Renwick Triangle

The Renwick Triangle houses fill this point created by East 10th St. and Stuyvesant St. It's a series of seven Anglo-Italianate style houses built in 1862 by James Renwick, one of the most prominent American architects of the time. Some of his other buildings are the Smithsonian Instituiton, the Grace Church, St Patrick's Cathedral, and St. Bartholomew's Church, notable because that's where I met my wife.

This short stretch of Stuyvesant St. is all that remains of the original, which once stretched much further across the island. The land was owned by the Stuyvesant and Fish families, and connected to St. Mark's Church, directly across the street. The road originally ran through Peter Stuyvesant's farm, to his manor. It lay just outside what was then the city limits, and became a marketplace for farmers and vendors, since they could avoid the city's market tax.

Besides Broadway, it's the only diagonal street remaining after the Commissioner's Plan of 1811 imposed a strict grid over most of Manhattan. Also, while we think of the streets of the Manhattan grid as running north-south on the avenues, and east-west on the streets, in fact it is at a 28.9 degree offset. Stuyvesant Street, on its diagonal, is actually one of the only NYC streets that runs true east-west.

In front of the building is the Abe Lebewohl Triangle. At 0.01 acres, it is one of the smallest parks in New York City. It was named after a Ukrainian immigrant who became a prominent member of the community and owned the famous Second Avenue Deli. He was killed in an unsolved murder in 1996.


Sources and more history:
Forgotten NY: Mr Stuyvesant's Garden: One Of The Few Diagonal Streets In NYC

Untapped Cities: Stuyvesant Street, One of Manhattan's Few Diagonal Streets

Untapped Cities: The 10 Smallest Parks In Manhattan

Terrace Bridge

The Terrace Bridge in Prospect Park.

The Terrace Bridge spans the Lullwater wetland and Prospect Park Lake. It was designed by Calvert Vaux and built in 1890, replacing a previous wooden bridge. It is comprised of six steel arches, set in stone and brick. The bridge was Vaux's last contribution to the park. Olmsted and Vaux originally conceived this area of the park as a site of restaurants and open-air concerts, which did not come to pass. The day I drew this, there was a man who'd tucked himself away in the trees, playing a cello, which gave a sense of what Olmsted and Vaux might have imagined.

The yellow-green of the water is a spread of pond scum that appears every spring.

Vinegar Hill Generator

Another sketch from Vinegar Hill, this one of an old, abandoned generator. It's near the lot where an abandoned truck sits. In the same lot is a derelict car and tractor. Who knows how long these things have been sitting there.

Bond Street

Bond St., between Broadway and Lafayette.

New Rochelle Building

An entry to some building in New Rochelle, done last fall.

Navy Yard Rooftops

My residency at the Brooklyn Navy Yard ended several months ago, but I still have a bunch of work in my sketchbook that I haven't posted, so here's some more. This batch is of views of the rooftops of the Yard.

This is the one of the most distinctive sights of the Navy Yard, atop Building 1 right on Flushing Ave. This mysterious structure is a World War II radio antenna. This building originally housed the Materials Science Laboratories; now it's part of Steiner Studios.

Smokestack of Building 292, which now houses the BNY administrative offices, as well as a scene shop.

Building 12, the former Pipe & Copper Shop.

The Central Power Plant, now operated by BNY Cogeneration.

Vinegar Hill

Vinegar Hill is a tiny, quirky remnant of a neighborhood hidden away between DUMBO and Wallabout. You have to know it's there; there's no public transportation or main thoroughfare that passes through it.

It was originally developed in the late 18th century by a landowner named John Jackson. He named the area after the 1798 Battle of Vinegar Hill, the last battle in the Irish Rebellion against the English, in order to appeal to Irish immigrants. For many years, it was known as "Irish Town," and during Prohibition the area was a major producer of moonshine. Later, it became home to an influx of Lithuanian immigrants.

It's now only about six blocks, but it used to be much bigger. The construction of the BQE and the Manhattan Bridge destroyed the bulk of it, and the closure of the nearby Brooklyn Navy Yard in the 1960s further lead to its decline. Today, there are still cobblestone streets (technically, "Belgian Block" streets), and century-old Federal- and Greek Revival-style buildings, and old storefronts that have become residences.

The old garage above is an example of old, untouched architecture. Below is an old, abandoned truck, hidden away in a small lot. I'm pretty sure it's a 1960 B 61 Mack Truck (Fun fact: Mack Trucks was founded in Brooklyn!). Who knows how long it's been there. There's a logo on the door for "Chelsea Dem Co," which I could find no record of, and an address which is now a building for NYU Tisch School of the Arts.