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New York
05/23/13 3:00pm

The New York that Never Was: The Gaudi Hotel

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gaudi

This is a conceptual sketch of NYC’s proposed Gaudi Hotel, drawn by Juan Matemala. 

As one of the largest and most varied metropolises of the modern world, New York City is home to some stunning and interesting architecture. But it wasn’t always that way. Were it not for the dreams of enterprising architects, many of the buildings that have become beloved to NYC would never have graced the city’s skyline. And, unfortunately, many never did. In this column, we’ll showcase a different would-be NYC architectural dream, and tell you about the history behind the New York that never was.

In May 1908, two unknown American businessmen with the dream of building a new hotel traveled to Spain to meet with the renowned Spanish architect, Antoni Gaudi. (The novel The Gaudi Facade by J. S. Raynor, casts these businessmen as Edward T. Carlton, an American hotelier, and William Gibbs McAdoo, the president of the New York and New Jersey Railroad Company).

Gaudi (1852-1926) studied architecture in Barcelona, where he was surrounded by neo-classical and romantic designs. Gaudi became famous by reinterpreting these designs and working in the Art Nouveau and Art Moderne styles, and Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is considered to be his greatest work.  The American businessmen admired Gaudi’s unique vision, and asked him to design a hotel that would be situated in Lower Manhattan.

Gaudi designed multiple sketches of an 980 to 1,100 foot high hotel called the Hotel Atraccion (Hotel Attraction). It contained an exhibition hall, conference rooms, a theater, and five dining rooms, symbolizing the five continents. Had the hotel been built, it would have been the tallest building in New York City, and therefore in the United States. Sadly, this building would never be built. Carlton wanted the hotel to serve the city’s wealthiest and most elite clientele. Conflicted about this target audience, Gaudi remained true to his communist ideals, and he abandoned the project.

According to another version of the story, Gaudi fell ill in 1909 and that brought about the end of the project. All that survive of the exchange are conceptual sketches by Juan Matemala. But most importantly, its memory survives. Gaudi’s building was featured in an episode of the television show Fringe after the design for his hotel was submitted for a contest to decide what should be built in Lower Manhattan on the site of the World Trade Center.

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A screenshot from the episode of Fringe which featured a building based on Gaudi’s concept for the Hotel Attracion. Photo courtesy of Fringefiles.

Get in touch with the author @benjaminwaldman

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Arts & Culture
05/23/13 2:00pm

Prints from the NYC Underground by Street Artist Flye Lyfe

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We ran into PJ O’Rourke II in the bowels of Grand Central Terminal, not surprising since he spends most days underground, not just hawking his art, but creating it there too. PJ, or Flye Lyfe as he calls himself, came to New York from Tulsa, Oklahoma “2.3 years ago.” Armed with pencil, ink and trusty Adobe Illustrator, he makes hats, shirts and prints emblazoned with caricatures in his signature trippy style. His subjects have included everyone from Bugs Bunny to the Wall Street bull, but they all seem to share a penchant for the controversial–and the absurd. Kind of like political cartoons on acid. Our favorites are his New York City sports teams (below). When not posted up in the Union Square and Times Square subway stations, you can often find PJ at Raw Space NYC, a Harlem art gallery, where he hosts events and open mic nights for other, less literal, underground artists.

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All images courtesy Flye Lyfe

Food & Drink
05/23/13 1:00pm

Ontario Wine Tour: Prince Edward County’s Sandbacks Estate, Norman Hardie Vineyard, Harwood Estate and Karlo Estates

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wine bottles

Ontario’s newest wine appellation is fast becoming a significant player on the Canadian wine scene. Located just south of Belleville (2.5 hours by car from Toronto), Prince Edward County is now home to more than thirty rural wineries and vineyards. With an average of two new wineries opening each year, the region is growing and increasingly attracting visitors from Ontario, Quebec, the U.S. and abroad.

Prince Edward County (locally known as “The County”) is Ontario’s most northern wine appellation and relies on Lake Ontario to provide a moderated and productive cool climate growing season. The region features loose gravely soil that lies atop the Trenton limestone, making it suitable for producing cold weather varietals such as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris.

While we were in Prince Edward County, we visited four local wineries. All were small, laid back places where they use the same glass for each of the tastings. Visitors were free to roam the wineries and vineyards and watch the winemaking process as it developed. Check after the jump for our findings:

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Arts & Culture
05/23/13 11:00am

Filming “The Americans” at Columbia University’s Italian Academy

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The Americans film location Italian Academy Untapped Cities

The Americans, starring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as Russian KGB agents posing as suburban Americans living in Washington D.C., has been filming many scenes right here in New York City. In the video clip below, the show’s production designer John Mott explains that they had to find locations that would look like Soviet Russia during the 1980s. Though he does not disclose the filming location, we happen to know that the scenes set inside the Soviet Embassy (where one of the main actors, double agent Nina, works) were actually filmed at the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America. The crew brought in some incredible set pieces and props to outfit the ground floor galleries and the library, like this huge map of the Soviet Union, portraits and busts of Lenin and other artifacts. (more…)

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Arts & Culture
05/23/13 10:00am

The Rain Room at MoMA [Photos]

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If you haven’t gotten your fill of spring showers, head over to the Rain Room at the MoMA, a magical place where you can walk through a rainstorm without getting wet. Picture a pitch black room with a singular bright light source illuminating millions of drops of water falling from the ceiling into the grates below your feet. The collective sound of those drops is surprisingly loud, masking your own footsteps, making you feel disconcertingly invisible. But it doesn’t compare to how otherworldly it seems to calmly walk through the spigots of water only to have them cease above your head, to be surrounded by the rainfall literally in all directions.

The Rain Room is the brainchild of design studio rAndom International, who first debuted the installation last October at the Barbican in London. The British unsurprisingly glommed onto the spectacle of indoor rain, with queues reaching a record-setting twelve hours in length by the time the exhibit ended in March. Just a few weeks into our run across the pond, lines are already approaching serious commitment levels—anywhere from 2.5-6 hours on weekends. Museum members have priority access and a special members-only hour from 9:30AM – 10:30AM, but even they are looking at multiple hour waits. Regular visitors should add an additional two hours. Reason for the outrageous wait time? The exhibit admits anywhere from 8-10 individuals at once with no maximum stay length. Most people leave in under 15 minutes, but you can see how this can easily add up.

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Pro tip #1: follow the MoMA on Twitter (@MuseumModernArt) for the most updated wait time estimates; don’t bother trying to call the switchboard.

Pro tip #2: Check out the the live stream photographs of the Rain Room at MoMAPS1.org/expo1.

Pro tip #3: If you get there and give up on the line, we highly recommend hopping on the E train for a quick 12-minute subway ride to the MoMA PS1 across the river. Even though the Rain Room is housed at the MoMA—or, more accurately, a lot next to the MoMA—it is part of the PS1’s well-curated Expo 1: New York, which ambitiously includes a school, cinema, colony, pool, and much more, all tied together under a common environmental theme.

Or, pack a book and a lunch and wait in the midtown line. Either way, it’s shaping up to be a great summer for contemporary art in NYC.

The Rain Room runs from May 12 to July 28.

Get in touch with the author @plainjanehu.

Architecture
05/23/13 9:00am

Traces of Chelsea Market’s Industrial Past in the Meatpacking District

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© Jamestown Properties

Chelsea Market © Jamestown Properties

Chelsea Market was once part of a sprawling complex owned by the National Biscuit Company. Nabisco, which produces everything from Oreos to Saltines, remained in the complex from 1898-1959. While the Chelsea Market is more of a paradise for gourmands than a factory these days, its pride in its past ensures that historical remnants are readily accessible to the casual visitor. Join us as we take in everything from its steampunk-chic aesthetic to the memorabilia on display throughout the market!

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Arts & Culture
05/23/13 8:00am

Daily What?!: Yarnbomb Crochet Picnic in Union Square by Olek

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Yarn Bombing Picnic in Union Square, photo by John Black Photography

Yarn Bombing Picnic in Union Square, photo by John Black Photography

This is taking the yarn-bombing trend to the next level. Yesterday we showed you Knit the City, a group of girls yarn-bombing South London, but right here in New York City is one of the inspirations for this trend. Olek, a Polish-born costume designer turned set designer turned guerilla artist, is perhaps most recognizable for completely crochet-ing the Wall Street Bull and Astor Place Cube in 2011, but she’s taken the movement to the next level (with an accomplice it seems).

Moving from objects to people, Olek’s latest work covering people (friends and strangers) in yarn, like in the picnic captured by our friend, photographer John Black in Union Square, have been popping up on Instagram since April. Those in the know have been tagging oleknyc and olek in the photos. Instagrammer 4rilla, meanwhile, took the chance and “picked up some wild hitchhikers and brought them to Central Park.”

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Arts & Culture
05/22/13 4:00pm

Yarnstorming by Knit the City Brightens London

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If you haven’t heard of yarnstorming, we’re here to enlighten you. The website of its perpetrators, Knit the City defines it as “the art of enhancing a public place or object with graffiti knitting.” Also called yarnbombing, the streets of South London were treated to knitted flowers, bees, and beaming suns this spring, continuing into summer. The four girls behind London’s lifted spirits operate secretly, knitting, releasing their creations upon needy street corners.

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