Tag: urban landscape

Sears Roebuck & Co.

The Humble Fabulist2 Comments

With rows of red brick family houses and small apartment buildings, modest and slightly rundown, this part of Beverly Road is not particularly pretty.

But, then, one comes across this marvelous Artdeco tower on the edge of a seemingly triangular structure. Later, I found out that it is a department store, opened in 1932 with Eleanor Roosevelt being the guest of honour, keynote speaker and first customer in what was to be Ms. Roosevelt’s last public appearance before her husband became President.

wp20161006_190528 wp20161006_190629

Beverly Road, Flatbush, Brooklyn

More reading about Sears here.

October 6th, 2016

The three chimneys

The Humble FabulistLeave a comment

of the Ravenswood Generating Station, or Big Allis to friends. Actually there are four, but only three are visible from this angle.

When it opened in 1965, it was the “world’s first million kilowatt unit…big enough to serve 3.000.000 people”. In today’s figures, it has the capacity of providing around 20% of the electricity consumed by New York City.

At the time of its installation, it was also the world’s largest steam energy generating facitly. Today, when necessary, steam is supplied from the plant to the Manhattan steam system via the Ravenswood tunnel which runs under the East River.

wp20160917_190131

Taken from the John Finley Walk on the Upper East Side. The trees and buildings left and right are actually closer, on Roosevelt Island; Big Allis is located further away on Vernon Blvd and 36th Avenue, in Queens.

September 17th, 2016