Scraps of Paper
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My Challenge to Designers - Go Out and Observe the World Around You.
Last night I went out on my usual evening stroll with Frankie. Only tonight I did it with a secondary purpose. Tonight’s stroll was all about observing the light around my neighborhood in Astoria. I shared the photos in two posts on my tumblr. You can find them here and here.
None the photos will be published in Time magazine and none were instagrammed or photoshopped, I simply walked around and observed the real light people live with every day. One thing struck me - in a way everyone is a lighting designer. They might not think of themselves that way, but none the less we are all masters of the light that surrounds us.
That goes for the folks working for our municipalities as well. I’m not just talking about street lights. I wonder if the person who chose the lighting for our subway cars thought about what kind of light they would cast into the neighborhoods where elevated trains crisscross - I doubt it. But it adds a piece of beauty and texture that no one could have planned.
The walk reminded me of a recent post in lighting magazine by Ian Ruxton. In it he praises the randomness of lighting in a city. Not just the beautifully designed pieces but the shoddier, cheaper versions that somehow last for years. From his piece:
“The architecture of our towns and cities isn’t homogenous. It isn’t all shiny and modern. And thank goodness for that. We love our cities to have variety and character. We love to find a winding, medieval alleyway around the corner from a 1990s shopping mall, across from a solidly neoclassical Victorian bank. A completely planned environment has a slightly weird and unnatural feel to it – it’s the undesigned aspects of a city that make it interesting.”So I end my piece with a challenge to my fellow designers. Go take a walk one evening this week and observe the lighting around you. Not just the beautiful stuff, but the thrown together displays of the local bodega. What do you see? What do you learn?
I can’t wait to see what you see.
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Observing the light of the neighborhood on an evening walk (Part 2)
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Observing the light of the neighborhood on an evening walk. (Part 1)
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I grew up in Queens, I love seeing Historical pictures of my borough.
(via 14 Photos Of Queens From Before You Were Born: Gothamist)
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Safety Warning to the Women of Astoria - Bike Groper Sighting
Over the last year or so there have been reports on some of the Astoria blogs of women being groped by a man riding a bicycle. Some have called the reports false or nonsense.
Well, I witnessed one this morning.
A little before 6:00AM walking Frankie down 23rd Ave near 28th Street I heard a woman yell from across the avenue. I couldn’t see her momentarily because of a park SUV. When I moved around it I saw a guy on a bike pedaling for all he was worth turning up 28th street back towards Ditmars. I yelled to her to see what happened. She said “that guy grabbed me!”
Frankie and I turned and I yelled after him, but he was already 3/4 down the block and pedaling hard, I had no chance of catching him (though Frankie might have). Anyway, the woman was OK. I got the sense he grabbed her backside and kept pedaling. He was stunned by Frankie and I being there, I guess because we were hidden behind the truck.
Ladies, please be careful. And PLEASE BE VOCAL. This woman did the exact right thing, by yelling loudly Frankie and I made ourselves known and he got the hell out of there.
A little more about the guy himself - disclaimer it was dark and I only saw him under street lights.
- I’d put him between 30-40.
- Maybe 5’10”
- Caucasian or Latino but again really hard to tell under the lights.
- He was wearing a black North Face style coat and a hunters cap.
- Thin build
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Love these photos. My first job in theater was at Queens Theater in the Park. The pavilion is now used for storage mostly. We had our scenic shop in one of the rooms inside. There is still a (now decrepit) map of the state of New York painted along the floor of the pavilion.
My understanding (and maybe this is just legend) is that the cables supported a plastic sheeting roof. Plastic at the time was the building material of the future, I’ve also heard that Aerosmith was the last band to ever play inside the pavilion.
The Pavilion itself is slowly sinking and is not fit for habitation right now. That said, the theater has undergone a massive renovation and across the way the Queens Museum of Art has taken over the old skating rink and is about to double in size.
New York State Pavilion by Philip Johnson for Expo ’64
Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, New York
Photographs by Randolph Mase
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Welcome to Queens. You can still finds lots of classic deco architecture if you look for it….
Blue Sky Diner, Long Island City, Queens, New York
by Genial23Deco sort of hidden in plain site.
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The Holiday Lights of Astoria are back.
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Painted with a bit of a broad brush, but this map of Queens food pretty much nails it.
I love being from Queens.
@fastcompany’s Infographic of the Day: New York City’s Unmapped Food Regions. #Queens looks delicious.
(via nogophoto)
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The arches of the Hell Gate bridge in Astoria, Queens.
