2020-2021

Recently finished filling this sketchbook. The first drawing was done just days before New York City was locked down because of the Coronavirus Pandemic, and the last was done as it was starting to abate. During that year, there as the uprising over the murder of George Floyd - that's what that one drawing of Frederick Douglas you can glimpse pertains to - and that officer was found guilty a few days after I completed the book. There's also all my "Save Our Stages" drawings in there that were featured on USK Talks. Man, that was a hell of a year.

Gowanus Canal

 A tugboat moored in the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, NY.

A local resident once complained to the Brooklyn Common Council that the raw sewage flowing into the Gowanus Canal had "injured the health of his wife" and "killed his father-in-law." A local alderman agreed with the complainant and said, "I wouldn't take this land as a present." The year was 1861, and it would only get worse.

The area was originally a series of tidal inlets. The Dutch colonized the area in 1636 and named the waterway "Gowanes Creek" after Gouwane, sachem of the local Lenape tribe. The Dutch began to harvest large oysters from the creeks, which became the first notable export to Europe from the area, and established a tobacco plantation.

By the mid-19th century, the City of Brooklyn (not yet incorporated into the City of New York) had become the third-largest city in the U.S. The Gowanus Creek became a repository for sewage run-off for other parts of Brooklyn, and the Industrial Revolution lead to the surrounding lands becoming home to a variety of industries, including stone and coal yards, cement works, slaughterhouses, tanneries, flour mills, machine shops, sulfur producers, and chemical plants, and became an important hub for maritime shipping.

The local government decided to transform the natural creeks into a straighter, deeper canal to accommodate commercial shipping needs. In 1869, the 1.8 mile (2.9 km) canal was completed, and the surrounding marshes filled in to provide increased land usage. Initial designs incorporated systems that would flush the entire waterway daily, but were deemed too expensive. Instead, the cheapest option was built, with no through-flow of water. As a result, the water became deoxygenated, unable to support life, and the continual dumping of coal, pesticides, chemical waste, and other industrial byproducts, as well as the continual flow of raw sewage into the canal, created a toxic sludge of "black mayonnaise" that settled to the bottom, at least 10' (3 m) deep. Plumes of coal tar penetrated up to 150' (46m) underground. It took on a reddish-purple color and emitted a terrible smell, and was contaminated with typhoid, cholera, tuberculosis, and gonorrhea. Ships would sail into the canal with the sole purpose of using the toxic waters to cleanse their hulls of barnacles.

Industry around the canal declined drastically during the 1960s with the advent of containerization and the construction of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the Verrazano Bridge, which promoted trucking over maritime shipping. But the century's worth of pollution and waste remained, and millions of gallons of raw sewage continued to flow into the canal.

As far back as 1890, efforts were made to address the situation, as the canal became the most polluted waterway in America. Time after time, these efforts failed, even after it was listed as a Superfund National Priority site by the EPA. Dredging continues to this day - I think this tug is part of the effort - but it seems impossible to fully remediate. It's somewhat better - it's no longer purple, but has a definite green sheen, and there's no life to be found, except for weird microscopic bacteria that have been discovered. A local organization, The Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club, leads canoe trips in the canal and advocates for environmental reform. A "sponge park" has been built, which is designed to filter some of the waste water that overflows into the canal. Meanwhile, real estate developers are trying to build big residential complexes around the canal. The hope is that people will pay premium prices to live in luxury waterfront condos, even if that water is completely toxic.

History at Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club

Brooklyn Eagle: The Gowanus Canal Will Never Be Clean

Gowanus Expressway Viaduct

Structural supports beneath the Gowanus Expressway. This section of elevated highway, built in the 1950s, cuts through, or rather over, Sunset Park and Gowanus Canal. I'm not sure how high it is, but the nearby Smith-9th St. elevated train station rises to 87.5 feet (26.7 m). That's about six stories tall! The height allowed for tall-mast ships on the Gowanus Canal. It's been a long time since any tall-mast ships went on the Gowanus Canal, but these two towering spans remain.

It was, of course, one of the pet projects of Robert Moses, who looooved to build highways cutting right through cities. More than 200 buildings were condemned to make way for it. In 1959, Lewis Mumford wrote in the New Yorker:

"At the very moment . . .  that we have torn down our elevated railways, because of their spoilage of urban space, our highway engineers are using vast sums of public money to restore the same nuisance in an even noisier and more insistent form. But what is Brooklyn to the highway engineer - except a place to go through rapidly, at whatever necessary sacrifice of peace and amenity by its inhabitants?"

The irony is that this whole highway is now known for constant gridlock, at all times of day and night. No one thinks of it as a way to get through Brooklyn rapidly.

It's also been deteriorating for decades from the constant traffic and harsh weather. There are various plans to renovate it, or replace it with a new span, or tear it down and dig a tunnel along its route. But each plan would cost billions of dollars, and necessitate taking a central traffic artery out of commission for years. In 1973, a dump truck fell through the elevated West Side Highway to the streets below. It'll probably take something similar to spur any action on the Gowanus Viaduct.

The initial pencil sketch . . .

Finished ink drawing, done with Pigma Micron pens . . .

Initial background color wash . . . 

University Club Skybridge

Another aspect of the University Club building on 54th Street, which I previously drew here. I'm not 100% certain, but I think that the section to the left was a later addition, connected by that skybridge at top. Maybe?

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

The initial lay-in of color.

Hamilton Ave Asphalt Plant

I've passed this place dozens of times over the years. It's just to the south of Hamilton Avenue, in the shadow of the Gowanus Expressway Viaduct, at the end of the Gowanus Canal. I never knew exactly what it was, but always wanted to draw it. I knew something this complex would need a major commitment of time to do. A few weeks ago, I finally carved out the time to do it.

Turns out it is the NYC Department of Transportation's asphalt plant. I had no idea that the city manufactured all its own asphalt, but apparently it does. Tons of granite are brought in, mostly from upstate quarries on the Hudson River, which is then crushed into gravel and combined with a thick liquid made from distilled crude oil to produce the asphalt used to pave the streets of New York. It produces up to 400,000 tons of the stuff per year!

Some cool photos of the interior of the plant can be found at Michael Minn's site.

Process

The initial pencil drawing. It was one of the first nice weekend days of Spring. Some people would spend such a day in the park; I spent it chilling beneath the Gowanus Expressway.

Step Two: Solidifying it into an ink drawing. Done with Pigma Micron pens.

Laying in the sky with a wash of water color, and the ground with Derwent Inktense pencils. I often find it helpful to lay this in first, to give the central subject its grounding and background as a base. I don't always do this first, but a lot of times it helps, especially when the main subject is very busy and complex.

William Childs House/The Brooklyn Ethical Culture Society Meeting House

The Brooklyn Ethical Culture Society Meeting House (that's a mouthful!) on Prospect Park West.

Built in 1900, this Neo-Jacobean mansion was built by William H. Childs, who made his fortune manufacturing Bon Ami cleaning powder. Designed by architect William B. Tubby, it was landmarked in 1973. The interiors were decorated by Louis Comfort Tiffany, and it features the largest private garden in Brooklyn. 

The Childs family was devoted to philanthropic works. Their son, Richard Childs, donated the house to the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture upon his mother's death in 1947. In addition to hosting the Society's own programs, it is a popular venue for weddings and other events.

More info at Brownstoner.com

Star Wars Day 2021

May 4 is Star Wars Day, only because of the terrible pun, "May The Fourth Be With You." It's a dumb joke, but I still love it. Every year I do a drawing for it; this year I did a few extra as part of an Instagram challenge.