Meeting Alexander in New York City for dinner – East River Roundabout

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Located in Manhattan on the shore of the East River at the base of the Queensboro Bridge, this pavilion and sculptural installation were designed to stand out amidst the high-density urban environment that surrounds them. The site was used for decades by the Sanitation Department as a waste transfer station until 1985 when the station was decommissioned and an eighteen-story hotel was proposed. A consortium of organizations including the Greenacre Foundation, the Parks Council, and the Municipal Arts Society protested the commercial development. Eventually the hotel project was abandoned and a public pavilion was commissioned. Funded by nearby Rockefeller University and the Hospital for Special Surgery, it was designed by landscape architect Nicholas Quennell, who had been involved in the protest, and sculptor Alice Aycock.

The exterior of the transfer station was removed, exposing its steel superstructure. A fence resembling a ship’s railings was installed along the section of the pavilion overlooking the river. Light blue benches and decorative paving were inserted in the 12,000-square-foot open-air pavilion. In 1995 Aycock’s 80-foot-long aluminum helix was dedicated, funded by public donations and maintained by the Municipal Art Society. Spiraling through the pavilion’s superstructure and reminiscent of a rollercoaster, East River Roundabout includes a curving roof that resembles a folded fan. Accessible from 60th Street via a pedestrian ramp to the elevated Bobby Wagner Walk, the park is adjacent to the 24 Sycamores Playground and the Andrew Haswell Green Park.

For more information see here.

Taken with a Sony RX10 IV.

Seeing a Broadway Show – On to Bryant Park

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I intended my make my first stop to be at Bryant Park, but first a picture (above) taken right outside Grand Central Terminal

Bryant Park is a 9.6-acre (3.9 ha), privately managed public park in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) and between 40th and 42nd Streets in Midtown Manhattan. The eastern half of Bryant Park is occupied by the Main Branch of the New York Public Library. The western half contains a lawn, shaded walkways, and amenities such as a carousel, and is located entirely over an underground structure that houses the library’s stacks. The park hosts several events, including a seasonal “Winter Village” with an ice rink and shops during the winter.

The first park at the site was opened in 1847 and was called Reservoir Square due to its proximity to the Croton Distributing Reservoir. Reservoir Square contained the New York Crystal Palace, which hosted the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in 1853 and burned down in 1858. The square was renamed in 1884 for abolitionist and journalist William Cullen Bryant. The reservoir was demolished in 1900, and the New York Public Library’s main branch was built on the site, opening in 1911. Bryant Park was rebuilt in 1933–1934 to a plan by Lusby Simpson. After a period of decline, it was restored in 1988–1992 by landscape architects Hanna/Olin Ltd. and architects Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates, during which the park was rebuilt, and the library’s stacks were built underneath. Further improvements were made in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. (Wikipedia)

The above mentions: “a period of decline”. That doesn’t quite tell the full story. By the 1960s, Bryant Park had deteriorated badly. When I arrived in New York in 1974 it had been taken over by drug dealers and the homeless. In was considered to be somewhere that ordinary people and visitors should avoid.

The park was substantially renovated and rebuilt during the 1980s and re-opened to acclaim in the early 1990s. The dramatic improvement in the park led to an equally dramatic rise in real estate values in the surrounding area. By 1993, the area had become a highly desirable office area, and formerly vacant office space around the park was being filled quickly. The Park is used mostly as a passive recreation space. It is one of the world’s busiest public spaces. Now more than 12 million people per year visit the park and enjoy gardens with seasonal displays, free daily amenities, cultural programming, exercise classes, and much more!

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The Winter Village

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Plastic igloos where you can sit and eat or have a drink while protected from New York winters.

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Statue of William Earl Dodge by by John Quincy Adams Ward. It was cast in 1885 and dedicated on October 22 of that year. The statue was initially installed in Herald Square, having been financed by Dodge’s admirers and friends. It was moved to Bryant Park in 1941 and was renovated in 1992 by the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation.

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The Josephine Shaw Lowell Memorial Fountain, a memorial to Josephine Shaw Lowell, a social worker active in the late 19th century. The fountain was designed by architect Charles A. Platt and dedicated in 1912.

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Coins in the fountain.

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One of the numerous decorative planters scattered around the park.

Taken with a Sony RX100 MVII

A visit to upstate New York and Vermont – last dinner before leaving Vermont

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After a fairly long drive back from Ticonderoga we decided to eat in Rutland, Vermont at a restaurant called Roots. We had a great meal in a pleasant and interesting location. This was marred by only one thing. When I came to pay for the meal their machines would not accept any of my credit cards. So, my friends had to pay. When I was able to contact my bank, they told me that there was no problem with the cards, and that if they had been declined, they would have received a message – which they didn’t. The only thing they could offer was that the machine being used by the restaurant must have been faulty.

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Taken with a Sony RX10 IV

A visit to upstate New York and Vermont – Star Trek Original Series Set Tour

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When I mentioned to a colleague that we would be visiting Ticonderoga, NY she suggested that we might want to check out the Star Trek Original Series Set Tour. I’ve been watching Star Trek since I was kid, and my friend’s husband was an even more devoted fan than I am (he seems to be able to remember every episode in great detail, which is something that I’m a long way away from being able to do). So he got tickets for us.

The tour’s website provides the following description:

Star Trek: Original Series Set Tour is Located in Historic downtown Ticonderoga, New York.

When the STAR TREK television series was canceled in 1969, the original sets were dismantled and largely destroyed, only a few small items of the actual sets remain today, and those that have survived are in private collections. Trek superfan James Cawley began the process of rebuilding the sets just as they would have been seen 50 years ago when the series was being filmed, a 14 year journey has culminated in the most accurate rebuild of the original sets, and is now open and welcoming STAR TREK fans from all over the world!

Our sets are complete recreations built using the original blueprints, hundreds of hours of serious research and thousands of photographs – both period images and images culled from extensive review and capture from the original episodes. The sets will NOT and were NOT designed to move from one city to another and are fully licensed by CBS. The Star Trek: Original Series Set Tour Invites you to come see the Desilu Studio as it looked during the years between 1966-1969 while Star Trek was in production.

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This “Batmobile” stood outside the entrance to the tour. We later discovered that it had been built by the person who also owned to tour.

The picture at the top of this post, and the next three pictures were taken in the lobby while we were waiting for the tour to begin.

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The next three pictures show the transporter room, featuring my friend’s husband and (in the second picture the two consoles used in the original series)

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In the next two pictures we’re in sick bay.

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The famous curved corridor.

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The conference room featuring a Vulcan lute (sometimes referred to as a Vulcan harp, Vulcan lyre, or Vulcan lyrette) was a twelve-stringed musical instrument played on the planet Vulcan that was tuned on a diatonic scale and noted to be very soothing.

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A couple of artifacts featuring a skull and a Tricorder.

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Captain Kirk’s room

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The Engine Room (I’m not sure about the first picture below, but I think it was the engine room. The second one certainly is.

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On the bridge

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All in all, it was much better than I thought it would be and I really enjoyed it. The highlight of the tour was being able to sit in the captain’s chair on the bridge of the starship “Enterprise”!

Taken with a Sony RX10 IV

Lantern Revealed

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I’ve posted before about the stone lanterns that are scattered around the village of Briarcliff Manor. I believe there are about six of them in the village (For more information see: The Story of the Stone Lanterns on the Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society website).

This lantern (#5 on the website) was placed by Walter Law (the founder of Briarcliff Manor) at his daughter Edith Law Bröckelmann’s property named “Little Mount Vernon,” across from the entrance to the Law Manor on Scarborough Road, where it remains, in its original location. The “Little Mount Vernon” mansion was built by W. W. Law for his daughter, Edith who returned to Briarcliff Manor from China in 1902 as the widow of Fritz Bröckelmann, who we believe was responsible for sending the lanterns from China.

I’ve lived in Briarcliff Manor for about 26 years, and my house is only a short walk from this lantern. I’ve passed it many times and didn’t see it until about a year ago. It was behind some bushes, and you couldn’t see it from the road. You had to virtually crawl under the bushes to get a view of it. That’s now changed. The present owners have been doing some landscaping and I’m pleased to say, as you can see from the picture, the lantern is now clearly visible from the road where passers-by can see it. I don’t know who owns the property nowadays, but I’d like to thank them for making this piece of Briarcliff History visible to all.

Taken with a Sony RX10 IV.