Wednesday, September 17, 2014

New Look for Old


















Here's the new look for 657-665 Fifth Avenue, the furniture & appliance warehouse buildings at 19th Street.  They sold for $8,500,000 a year ago.  These sorts of architectural renderings always veer towards the surreal, with those strange Stepford figures posed in the streetscape, but maybe the real thing will turn out better than the picture suggests.  Hmm, maybe.  It's looking kind of Disney faux-historic right now.  I'll admit that the arched windows play on an original feature, and I guess it's better than a giant slab, but there's none of the poetry of the weathered old building, with its steep, steep fire escape (stairway to dreams!) and its ghostly signs lingering on the walls.




















I seem to have accumulated many pictures of this building, a real favorite of mine. Here are several more.



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