Tag: nyc

The Iron Triangle

the autobody shops in willets point do look pretty mad max.

There are no sidewalks. There are no stoplights or street signs. There are no sewer grates or manhole covers (because there are no sewers). It doesn’t take long before any sense of New York City completely disappears, and you begin to feel like you’ve somehow been transported to a strange apocalyptic world of tin shacks and ramshackle garages.

Nicknamed the Iron Triangle and containing 225 different autobody shops, you can see just how big the literal triangle of Willets Point is on the map below, bordered by 126th Street, Northern Blvd, and Willets Point Blvd.

MTA Disaster Preparedness

a fascinating article about how the MTA prepared for sandy, and what they are going to do differently in the future.

When the next hurricane is headed toward New York City, some differences in subway preparations will be noticeable, but most will not. Maybe you will see a new, stronger, plastic replacement for plywood. You will see a few new-style vent and entrance covers. But you might not see too many futuristic gadgets. “We have to work with what we have. I remember the MTA saying that if we are going to completely strengthen the system, then we will have to stop running the system”. But it could be strengthened piecemeal, and Deodatis can’t understand why the M.T.A. opened the South Ferry station so recently without a floodgate of some kind. “To me, this is still a huge question.”

A good OHNY haul

ohny.org was productive this weekend. 1) sound lab at arup engineering, where they can recreate sounds from arbitrary built and imaginary spaces, 2) brooklyn army terminal, massive wwii era warehouse, 3) old croton aqueduct, gave rise to chase bank and kept nyc from running out of water, 4) FDR house in manhattan, where he recovered from polio and put together plans for the new deal, 5) old TWA terminal at JFK, it is hard to imagine a more james bond airport.