Apparently, we aren’t the only ones who have wondered what Christopher Gray’s favorite buildings are. In this week’s Streetscapes column, Mr. Gray admits that he’s frequently asked to name them. After all, an architectural historian who spends so much time not only staring at edifices, but researching their histories must have developed some Read More
Andrew Carnegie’s legacy is known for its generous philanthropic donations to universities and libraries (like, two thousand libraries). But in a bizarre twist, some of his private decisions have continued to shape the Upper East Side decades after his death.
Streetscapes’ Christopher Gray dug up the history of Carnegie’s land ownership that show a side of Read More
Everyone has their favorite section of The Times. For some, it is Business Day, Dining or the Op-Ed page. Who doesn’t love to hate the Styles section (or is it hate to love?) or gaze longingly at the properties in the “What You Get For…” real estate column, constantly reminding us of the price we foolhardily pay to be New Yorkers.
For a certain subset of readers, nothing delights more than Christopher Gray and his Streetscapes column, a remarkable tour of the city’s ephemeral architectural history. Today, in a very personal column, Mr. Gray describes how he first fell in love with old buildings—four in particular, in fact. Read More
It is getting hard to catalog all the new changes on the Fulton Mall in recent years. There is the new benches and sidewalks, rebuilt after decades of neglect. The rezoning and the thousands of new apartments borne in on the tides of its land rush. A new mall, CityPoint, maybe with a Target inside, as well as the national retailers finally flooding into the old department stores alongside Macy’s: Aeropostale, Express, H&M, TJ Maxx. And who could forget the crown jewel, Shake Shack.
While people worry about the future of the mall and who might shop there—indeed, it is the subject of a feature in tomorrow’s paper—it still has much of the polyglot look it has had for decades, even more so given the new mix of national shops among the mom and pops with their riotous signs.
Just as it worked for the rezoning in 2005 and the streetscaping a year later, the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership is in the early stages of creating new standards for the storefronts on Fulton Mall, according to people involved with the project. While still very much preliminary, some form of new regulations is being developed by the local business improvement district in partnership with the Department of City Planning to spruce up the walls of the Fulton Mull. Read More
