The Francis Morrone Aggregator

A Victorian Neighborhood Remade

My July 24 "Abroad in New York" column in The New York Sun is about the wonderful blocks of 20th, 21st, and 22nd streets between Park Avenue South and Broadway - hodge-podges of 19th-century row houses and loft buildings that illustrate the theme of Stewart Brand's 1994 book How Buildings Learn.

Lewis Mumford's Brooklyn

My "Abroad in New York" column in the July 17 New York Sun is about the great Lewis Mumford's commentary on some things he had seen in Brooklyn, including what may be the most underrated Modernist office building in New York, and the house on Hicks Street where Mumford and his wife Sophia lived as a young couple. I ask in the column if it isn't time, now that we've had our major reappraisals of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs, to give some thought to Mumford, too.

It's totally unrelated, but I'm quoted by Jancee Dunn in today's New York Times Home section. (It's the Times, so free registration is required.)

Gramercy Park: Retaining Identity Amid Constant Change

On Sunday, July 13, I will lead a walking tour of the Gramercy Park neighborhood. My themes will be how much Gramercy Park has changed physically over the years, yet still remained "Gramercy Park," and the neighborhood's crucial role in the early history of gentrification in New York, around 1910. The walk is sponsored by the Municipal Art Society, costs $15 ($12 for MAS members), and lasts from 4pm to 6pm. The meeting place is SW corner of Third Avenue and 17th Street. Reservations are not required--just show up. The weather may not suck--at least no rain is predicted.

Savoring the Brighton Line, a Rare MTA Charmer

My "Abroad in New York" column for the July 10 New York Sun sang the praises of the Brighton Line--the B and Q trains running between Prospect Park and Coney Island in Brooklyn. The column received mention in blogs here, here, here, and here.

The Flawed Beauty of Folk Photos

My review of "20th c. Folk Photos: A Lost Medium" at Washburn Gallery appeared in the July 10 New York Sun.

Flushing, the New Face of the City

In my "Abroad in New York" column in the July 3 New York Sun I write about the commercial and historical core of Flushing, Queens. Now largely Chinese and Korean, Flushing symbolizes the globalization that has taken place in recent decades. But the presence in Flushing of such landmarks as the 17th-century John Bowne house reminds us that our present globalization is only the latest chapter in a process that has been going on for 400 years.

America's Birth Papers at the NYPL

In the July 3 New York Sun I write about the New York Public Library's exhibition of its copy in Thomas Jefferson's hand of the Declaration of Independence, and I make some observations on the history of the Fourth of July holiday and its meaning for New Yorkers.

Looking Up on 72nd Street

My June 26 "Abroad in New York" column in The New York Sun was about West 72nd Street between Central Park West and Riverside Drive, a cacophonous commercial thoroughfare where the storefronts were added to buildings--many of them quite distinguished--in the early 20th century, and where if you look above the second story you are in a whole other world.

Water, Water Everywhere: Olafur Eliasson & the East River

In The New York Sun of June 26 I wrote about the Danish conceptual artist Olafur Eliasson's "New York City Waterfalls" project.

Bedford-Stuyvesant, Out of Crisis Mode

My "Abroad in New York" column in the June 19 New York Sun was a stroll through a particularly attractive part of Brooklyn's resurgent Bedford-Stuyvesant, once a byword for the "urban crisis."