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.)

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.

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.

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.

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."

Julian Schnabel's Bold and Beautiful Designs

My June 12 "Abroad in New York" column in The New York Sun was about the painter and filmmaker Julian Schnabel's inspired forays into interior design and architecture, as seen in his design of the public interior's of the Gramercy Park Hotel and in his design of "Palazzo Chupi," on W. 11th St.

Creating Street-Level Intimacy at NYU

My June 5 "Abroad in New York" column in The New York Sun was about Helpern Architects' attempt to give a new visual identity to New York University's Washington Square campus, and how their design guidelines benefitted Steven Holl in his new interiors for the department of philosophy.

A Stroll Down 125th Street

My May 29 "Abroad in New York" column in The New York Sun is a tour of the recently upzoned main street of Harlem.

Preserving Stuyvesant Town

My "Abroad in New York" column in the May 22 New York Sun was about Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, Tishman Speyer's recent record-setting purchase of the complexes, and some residents' early efforts to get the complexes landmarked.