The former World headquarters of Metropolitan Life Insurance located at 23rd Street in Manhattan directly east of Madison Square Park still referred to as the MetLife tower was in fact modeled after the St Mark's Campanile in Venice. MetLife had grown to become the largest and most successful insurance company in the United States by the early 1900’s. The company had leveraged the fact New York being the major port in the United States receiving European immigrants late in the nineteenth century by providing insurance to immigrant wage workers who had much to lose if they suffered injury or worse yet passed away on the job. MetLife had moved uptown to the 23rd Street location in 1893 when the original MetLife headquarters was built on this location. With the great growth at the turn of the twentieth century MetLife president John Rogers Hegeman in 1907 commissioned the architectural fim of Napoleon LeBrun and Sons to design a tower addition to be laid atop the northwest portion of the existing building. When the new 52-story marble MetLife tower open in 1909 it was the world’s tallest building and remained the tallest until it was surpassed three years later by Woolworth Building down on Park Row by City Hall. In this image on western face and the northern face the beautiful 4-story Italian Renaissance clocks can be seen and actually are on all four one on each side. Marriott Hotels in 2011 began a conversion of the MetLife tower into one of its boutique Edition line hotels which was great as it preserved its architecture, lobbies as part of the appeal.
Here is an earlier image from 2013 taken of the MetLife tower [ flic.kr/p/eRHhpF ]
Taken with an Olympus 4/3 E-5 with an Olympus Zuiko Digital ED 12-60mm F2.8-4.0 SWD lens on Benro Tripod using Olympus remote processed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

Tags:   #NEWYORKCITY #NEWYORK #NYC #NY METLIFETOWER METLIFE METROPOLITANLIFEINSURANCECOMPANY FLATIRONDISTRICT MADISONSQUAREPARK TWENTYTHIRDSTREET

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Lady Liberty always regal guiding the way into New York York Harbor. Always lovely at sunset from the water as seen in this image. The Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France symbolizing the friendship forged between the country of France and the fledging colonies during the Revolutionary War. It symbolism has grown over the years in addition to international friendship to symbolize freedom and democracy as it was one of the first things European immigrants viewed upon crossing the Atlantic Ocean entering New York Harbor.
The idea in 1865 of a monument for the United States was first proposed by Frenchman Edouard de Laboulaye. It took a decade for that concept to percolate into a real proposal with sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi commissioned to design a sculpture with the target completion 1876. Bartholdi realized the structural integrity of his massive statue was beyond his artisan knowledge, so he sought knowledgeable help and commissioned Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (designer of the Eiffel Tower) who designed a massive iron pylon and the metal skeletal secondary framework that would be required to put this massive memorial together. So in October of 1886, 10 years late for the Declaration of Independence centennial celebration New Jersey’s own United States President Grover Cleveland oversaw the dedication of the completed monument. The Statue of Liberty originally was called ”La Liberté éclairant le monde” or Liberty Enlightening the World.
This photograph captured on Olympus E-5 using Olympus ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 70-300mm F4.0-5.6 lens handheld, RAW file processed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

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If one could transport oneself 100 to 110 years back in time, approach this area on the southeastern shore on the water of Brooklyn on the East River, one would approach and pass the venerable ‘old’ Brooklyn Bridge with the Fulton Ferry Terminal to is immediate south and in the horizon would be the relatively new Manhattan Bridge on the shore between these two tall bridges an area today called DUMBO would be two distinct structures the larger Empire Coffee Warehouse and the smaller St Ann’s Tobacco Warehouse. Back at the turn of century, the shores of the East River were lined with warehouses and factories that received sea vessel either bringing or taking was being manufactured or stored in Brooklyn, up through Williamsburg with its Domino’s Sugar Plant and further north to the borough of Queens and Pepsi Cola in Long Island City all along the East River shores were a massive cradle of commerce that supplied much of the Northeast and much of the country in some cases. Now, most of the structures have been taken down, now the tide is residential, easy access to Manhattan the lure, very few original structures remain. One such structure which miraculously was saved from the wrecking ball though it was literally falling to pieces was the Empire Stores Coffee Warehouse 53-83 Water Street located just south of the Manhattan Bridge. Empire Store predecessor had a wooden structure that burned down in 1868 in this same location just after the US Civil War. In 1869, a Manhattan based firm Nesmith & Sons completed the first stage of construction of the brick masonry, schist structural walls and large heavy frame timber Empire Stores warehouses that would continue until 1885. Upon the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge, the area directly below the bridge, including the Fulton Ferry and the surrounding businesses started to see a decrease in foot traffic that only got worse as the construction of the Manhattan Bridge continued. As the area started to become more and more dilapidated, eventually at the turn of the century in 1901, Brooklyn witnessed the largest foreclosure sale of its history, the New York Dock Company (which succeeded the Brooklyn Wharf and Warehouse Company) purchased two and half miles of Brooklyn’s industrial waterfront stretching from the Empire Stores at the Brooklyn Bridge down to Red Hook’s Erie Basin. Arbuckle Brothers, at the time the coffee kingpins, acquired Empire Stores to be a packing, refining and storage facility for sugar and coffee in 192O which only added to already impressive holdings that the Arbuckle Brothers had in Brooklyn. Arbuckle was probably the late 19th Century’s Starbucks, when they moved to Brooklyn in 1881, they eventually built massive coffee plants with the machine Arbuckle developed the efficiently roast, ground and packaged coffee into small bags that allowed Arbuckle’s coffee to be mass distributed throughout the United States, their first coffee patented under the name Arbuckle Ariosa. The Empire Stores were used by Arbuckle well into the 1930’s. Sparingly used when the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the Brooklyn Promenade construction was completed by the destruction of many waterfront warehouses in Brooklyn, the Empire Stores survived and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey utilized the Empire Stores as part of the Brooklyn Marine Terminal. That would last about a decade when the Empire Stores were completed vacated and abandoned, nearing the century mark, the building was showing its age. It would remain vacant and abandoned for 50 years, and finally in 2013 Mayor Bloomberg announces that Midtown Equities to develop the Empire Stores. There were variations since then but the core plan remained with a rooftop addition, a central courtyard and retail space. Much like the Chelsea Market in Manhattan (former NABISCO Plants) the Empire Stores retain much of their historic charm including retaining era specific elements like coffee chutes and hoisting wheels, the distinct windows which have been given an absolutely cool lighting treatment as can be seen in this image that I captured from Jane’s Carousel. In the foto you can also see the fascinating accessible rooftop area that allows views of Manhattan. Just another reason to visit DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) in Brooklyn, a place I remember as a 19 year old that you could speed around in your car because it was generally desolate, now a burgeoning hipster paradise, but with a lot of history preserved so moving into the future while paying tribute and acknowledgement to the past.
Taken with Olympus E-5 with Olympus Zuiko Digital ED 12-60mm F2.8-4.0 SWD lens handheld processed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

www.empirestoresdumbo.com/

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Basketball being my favorite sport to both watch and play I can’t resist to watch as many of the games at the ‘Cage’ whenever I’m in Greenwich Village on summer afternoons of Kenny Graham’s 4th Street’s Pro Classic summer league. The level of talent for these athletes varies, but most games are close and intense usually decided in the final minutes of most contests, to a basketball junkie a true delight. The court, half a regulation full court completely fenced off as you can see in the image thus the moniker the ‘Cage’ and is widely considered to be one of the world’s most iconic streetball courts as a result of Kenny Graham’s West 4th Street summer league. Celebrating its 40th season, attracting players from New York City’s five boroughs, it was founded by a gentleman by the name of Kenny Graham who was a limousine driver back in 1977 when this league began. Players like one of my all time greats, Julius ‘Dr J’ Erving, Walter Berry and the embattled Jayson Williams played here and those that remember the 1990’s Patrick Ewing Knicks will remember Anthony Mason whose squad won 5 titles before he went on to bigger things with the Knickerbockers.
It is so interesting to watch not only locals but how many tourist will stand and watch a game as it is being played, so if you are into basketball and are in the Village to the corner of Sixth Avenue and Fourth Street gravitate toward the black chain-linked fence by the Subway elevator, you will not be disappointed.
Captured using an Olympus Stylus Tough TG-4 compact to shoot through the chain-link fence, raw image processed in Olympus Viewer 3 and cleaned up in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

www.nycgovparks.org/parks/west-4th-street-courts

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At the golden hour even the eastern tower’s brown granite which was quarried and shaped on Vinalhaven Island Maine of the Brooklyn Bridge takes on a golden hue and as well as the suspension cables themselves. This remarkable structure built in the nineteenth century over 125 years ago continues to be one of the main arteries between Manhattan and Brooklyn in the twenty first century with its six lanes of automobiles (3 east & 3 west), it’s pedestrian walkway which in the summer can peak at an amazing 10,000 pedestrians and 3,500 bicyclist a day. John Augustus Roebling the German Immigrant that designed the bridge designed it as he had previous structures such as Roebling Suspension Bridge over the Ohio River between Cincinnati Ohio and Covington Kentucky so it was spec’ed out to handle 6 times the intended weight with its structure. It is one of the reasons that it still remains a viable traffic channel while many of the structures that were its contemporaries during the nineteenth century are long gone while the Brooklyn Bridge remains a century and quarter after it was built.
This perspective is from Brooklyn with ‘old’ Fulton Street in the foreground, many of the structures have been preserved from the time the bridge was built. Conversations about the building of a bridge between the cities of New York and Brooklyn started in the earlier in the nineteenth century predating the American Civil War. Roebling began drawing designs as early as 1857 while one of his designs a suspension bridge over the Allegheny River at Pittsburgh which was finished in 1859 and the bridge that would get eventually be named after John that I mentioned previously over the Ohio between Cincinnati and Covington was also in progress. The Ohio river bridge project would be stopped by the Civil War and the construction resumed post war and finished in 1867.
The street was named after Robert Fulton who had established the most prominent steam ferry service between New York and Brooklyn the terminal located at the end of the this very street. Picture New York and Brooklyn two growing and thriving cities separated by the east river, so the waterways between the two cities was full of sea vessels going back and forth, the larger ones were steam powered, so smog was prevalent. It had become a nightmare which is why both cities were pushing for a bridge. The ask was a true challenge for John Roebling which turns out is why he padded the specifications even more, it was by far the largest structure he had ever designed. When Brooklyn Bridge was completed it was the longest suspension bridge in the world and remained the longest for 20 years.
On a personal note, it is one of four New York City bridges that I’ve walked, bicycled and driven across actually the one I’ve walked and cycled across the most.
This was captured by an Olympus E-5 using an Olympus Zuiko Digital ED 12-60mm F2.8-4.0 SWD lens processed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

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