Why does it always have to be a black thing? At least its better than a crane thing, i suppose. The in-famous Finger Building on North 7th continues to stay in flux, as the exterior gets covered in black-ness. Now that's HOT!
Finger Building Getting Hip Black Exterior [Curbed]
Technorati Tags: Finger Building, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, black, crane
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I just have to say (and I've said it before) that one of the things that I miss the most about Brooklyn (while down here in the Dirty South on break) would have to be graffiti and street art. When you are as ingrained into a neighborhood as I am, watching buildings and streetscapes change like blinks of an eye, it is the art that keeps even the shortest of walks interesting. From across the street, I will without fail notice the arrival of any new sticker or scribble, the fresh presence of a new poster and ahhh...the smell of wheatpaste in the morning. Today, Curbed made me a little nostalgic for my neighborhood route, actually showing me a couple of things that have been added to the streets, undoubtedly within the last 2 weeks.
[apparently freshly posted on the outside of the barrier attached to the "See Through Building" on Bedford and N4th Streets (future of "Williamsburgh Square."-maybe)]
You just can't avoid the truth of the streets!
I would like to also share with all of you an album i have posted on PicasaWeb, jam packed with Street Art from Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick, DUMBO, etc. Enjoy!
Before the Bedford Ave. Highrise, the See-Through Building [Curbed] 
· Peevish Williamsburg Graffiti #1 [Curbed]
· Pevish Williamsburg Graffiti #2 [Curbed]
Technorati Tags: graffiti, street art, Williamsburg, Curbed
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I ran across this photo that I took in early 2005- a nice piece of art
that once sat on the corner of Metropolitan Ave and Roebling, in
Williamsburg.
A good reminder, i thought, of how fast things change.
I thought all of you might enjoy. Now, the wall is occupied with new
art and the entrance to Roebling Tea House.
Current View of entire wall.
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As 2006 comes to a close, I, justiNYC would like to both thank everyone for all of their nice comments and participation with the blog and share a few of the Flickr albums and concepts that I've devoted to change. Currently, I am down south working on the organization of a book that I will be publishing sometime early in the new year. I am very excited about the book project and cannot wait for all of you to see it! Also, I intend to begin my final stretch of school in the up and coming year. It is my hope that sometime within the next 3 years, i will acquire a "Dr." in the front of my name. Urban anthropology and gentrification have become an obsession and a passion which I cannot ignore. As a real estate agent, I have had the rare opportunity to participate and observe while applying anthropological methodologies, hitherto unexplored in such ways. As an artist, I have come to appreciate the ways in which change can be expressed and the effect that visual representation can have to those far removed from the process.
I have learned a lot about change in the past year and even more about the effect that real property can have on families, culture and neighborhoods. In Brooklyn, situations become different so fast, that it is hard to imagine anyone being able to totally keep up. In many ways, I have purposely kept up with the ways that streets and landscapes get altered, by matching them (to the best of my ability) with the intentions of developers, landlords and the tenants that are in a perpetual state of shift. I have mindfully captured instances that reflect the alarming rate which change can alter the dynamic relationship shared between people and buildings. I hope that so far, all of you find that i have done a somewhat adaquate job of doing so- yet, it will not be until you have the book in your hand that you will see the full scope of what i have set out to do.
In the real estate industry, the "active deal" makes it quite difficult to broadcast certain information to the public, as a real estate agent's paycheck will most always (at least in NYC) depend on that information remaining confidential and only shared among priviledged minds. When you have no system of MLS to shared across professional platforms, the deal hinges on the fact that such information remains confined to the buyer, seller and the broker. I am (as most of you are aware) far from being your average real estate agent. Believe me when i say that if i could tell you everything about every deal i have been in the middle of, i would. However, my own shelter and diet depend on a certain amount of secrecy. In other words, if i could just be an anthropologist, i would.
Over the past five years, I have focused on cultural change in North Brooklyn, brought about by gentrification. I have had the privilege to work with many of the very artists who made the areas of Williamsburg, Bushwick and Greenpoint desirable- enough to excite affluent Manhattanites on high enough levels to where they would finally leave their blessed borough and explore a side of New York City that (for the most part) had hitherto never been appealing for reasons other than saving money and survival. Now, Brooklyn has become widely recognized as an epicenter of cultural assent- a place of color and an extension of the New York City that non-natives are no longer warned about, but rather encouraged to hunt.
Goodbye to 2006!
We have seen the fall of the Old Dutch Mustard building at 80 Metropolitan Ave, in Williamsburg
Pass the Hot Dogs [Cuozzo/Post]
· The Final Days of Williamsburg's Old Dutch Mustard [Curbed]
· Dutch Demolition Porn: The Money Shot [Gowanus Lounge]
· The Rubble That Was Old Dutch Mustard Building [jUSTINYC]
condomeant [Brownstoner]
Curbed Found out Old Dutch Sold [justiNYC]
A Peek Inside Old Dutch Mustard Building [justiNYC]
Condomeant Buildings- Hold the Cheese [URbanfoto]
Williamsburg's Old Dutch Mustard Building- Inside and Out [Curbed]
The conversion of many of the war age buildings along the waterfront in Williamsburg and Greenpoint due to rezoning plan.
The 10 alarm fire at Greenpoint Terminal rocked the very foundations of the waterfront as we knew it. It dem
· Greenpoint Burning: End-o'-Day Rumor Wrap [Curbed]
· When Smoke Clears, Greenpoint Towers Set to Rise [Curbed]
A few albums for you to check out from my various explorations throughout North Brooklyn:
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Here are a couple of puddleflection shots i took down in DUMBO two days before I left to head south for the holidays. GOD I miss NY! There's just not enough grime and grit anywhere else to satisfy.
Manhattan Bridge
a quickr pickr post
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Shot this panoramic of Calvary Cemetery from Sunnyside Queens
Technorati Tags: Calvary Cemetery, Queens
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justiNYC has slightly elsewhere and unfortunately found himself unable to make it inside the Wooster Collective Art show at 11 Spring Street over the weekend. Nevertheless, these shots were taken last night of the outside during a brief excursion into Manhattan with buddy, M. Sayyid. Here's some of the leftover 'scraps' we saw.
Sayyid chillin
Closing time at 11 Spring. Sayyid and I just missed it.
DAMN!
a quickr pickr post
11 Spring Street has been a Wooster Art Collective open format show of the work from (at least) 45 internationally known street artists-with of course heavy representation from NYC. At the end of the show, the building is being converted into condos. Enjoy (while you can)!
Check out Wooster
Here are some videos:
11 Spring Street
Cheeky Signs Piece at 11 Spring St., New York
11 spring street, line walk (sunday afternoon)
11 Spring Street
11 Spring Street - Final Explosion of Street Art
Wooster on 11 Spring, just a quick walk through
Art House
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Every now and again, justiNYC likes to show you how to hack some NYC shit. A little while back, you were shown how to hack a NYC electric bill and because you loved it soooo much, here's another hack, Jack!
If you want to keep creepers from crawling through the big ass hole in your fence, the best way is to not have a hole in your fence.
Nevertheless, if your fence is holey, use one of the racks from your refrigerator, like this genius did on Flushing Avenue. The
refrigo-hack should do the trick- and you can get a snack while you're at it (if the damn bandit didn't already get away with your grub).
[Bushwick]
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This building on Kingsland Avenue once sat right where the BQE runs through Brooklyn at Kingsland Ave- pretty much in the exact locationwhere one can purchase a happy meal (if one were so inclined). A close friend of justiNYC's- Carl (age 78) once bought this buildingfor 15 cents per square foot, waaay before Sex and the City officially deemed Brooklyn as a cool place to live- [yes I blame Sex-City for many of the housing ills in Bk]. He acquired it by way of quick claim deed [example] and in those days, lived with his family and ran the factory. Nevertheless, when Robert Moses began to rule urban planning throughout the
boroughs, the Brooklyn Queens Expressway was built right through the middle of where this old bugger sat, so it was dismantled and moved up Kingsland Avenue a few blocks.
This area isn't jam packed with yuppies and the so called hipsters yet, in part because its to damn far from any train- hence, Greenwick. However, there are lots of development properties springing up in the area and it won't be long before the adventurous begin to find it on a map.
In many ways, this building is kind of like a casket.
Here are a few of the other sights one might come across in this neck of the woods:
Amazing display of Shoefitti on Kingland Ave at Jackson
Greenpoint Hospital Outpatient Department
(apparently with no emergencies)
Directly across the street (Maspeth Ave) from the old Greenpoint
Hospital you will find these odd ducks. Looks like some interesting
balconage occurring on the corner at Olive Street
behind the old Casket Factory, some local Flava
Ill, Hellbent, I Spy and more...
I hope you enjoyed this little tour of rapidly changing Kingsland Avenue.
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