That building is on a lot of people’s lists as their favorite in New York, or their favorite in Greenwich Village. It’s now the Jefferson Market Library, and was built in the 1870s as the Jefferson Market Courthouse. It’s one of the earliest successes of the preservation movement in the city, with the New York …
When we try to understand the evolution of buildings over time, there are certain visual clues that demand attention. One of them is things – architectural ornament, floor elevations, window patterns – lining up too well. The picture above, looking west on 22nd Street towards Park Avenue South, provides a good example. (I talked about …
Another view of lower Manhattan, again from a slightly odd angle. We’re looking north from the west side of the very southern tip of the island – most likely from the roof of the Whitehall Building. The Library of Congress says 1900 to 1915, but the Woolworth Building and Equitable Buildings are complete, so circa …
The circa 1901 photo above, which has much to recommend it, is filed at the Library of Congress under the title “The Tallest buildings in the world, New York City”. That’s half right. The building on the right is the 1899 Park Row Building, which was the tallest skyscraper at that time and for the …
This post was triggered by a spot-on question from Julia Manglitz about my comments on the fourth Rocky River Bridge. The main structure of that bridge consists of unreinforced concrete arches, and Julia asked “I’m curious about any thoughts you have on the relative durability of reinforced versus non? It seems as though reinforcement corrosion …
