Posts Tagged ‘520 Kingsland’
possible dream
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recent occasion found a humble narrator all by himself for several hours at Newtown Creek Alliance HQ at 520 Kingsland Avenue in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint section. A former Mobil Oil facility, this building is now owned by the Broadway Stages company. Downstairs, they have a working television production studio. I don’t know if it’s supposed to be a secret or something, but this is currently where Queen Latifah is filming “The Equalizer” television show. There’s often craft service leftovers for us to enjoy left in the lobby, and on this afternoon there were donuts. TV donuts.
An artist has a studio on the third floor, and on the fourth and fifth floors you’ll find the Kingsland Wildflowers Green Roof.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you’d imagine, one such as myself finds his way here regularly for meetings and events and NCA related business. I’m seldom here by myself, and certainly not for the four to five hours interval recently enjoyed. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, no interlopers asking what kind of camera I was using, and I got busy.
I was using filters and everything. It’s not as easy as you’d think to get high around Newtown Creek, after all. Can’t waste the opportunity.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The next few days here at Newtown Pentacle will display shots gathered during this interval. One rolled through his entire bag of tricks this time around. My hope, which was ultimately squashed, was that I’d catch the 911 tribute lights being turned on (which tells you how long ago these shots were captured, so oops). Saying that, I’m still pleased with what I came home with.
Back tomorrow with more, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
intense concentration
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One found himself visiting the HQ of the illimitable Newtown Creek Alliance over in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint section the other day, where a maritime industrial show was on offer. I had just conducted an introduction to Newtown Creek for an academic class and while my colleague continued the narrative, I wandered off and got busy with the camera.
That’s the DonJon Towing Company’s Caitlin Ann, towing barges of scrap metal about, which were filled up by the SimsMetal company on the Long Island City side of my beloved Creek.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A maritime barge carries the equivalent cargo of about 38 heavy trucks. You spend carbon and fuel running the tugboat, of course, but the greenest possible way to move bulk cargo around involves the water.
Also, as I’ve often said: it doesn’t matter if they’re pushing or pulling the barges, tugboats are in the towing business.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
SimsMetal handles municipal recycling for DSNY, who bring their collections here. They also do commercial recycling for private entities – recycling structural steel, aluminum, even cars which are all headed for the shredder. Sims also operates the shredder, but that’s at their joint in New Jersey. I’ve asked, they won’t let me and the camera anywhere near the shredder – too dangerous for a non employee to be anywhere near.
Newtown Creek is the most feature rich and interesting section of New York City to me. Period. Back tomorrow with more wonders.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
natural result
Nehua notōcā Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Last weekend, one found himself at Newtown Creek Alliance HQ for an event, and then stuck around for a while to capture a few photos. Depicted above is the sewer plant in Greenpoint. The NYC DEP has changed the name of the place so many times in the last ten years that I’ve decided to just stick with “the sewer plant in Greenpoint” in retaliation. The DEP’s Deputy Commissioner has chided me about this, saying that I’m denigrating her profession. Sorry Pam, if you’re reading this, but when you changed it to the “Newtown Creek Wastewater and Resource Recovery Plant” you lost me.
Imagine answering the phones there.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s been a minute since I’ve set up the tripod and got busy like this at night around Newtown Creek, given that I’ve been enjoying the freedom of my vaccinated status out on the rivers and in the larger City. It’s funny how the same people who are describing the latest missives from City Hall about proving vaccination status before entering a theater or restaurant as “show me your papers” are the same ones who are demanding that Election Day poll workers and cops say “show me your papers.” Everybody wants to see my papers, for different reasons, apparently. Armbands are likely the next frontier.
Personally, I’m still on my Eric Burdon kick, and listening to his two collaborations with LA Funk Band “War” endlessly. Great version of Paint it Black on “Black Man’s Burdon.” Recommendation.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Those four pipes are where the DEP burns off the methane generated by the sewer plant in Greenpoint. They are also the largest point source of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere in the entire borough of Brooklyn. “DEP” stands for “Department of Environmental Protection,” incidentally.
One of Eric Burdon’s biggest hits was “We Gotta Get out of this Place.” Listen to that guy, he was (and still is) the Walrus – koo koo kachoo.
Speaking of Lonely Hearts Club Bands… what are you doing tomorrow – August 7th? I’ll be conducting a WALKING TOUR OF LONG ISLAND CITY with my pal Geoff Cobb. Details and ticketing available here. Come with?
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
terrible colloquy
The view, man, the view.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Newtown Creek Alliance, along with the Broadway Stages Company, the Audubon Society, and Alive Structures, applied for and received a grant from the GCEF fund (an environmental settlement which arose out of the Greenpoint Oil Spill litigation) a few years ago in pursuance of creating a 22,000 square foot green roof at 520 Kingsland Avenue in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint section. The 520 Kingsland property is an active TV production studio owned by Broadway Stages, but the flowering roof on top of is all about the environment. For me, it’s a wonderland of photogenic views.
The shot above looks westwards, just after sunset and towards the Shining City of Manhattan, with the Newtown Creek industrial zone in the foreground.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When mentioning 520 Kingsland to newcomers, I always use the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge as the nearest recognizable landmark for them to aim themselves at. The industrial zones on both sides of the Newtown Creek, former petroleum facilities mostly, have been acquired by and repurposed as television and movie production facilities in recent years. Broadway Stages owns large properties on both sides, and in Queens the Silvercup East studios are found just off Van Dam Street in the Blissville section of Long Island City. While I was on the roof at 520 Kingsland the other night, a crew at Silvercup was setting up to do some sort of “shoot” and they deployed theatrical lighting rigs.
Normally, I just make do with ambient light. It was great having the movie folks provide me with “proper” sculptural light. The shot above looks eastwards towards the Kosciuszcko Bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The industrial property pictured above is Metro Oil, a biofuel company founded by a friend of mind named Paul Pullo and his brothers. The Pullo brothers sold their business to John Catsimitidis (of Gristedes, FreshDirect, and Mayoral candidate fame) a few years ago. It sits right alongside the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge, and those are the oil tanks you see on your passenger side when driving from Queens to Brooklyn along the span.
These shots were gathered post facto after a walking tour of the area I conducted for Newtown Creek Alliance, with my colleague T. Willis Elkins, last Friday night.
Upcoming Tours and Events
June 30th – The Skillman Avenue Corridor
– with Access Queens.
Starting at the 7 train on Roosevelt Avenue, we will explore this thriving residential and busy commercial thoroughfare, discussing the issues affecting its present and future. Access Queens, 7 Train Blues, Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce, and Newtown Creek Alliance members will be your guides for this roughly two mile walk.
Skillman Avenue begins at the border of residential Sunnyside and Woodside, and ends in Long Island City at 49th avenue, following the southern border of the Sunnyside Yards for much of its path. Once known as Meadow Street, this colonial era thoroughfare transitions from the community of Sunnyside to the post industrial devastations of LIC and the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek.
Tickets and more details here.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
indelibly inked
It’s National Rotisserie Chicken Day, in these United States.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The new green roof at Broadway Stages’ 520 Kingsland Avenue building was recently made available to me for a couple of hours by the folks who installed and created the place – Alive Structures – in pursuance of creating a portfolio of photographs for brochure and website purposes. This is also a Newtown Creek Alliance project btw, and I packed up the “full kit,” including tripod and cable shutter release, in anticipation of getting both “artsy” and “fartsy.” It ain’t that often that I get to do the full set up for “proper” landscape style shots.
As always, I went well beyond my shot list, and figured that I’d show off a little bit in today’s post. That’s the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in the shot above, with the camera looking through the invisible methane flames that the DEP is burning off towards lower Manhattan.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking across Newtown Creek towards Long Island City – you can see the Long Island Expressway truss bridge rising some 106 feet above its tributary, Dutch Kills, but it’s been completely overshadowed by the titan slabs of mirror glass rising along Jackson Avenue between Court Square and Queens Plaza.
The truss dates back to Robert Moses and 1939, btw, and its height was dictated by the needs of the maritime and industrial powers who used to rule the roost in LIC.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking eastwards, towards the two Koscisuzcko Bridges (1939 and 2017 models), and over the petroleum tanks of Metro Fuel. The Greenpoint Avenue Bridge is just on the other side of these tanks, but occluded by them in this shot. At the extreme left of the photo is the tree line of Calvary Cemetery in Queens’ Blissville section.
Nothing like getting high along Newtown Creek, I always say.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
For those of you who saw me looking particularly sun burnt in middle May, these shots are the reason why. I spent something like two and change hours up on the roof at 520 Kingsland Avenue, mainly waiting for the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself to dip behind the Shining City and make the shot above possible.
If you’d like to take a look at 520 Kinsgland for yourself, NCA and Riverkeeper will be conducting a “community visioning” project there tomorrow between one and four, and then between five and seven I’ll be offering a history lecture and green roof tour of the space… come with? It’s all free, and the RSVP details are in the links below.
Upcoming Tours and events
Newtown Creek Alliance and Riverkeeper Visioning, June 3rd, 1-4 p.m..
Imagine the future of Newtown Creek with Riverkeeper and NCA at the Kingsland Wildfowers Green Roof (520 Kingsland Avenue in Greenpoint) – details here.
Newtown Creek Alliance History lecture with NCA historian Mitch Waxman, June 3rd, 5:00- 7:30 p.m.
An free hour long lecture and slideshow about Newtown Creek’s incredible history at the gorgeous Kingsland Wildfowers Green Roof (520 Kingsland Avenue in Greenpoint) followed by a walk around the roof and a Q&A – details here.
Green Drinks Queens LIC, June 5th, 6:00- 9:00 p.m.
Come celebrate UN World Environment Day with Green Drinks: Queens on the LIC Waterfront! This year’s theme is “Connecting People With Nature.” – details here.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
The Newtown Pentacle 