Windsor Terrace Fire Box

I wasn't intending to do a whole series about the Windsor Terrace fire station at the corner of Prospect and Greenwood Avenues, but after posting the last two drawings of the fire house and its truck, and some older drawings of the building, I remembered that I'd done this drawing of a fire alarm post that I never posted. It's located on the corner opposite the fire house.

According to this post on Untapped Cities, at least a third of these emergency boxes don't work, only 2.6% of the calls the FDNY receives come from these boxes, and of those calls, 88% are false alarms. I'm not sure why this particular fire box was located where it is, directly across from a fire house! Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg made efforts to remove them, but like everything in New York City, the fireboxes have their supporters and they remain.

Engine 240/Battalion 48

This is my local fire house, in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, NY. It is the home of FDNY Engine 240/Battalion 48.

In 1894, the city of Brooklyn (at this point still independent of New York City) annexed the towns of Flatbush, Gravesend, New Utrecht, and Flatlands, and subsequently began a campaign to replace the old firehouses of the volunteer fire departments of those towns with modern facilities for companies of professional firefighters. This one, at the Southern end of Prospect Ave., was constructed in 1895. It was designed by Peter J. Lauritzen, a Danish immigrant who designed eight other firehouses for the Brooklyn Fire Department, five of which are still extant. 

ca 1895, via NYC Landmarks Commission Report

Lauritzen used the same Romanesque Revival Style for other Brooklyn firehouses. It is faced with Wyoming bluestone, Indiana limestone, and pressed brick. As seen in this historical photo, the exterior looks very much the same as when it was built, except for the conical roof atop the oriel turret, and the doors to the interior, which was a horse stable rather than a garage for trucks at the time.

I've drawn this firehouse before. These were done between 2014 and 2015. I'd done a series of firehouse drawings. I don't often re-visit old subjects, but seeing this old work makes me want to go back and re-do them all! And come back and draw this firehouse in another six years and see how I've changed.

Reference:

Brownstoner: The Little Fortress Watching Over Windsor Terrace Since 1896

NYC Landmarks Commission

Pumper

Fire truck parked outside my local firehouse. It took me three days to draw it. Not because it's complicated, but because it kept leaving for emergency calls. Then I would find it parked in the same spot the next day.

Process shots. I forgot to take a picture of the pencil sketch. Here's the initial ink drawing.  

First color layers.

Small Boats at Work

In addition to the large ships unloading at the Lehigh Concrete Distribution center, and the ships in dry dock at GMD Shipyard, there is a variety of small craft doing various work on the waterfront at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The New York Harbor School is a college-prepatory program that trains young people for maritime careers. They're based on Governor's Island, but this day I found them doing maintenance on a boat on Pier G.

They also run the Billion Oyster Project, which aims to replenish the oyster reefs of New York Harbor. The waters of New York once teemed with oyster life, but they were destroyed by overfishing and pollution by the beginning of the 20th century. Decades after the passage of the Clean Water Act, the harbor is finally clean enough to support the return of marine life, and this plan aims to seed a billion oysters by 2035. Here their boat is moored at the end of the Wallabout Basin, near the Clymer Street entrance.

The NYC Ferry has its home port at the Yard. In the future, they plan to operate a stop there, but for now they just park their fleet there.

At the end of Pier G, the Fire Department has FDNY Marine 6. They have a bunch of boats there. I'd done these three drawings and was working on a fourth when a fireman came out and told me I wasn't allowed. I didn't think that was true, but I wasn't 100% sure that there isn't some law against recording images of emergency services facilities or something, and at any rate it's probably wasn't a fight I was going to win. I didn't point out that it was unlikely that a terrorist surveying the site would be unlikely to do so with a sketchbook, or that I'd already spent hours over two days drawing their boats, as well as taking dozens of reference photos, so if there really was a legitimate security concern, well, that ship had sailed. All I ask is that if you are looking at these drawings, please do not use them for nefarious purposes.

Who You Gonna Call?

I started this sketch of Hook & Ladder 8 two years ago, when I was doing a series on NY firehouses.

You may recognize this one, as exterior shots of the firehouse were used in Ghostbusters.There's a remake of that movie that opens today, which is what reminded me of this sketch and prompted me to finish it in color.

A segment of the Internet Nerd Court has already passed judgment on the new movie, even though only critics have seen it (and their consensus is that it's pretty good). Various reasons have been given as to why it's bad, why it is, in fact, ruining childhoods. But the real reason is that in the new version, all the Ghostbusters are women. I think all those women are really funny, and the movie looks pretty funny to me, so I hope to see it, if the twins allow me the time to go.

As it happens, last year I saw them filming it in Midtown. I didn't see the cast, but I saw the Ecto-Mobile, and I saw Leslie Jones' stunt double. I couldn't believe that there's an African-American stuntwoman of Leslie Jones' size! I wonder how much work she gets?

Happy Birthday FDNY

I saw on the news this morning that today marks the 150th Anniversary of the New York Fire Department (abbreviated FDNY instead of NYFD, for some reason). I've been doing a series of drawings of firehouses for almost two years, so it seemed like a good day to post them. I've been meaning to put color on them, so in my eyes they're unfinished. But if I've been procrastinating for two years in coloring them, it's not going to happen today.

Engine Company 33, Great Jones St.

There were, of course, firefighters in New York prior to 1865, but they were various types of volunteer companies. One of the perks of being a volunteer fireman in 1737 was that you were exempt from jury duty. We'd probably have an even bigger fire department today if that was still the case!

Engine Company 240, Windsor Terrace

The two sketches above are of the local firehouse where I live now, in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn.

Engine 55, SoHo

This one in particular would look a lot better in color.

When I was a child, I loved firetrucks. I would get so excited when I saw them racing down the street, too young to realize that they might be heading to some scene of terrible disaster and tragedy. My mother says when I would see the trucks, I'd yell "Fire Truck! Fire Truck!" Except I couldn't pronounce the "tr", so it would come out "Fire Fuck! Fire Fuck!"

Engine 258 and Ladder Company 115, Hunter's Point, Queens

This is the firehouse they used in that show "Third Watch." That thing in front is a stuffed dog of some sort.

I hope to finish these and do some more. I have one of the Ghostbusters firehouse that's in a state too unfinished to post. Maybe this summer ...