WEST VILLAGE TRIPTYCH

I’ve gotten good response on Facebook for this photo I posted in early January 2019, so I thought I would do an FNY post and elaborate a bit. Fighting the cold in my battered black and maroon jacket I got at Robbins Men’s and Boys in 1992, I was staggering around the northwest sector of the West Village (people get mad if I assign directional tags to places that don’t traditionally have them; I’m tempted to call the area north of West 11th and west of Greenwich Avenue “the north Village” but I recognize that this would offend tender sensibilities (like the time I called everything north of Ditmas Boulevard and west of Hazen Street “north Astoria”), so I’ll call it “the northwest sector of the West Village.”

Anyway, when I got to the bit in the maze where Greenwich Avenue, Horatio Street and West 13th Street come together, this triptych comes into view, combining the new, the medium, and the very old. There are three centuries of architecture design sensibilities shown here in the same photo!

On the left is One Jackson Square. At West 13th Street’s western end, 8th Avenue invades the old Greenwich Village street plan from the north, creating a number of odd angles, including one with Greenwich Avenue, one of the oldest paths in Manhattan. Where the two main avenues meet West 13th, you find Jackson Square Park.

It is not clear how, when, or why the site came to be called Jackson Square. Most likely it was named after Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), the seventh President of the United States. Born at Waxhaw Settlement, on the border of North and South Carolina, Jackson was elected to Congress in 1796 and served in the War of 1812. Old Hickory emerged as a national hero who was very popular with the leaders of Tammany Hall, New York’s most influential Democratic organization. With Tammany’s support, Jackson won the presidential elections of 1828 and 1832. On October 30, 1832, a hickory tree was planted in front of Tammany Hall, and its roots were nourished with the contents of a barrel of beer. NYC Parks

One Jackson Square is a residential condo development opened in 2009 at Greenwich and 8th Avenues. Its glassy, wavy exterior immediately marked it as something different in the staid North…er, ah, west Village. It was designed by that architecture firm KPF, Kohn Peterson Fox. In the AIA (American Institute of Architects) Guide to NYC published in 2010, the adjectives are flying: “Undulations bound to produce joyous ululations from many a stolling architecture critic.” On KPF’s site, it’s described thusly:

Undulating bands of glass identify individual floors, creating a ribbon-like series of convexities and concavities along the street wall. The predominantly masonry structures of the immediate surroundings, along with the park, are “played back” in the glazed façade, creating an intimacy of scale congruent with the local context through juxtaposition.

Easy for them to say! Me, I like the building, though it’s one of those places I’d get tossed from if I appeared in the lobby, which, I read, is similarly undulating.

Prior to the construction of One Jackson Square, the site held a parking lot, with this awesome painted sign for a local garage. It might still be under there, since it’s on the side of the center item in the triptych…

… the IND Electrical Substation at 253 West 13th Street. The Independent Subway was built between 1925 and 1950 with the main trunk lines on 6th Avenue, 8th Avenue, the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, and Queens Boulevard, with feeder routes all over the boroughs. Occasionally it was necessary to build substations, or buildings that held the electricity that powered the subways. Most are no longer in use due to changing technology, but their distinctive surface entrances are recognizable by era, and the ones built in the 1930s for the IND are notable for their spare, but still decorous, Art Moderne and Art Deco elements.

Now we come to the building on the right, which I’d say is everyone’s favorite who has commented on Facebook. It goes back to 1888 and was designed by Richard Morris Hunt, an architect honored by a statue on 5th Avenue at 71st Street on the Central Park side. It was the original Greenwich Public Library and was built with a grant from George W. Vanderbilt. Both the AIA Guide and the Greenwich Village LPC Designation report say it resembles a Dutch guildhall. Notice the large half trefoils, or 3-leaf clover-shaped elements, above the windows.

The building has a colorful history. In 1970, artist Robert Delford Brown moved in and made it the headquarters of his artistic association, “The First National Church of the Exquisite Panic, Inc.” and considerably altered the interiors, while thankfully keeping the exterior intact. Delford passed away in 1997, and the building had new ownership after that. More on Brown in Interview Magazine.

I like this building the most, as well, though I have good thoughts about the other two. I was struck by this stark a reminder how architecture tastes can change as time goes relentlessly on.

Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop, and as always, “comment…as you see fit.”

1/15/19