For the first year or two after I moved to New York, I became one of those people who smugly criticized tourists for “looking up.” “Looking up” to ogle buildings as you walked down the street (causing you to inevitably bump into real New Yorkers like me with places to go) was about the greatest…
Note: this building is now gone. This building, at Metropolitan and Kent, always has some pretty great (and frequently changing) graffiti, but I especially love the enormous hand that showed up several months ago. It makes me laugh everytime I pass by it. There’s something so direct and obvious about it – “Here’s the door,…
Nothing is more surreal than crossing the street in Long Island City yesterday beside what I can only guess is a giant, glasses-wearing red blood cell, and overhearing him talking to the guy next to him about how hard it is to find an affordable 2-bedroom in the city. They went into a Mexican restaurant,…
I love that thousands of New Yorkers go about their business every day unaware of the countless eyes watching from the skies. Case in point: this building I noticed while scouting a rooftop near Wall Street: They’re virtually impossible to see from the street, but lining the top floor is a row of fish. Maybe…
I was scouting a location in Sunnyside, Queens, and I happened to notice the fountains in a nearby apartment courtyard. Someone must have left the water running… It was very pretty to see up close – I have no idea how water could freeze this perfectly. On the other side of the courtyard was this…
You know you’re going to school in New York City when this is the view out one side of the building… …and this is the view out the other. -SCOUT
As the MTA rehabilitates subway and train stations across the city, about 1% of its annual budget is allotted for installing permanent art installations intended to “raise the quality of the ride.” It’s a fantastic program that means you could enter the 4-Train station at 167th St & Jerome in the Bronx… …and see this…
This was painted on the tile wall of a kitchen that probably hasn’t been used in about 60 years: I love the red fingernails, the font on the lettering, the detail on the hands, and especially the fact that either its painted as if looking at someone who is holding up their hands for inspection…or…
When I was a little kid, seeing two abandoned buildings like these would have set my imagination racing. I would have killed to go inside and explore their secrets. What would I find on the other side of boarded up doorways, broken windows, and crumbling brick walls? What sort of decaying furniture and forgotten relics…
Merry Belated Christmas/Happy Hanukkah/Holidays/Etc.! I was grappling with two enormous backpacks on my way out of the city on Tuesday when I noticed this great cast-iron (?) clock on the Schwarzenbach Building at 470 Park Avenue South btw. 31st & 32nd Street. In my pictures it looks prominent, but this is something you’d almost assuredly…