Space Needle, Seattle

 

The Space Needle in Seattle, Washington. This was actually the view from our hotel window!

San Francisco

I was in San Francisco for a few days in August, and did these two drawings. I could draw that city's architecture forever. 

Both in Nob Hill. The second building is the work of James Francis Dunn, a self-taught architect who designed numerous residential buildings in San Francisco in the "French Renaissance," Beaux-Arts style in the early part of the 20th century.

Prometheus Take 2

I rarely re-visit the same subject twice, but I was never really happy with the drawing I did of Paul Manship's Prometheus at Rockefeller Center I did before, so when I saw over the summer that there were seating risers in the area where the ice skating rink sits in the winter, I took the opportunity for a do-over.

Nom Wah Tea Parlor

 

Nom Wah Tea Parlor is the oldest continuously-running restaurant in New York's Chinatown. It opened at 13-15 Doyers Street in 1920, and moved to the space next door in 1968, where it remains. Originally, it was primarily a bakery, but it is now known for its Hong Kong-style dim sum. The original owners are unknown, but is was run by the Choy Family in the 1940s, and sold to one of its employees, Wally Tang, in 1974. It's now owned by Wally's nephew, Wilson, who has expanded the business to other locations.

Doyers Street has one of the most infamous reputations in New York City history. It was named after Hendrik Doyer, a Dutch immigrant who built a distillery and tavern there in 1791. In the late 19th century, the area transformed into Chinatown, with the first Chinese language theater located on Doyers. The short street also became infamous for its tenements, gambling parlors, and opium dens. It is only one block, about 200 yards (183 m) long, with a sharp bend in the middle. That bend earned the name "Bloody Angle," because the sharp turn made it a perfect spot for rival gangs to ambush one another. In his book "The Gangs of New York," Herbert Asbury wrote, "The police believe, and can prove it so far as such proof is possible, that more men have been murdered at the Bloody Angle than at any other place of like area in the world." Doyers Street remains at the heart of Manhattan's Chinatown, though it's been a long time since it's seen warring tongs. Bloody Angle is now just the spot where tourists and hipsters line up to get into Nom Wah.

348 West 23rd St.

 West 23rd St., between 8th and 9th Ave.

In the late 19th century, the area of Chelsea had become a fashionable residential neighborhood featuring brick and brownstone buildings. But a new concept was emerging for affluent people - the apartment house, or "French flats," as an alternative to single family homes. Termed "French flats" to distinguish them from the overcrowded, unhealthy tenements of the lower class, these apartments were gaining in popularity. In 1885, the owner of No. 348 West 23rd St. decided to alter the house into an apartment. He hired Charles Pierrepont Henry Gilbert, a 24-year old engineer and architect who had recently returned to New York from adventures in mining towns in the West. C.P.H. Gilbert would later gain fame as the designer of some of the most opulent mansions in the city. I drew one of his Brooklyn homes a while ago. This was one of his first commissions in the city.

The building was transformed into four apartments - one per floor - that were rented to affluent residents, including men prominent in business and politics. Gilbert's eclectic style is on display with the Queen Anne-style ornamental facade and stained glass windows.

In 1929, the stoops of all the brownstones on the streets were removed for a widening of the street, a project which never happened. Other alterations occurred, including dividing the apartments into smaller units, turning the lower floors into commercial space, removing the stained glass and covering the facade in paint.

Two Buildings on South Elliott St.

 

This distinctive Queen Anne house in Fort Greene, Brooklyn has quite a history.

Originally built as a one-story, wood-frame house in the 1870s, it was bought and enlarged by a lawyer named Anthony Barrett. It was then purchase by Salvatore Cantoni, a wealthy Wall Steet banker, who expanded it even further, adding the towers and oriels and distinctive fish scale shingles on the facade. Cantoni rented the house out for years. Eventually, ownership passed to others, and by the 1980s, the house was deteriorating and going into foreclosure. The city wanted to demolish the building, but it had been landmarked as part of the Fort Greene Historic District in 1978. In 1993, in the middle of a building inspection, the house collapsed, leaving only the front facade standing.

The property continued to auction and sold for $45,100. However, the bidder thought he was buying a fixer-upper, not a single wall! And so he backed out of the deal. Eventually, another buyer was found, who rebuilt the house utilizing the remaining facade.

A few years later, the address made news for tragic reasons. In 2003, it was the residence of a man named Othniel Boaz Askew. Askew wanted to run for City Council, and had some sort of fixation on the current councilman, James E. Davis. He convinced Davis to allow him to accompany him to City Hall, thereby bypassing the metal detectors, Askey shot and killed Davis in the middle of the chamber, himself then being shot by police.

Next door is this two-family brick and stone house. It doesn't seem to have an infamous history to it. It was built sometime in the late 1800s, and has an adjoining twin, painted brown and red.

Cobble Hill Carriage House

 Converted carriage house in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.

Aubree

 Aubree, from a life drawing session last weekend.

Life Drawing

 Got back to life drawing twice last week!

Draw-A-Thon

Some drawings done at the Art and Design High School Draw-A-Thon a few weeks ago. 

The Lilac

The USCGC Lilac is a 1933 steamship that served as a lighthouse tender, carrying supplies to lighthouses and buoys for the U.S. Lighthouse Service and subsequently the U.S. Coast Guard. The last steam-engine ship in the Coast Guard fleet, she was decommissioned in 1972. The Lilac is now owned by the non-profit Lilac Preservation Project, and is docked on the West side of Manhattan at Hudson River Park's Pier 25. She was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

May The Fourth Be With You 2024

 My annual Star Wars Day drawing. I was always intrigued by the mysterious Tusken Raiders and the Jawas.

Amistad

Replica of The Amistad, at Mystic Seaport. The ship is known for an 1839 slave revolt, dramatized in a 1997 film by Steven Spielberg.

In 1839, Portuguese slave hunters kidnapped a group of Mende people from Sierra Leone and transported them to Cuba, in violation of anti-slave trade treaties. The schooner La Amistad was used to ship them from Havana to a Caribbean plantation. During the voyage, the Africans revolted, killed the ship's captain and cook, and ordered the remaining crew to set sail for Africa. However, the sailors actually sailed the ship north, and it was eventually intercepted by the U.S. Navy off the coast of Long Island and brought to New London, CT. The Africans were charged with murder, and though these charges were eventually dismissed, the plantation owners went to court to retain their right to enslave the men. The Africans, backed by abolitionist groups, sued for their freedom. The case went up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1841 ruled that they were free men, and that ". . . it was the ultimate right of all human beings in extreme cases to resist oppression, and to apply force against ruinous injustice."

This ship was built between 1998 and 2000 by shipbuilders and artisans at Mystic Seaport, in Mystic, CT. They employed traditional tools and construction techniques, though some modern materials and technology, including two diesel engines, were incorporated. With the original ship lost to history and no extant blueprints, the ship is not an exact replica of La Amistad, but an extrapolation based on general knowledge of this type of ship and contemporary art drawings of 19th century schooners. Originally built and operated by an organization called Amistad America, it is now owned by the non-profit Discovering Amistad, which uses it as a floating classroom for educational and promotional programs.

Mystic River Bascule Bridge

 

The Mystic River Bascule Bridge, spanning the Mystic River in Connecticut. It was built in 1922. It opens hourly at 40 minutes past the hour. A bascule bridge is a type of drawbridge. This one employs two 230-ton concrete blocks to counterbalance the span.

Village Cigars

 

110 Seventh Ave. This triangular 373-square-foot space housed Village Cigars for over a century, having occupied the space as Union Cigars in 1922. Its unusual shape and distinctive color and signage made it one of the most distinctive storefronts in the West Village.

It is also well-known for that little triangle seen in front of the front door. In 1910, the city condemned over 300 buildings to be demolished to build the Seventh Ave. subway line. But the city surveyors missed a tiny, triangular piece of the plot at the corner of 7th Ave and Christopher St., a plot holding a five-story building owned by David Hess. The Hess Family refused to relinquish the land, taking the city to court and prevailing. The 27.5" x 27.5" x 25.5" triangle was the smallest piece of private property in New York City history. In 1922, the Hesses installed a mosaic reading "PROPERTY OF THE HESS ESTATE WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN DEDICATED FOR PUBLIC PURPOSES."

Village Cigars was owned by Andy Singh for 26 years, but the business lost its tobacco license and could not settle on a new lease with the building owner. The owner says he plans to retain the look of the storefront, and the building has some protection as it is located within the Greenwich Village historic district, so it cannot be altered without approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

North Carolina Barn

 

This old barn is located on the Irvin Nature Preserve, part of the Triangle Land Conservancy in Chapel Hill NC. It's a mix of forest and farmland, and home to a cool outside school called Learning Outside. My wife is friends with one of the teachers there, and I drew this while visiting.

House Portraits

Two drawings of the houses of my mom's friends, done as Christmas presents for them.