle] for the Lilac Domino. 1914. Available from https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lilac_Domino#/ media/File:Lilacdominomus.jpg (accessed May, 2020).
Figure 169. The Helen Hayes theatre during demoliton. 1982. Available from https:// keithyorkcity.wordpress.com/2013/01/11/thegreat-theatre-massacre-of-1982-five-broadwaystages-faced-the-wrecking-ball-for-a-marriott/
Figure 157. Noel Y. C. Manhattanhenge Sunset in the Theatre District, 44th Street. July 11th, 2012. Available from http://nyclovesnyc. blogspot.com/2012/07/manhattanhenge-sunsetin-theater.html (accessed May, 2020).
Figure 170. The Morosco Theatre during demolition. 1982. Available from https:// keithyorkcity.wordpress.com/2013/01/11/thegreat-theatre-massacre-of-1982-five-broadwaystages-faced-the-wrecking-ball-for-a-marriott/ (accessed May, 2020).
Figure 153. Author’s work. Location plan for 44th Street Glass. 2020.
Figure 158. Author’s work. Exhibition view. 2020. Figure 159. Google Maps. Streetview of 44th Street. 2020. Figure 160. Author’s work. Location plan for
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Olympia Concrete Theatre. 2020.
Figure 171. Author’s work. Exhibition view. 2020. Figure 172. Author’s work. Plan of 45th Street Looking Glass. 2020.
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Figure 173. Google Maps. Streetview of 45th Street and Broadway. 2020. Figure 174. Author’s work. Exhibition view. 2020. Figure 175. Author’s work. Exhibition view. 2020. Figure 176. Author unknown. Production photo for the musical Skyscraper. 1965. Available from https://www.broadwayworld.com/board/ readmessage.php?thread=1088051 (accessed May, 2020). Figure 177. Author’s work. Location Plan for the Globe Steel Workshop. 2020. Figure 178. Author’s work. Exhibition view. 2020. Figure 179. Author’s work. Ground floor plan for Globe Steel. 2020. Figure 180. Google Maps. Street view of 46th Street. 2020. Figure 181. Author’s work. Model interior view. 2020. Figure 182. Author’s work. Exhibition view from Rosie’s spot by the wardrobe. 2020. Figure 183. Author’s work. Collage view of Paramount Pipes Palace from Times Square. 2020. Figure 184. Author’s work. Collage view of Paramount Pipes Palace from atop a building on E 43rd Street. 2020. Figure 185. Author’s work. Collage view of Paramount Pipes Palace from atop a building on W 43rd Street. 2020.
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exaggerated 10 times, packed into the studio - with the missing Valentine Section through Broadway. 2020. Figure 190. Author’s work. Unfolded section past and present through Broadway, and also shewing the scalar perspectival magnification of objects from the window to the door. 2020. Figure 191. Author’s work Diagram of the wardrobe and its interior volumes dissassembled. 2020. Figure 192. See figure 5. Figure 193. Author’s work. Exhibition view. 2020. Figure 194. Author’s work. Exhibition view. 2020. Figure 195. Egbert L. Viele, View of 2nd Ave. Looking up from 42nd St., 1861. Lithograph. Museum of the City of New York, Gift of Mrs. Wendell T. Bush, 28.153.215. Available from https://thegreatestgrid.mcny.org/greatest-grid/ opening-streets/40#map (accessed May, 2020). Figure 196. See figure 194. Figure 197. Author’s work. Exhibition view. 2020. Figure 198. Author’s work. The Para-Mount Device. 2020. Figure 199. Author’s work. The Para-Mount device cranking into action. 2020. Figure 200. Author’s work. The Para-Mount device in the studio. 2020. Figure 201. Author’s work. Exhibition view. 2020.
Figure 186. Author’s work. The Laundry Tower hangs in One Times Square. 2020.
Figure 202. Author’s work. The Para-Mount Device in action. 2020.
Figure 187. Author’s work. Broadway, exaggerated 10 times, packed into the studio. 2020.
Figure 203. Author’s work. Collecting forms from the Para-Mount device. 2020.
Figure 188. Google maps. Aerial view of Chambers street. 2020.
Figure 204. Author’s work. Index of drawings created using the Para-Mount device. Graphite on greaseproof paper. 2020.
Figure 189. Author’s work. Broadway,
Figure 205. Author’s work. Field map from the
Para-Mount device. 2020. Figure 206. Author’s work. Exhibition view. 2020. Figure 207. Author’s work. Projecting using the Para-Mount device. 2020. Figure 208. Author’s work. Using the ParaMount projection device - view from above. 2020. Figure 209. Author’s work. Using the ParaMount projection device - view from above. 2020. Figure 210. Author’s work. A view in Lincolnshire; composite photos. 2020. Figure 211. Google Maps. Aerial view of a small town in Lincolnshire. 2020. Figure 212. Author’s work. Messy room in lockdown. 2020. Figure 213. Author’s work. Exhibition view. 2020. Figure 214. Author’s work. Eros Apparell, Manhattan’s Garment District. October 2019. See Figure 3 for partner photograph.
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pro jec t b i b l i o gr a p h y TEXTS Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space. Translated by Maria Jolas. Boston: Beacon Press, 1958. Brevda, William. “How Do I Get to Broadway? Reading Dos Passos’s Manhattan Transfer Sign.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 38:1 (Spring 1996): 79-114. Dolkart, A. S. “The Fabric of New York City’s Garment District — Architecture and Development in Urban Landscape.” Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum 18:1 (Spring 2011): 14-42. Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1925. Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Raven.” Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation. org/poems/48860/the-raven. Accessed 4th December 2018.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “Marginalia,” Democratic Review (April 1846). Poe, Edgar Allan. “Marginalia,” Graham’s Magazine (January 1848). Poe, Edgar Allan. “Marginalia,” Southern Literary Messenger (April 1849). Poe, Edgar Allan. “Marginalia,” Southern Literary Messenger (June 1849). Poe, Edgar Allan. Selected Tales. Poe, Edgar Allan.. The Spectacles. 1850. Available from https://poestories.com/read/ spectacles (Accessed May 2019.)
Poe, Edgar Allan.. The Spectacles. 1850. Available from https://poestories.com/read/ spectacles (Accessed May 2019.)
PERITEXTS peripheral texts, tangential yet not unimportant as they thicken the research and give more avenues for thoughts to take
PA R A T E X T S
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Conchologists First Book.”
Bachelard, Gaston. The Psychoanalysis of Fire. Translated by Alan C. Ross. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1964. Bachelard, Gaston, Water and Dreams. Newton, R. M. “Cloak and Shield in ‘Odyssey’ 14.” The Classical Journal 93:2 (December 1997January 1998): 143-156. Peeples, Scott. “Poe, Brennan Farm and the Literary Life.” Poe Studies 49 (2016): 5-18. Poe, Edgar Allan. “Marginalia,” Democratic Review (November 1844). Poe, Edgar Allan. “Marginalia,” Democratic Review (December 1844). Poe, Edgar Allan. “Marginalia,” Godey’s Lady’s Book (September 1845). Poe, Edgar Allan. “Marginalia,” Broadway Journal (October 4 1845).
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Poe, Edgar Allan. “Marginalia,” Graham’s Magazine (March 1846).
Popova, Maria. “Edgar Allan Poe on the Joy of Marginalia and What Handwriting Reveals about Character.” Brain Pickings, 17 December 2013 https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/09/17/ edgar-allan-poe-marginalia/. Accessed 3rd December 2018. Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by Robert Fagles. Roller, D. W., and Roller L. K. “Penelope’s Thick Hand (“Odyssey” 21.6).” The Classical Journal 90 (October - November 1994): 9-19. FILMIC REFERENCES Dassin, Jules. Naked City. 1948. Greenaway, Peter. “The Falls” Trailer. 1980. Music by Michael Nyman.
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FIGURE 214
looking back - an umbrella giving utterance to a discrepant landscape
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back wo r ds There are numerous people to thank; these are some of them:
PROFESSORS ADRIAN HAWKER & VICTORIA CLARE BERNIE
my two wonderful tutors - for their truly inspirational teaching, for making room for my oddities, for helping me to expand my skills and ways of thinking, for believing I could do it, and for always giving eloquent and thoughtful replies to often incoherent or frantic e-mail querys.
MARTHA & STEPHEN MILNE
my parents, who I have been living with during the Covid-19 lockdown as I finished this work - thank you for feeding me, encouraging me, listening to me work out my ideas, reminding me who I am, calming me down and making me sleep.
MY COLLEAGUES IN THE MANHATTAN STUDIO
for the rich array of ideas providing the backdrop for two years of work, for the friendly comradery and countless small kindnesses. Thanks especially to Eireann Ianetta-Mackay, Benjamin Hair and Patricia Farelly; the first semester of work with them was joyfully done and provided a rich foundation for works and conversations to come in later semesters.
JOSEPH BLACK
for loving me always and leaving me alone while I obsessed over finishing this.
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Out of the weird may come the wonderful; this is the method to my madness.