Laundry

There is one thing that I absolutely won't miss when I leave New York City and that is doing my laundry at the laundromat. When I lived in Holland I had my own washer and dryer at home (like most people there). That means that you can do your laundry whenever you want, put it in the machine and continue doing what you were doing. You can even forget all about the laundry and get it out of the machine hours later if you want. And most important: you don't have to carry all your laundry down the stairs and go to the laundromat at the next block. 

The laundromat where I do my laundry could use a little bit of tender loving care, but the machines work just fine. And Rosa, the lady who runs the place, is very nice and we always chat a lot while the machines do their work. So it ain't all that bad, but I sure won't miss doing my laundry this way once I have my own machines again. 

Memories

It's been a long time since I did some serious blogging. It has also been a long time since I took photos. I had no inspiration, at all.
But this morning I decided that it is time to start taking some photos again. The reason this came to mind started when I put on some perfume and I realized that this perfume reminds me of our time in our first apartment here in NYC. (On an unrelated note: for some reason the smell of a coffè-latte with sprinkled cinnamon on top from Starbucks always reminds me of San Francisco....)

You might start thinking "and yes, where comes the actual part that made you think about photography again?" 
Well, that all has to do with the fact that I will be leaving New York City in January. Our new hometown will be in Ghent, Belgium. So this morning when I put on some perfume the idea came to mind to make photos of everything that means New York to me, what I will be missing when I move back to Europe and what I won't be missing from New York. Let's see what I can come up with for the next month or so. To start off this series I think it is appropriate to begin with my perfume bottle:

Idole by Armani - reminds me of our first apartment in NYC

Taphophile Tragics #4

It's been a long time since I posted my last {Taphophile Tragics} post. But this past weekend I visited Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, mostly because I wanted to photograph the beautiful fall colors, but I did see a grave that caught my eye.

It wasn't just the sun that I liked here, but this family grave/headstone looked very beautiful to me. When I took a closer look I also saw that three members of this family died in the same year (1996) and that's what I thought was worth looking up. 

Doing some searches on Google gave me a bit more information:
On August 16, 1996 there was an car accident and that was what killed Jeanne Lagano (mother) and her children Joanne (18 yrs) and Joseph Jr. (16 yrs). They were coming home from a family reunion in Nova Scotia, Canada. The father, Joe Lagano, returned home a day earlier for business and therefore was not involved in this crash.

A sad story.

Marina City

About a month ago I was in Chicago for one weekend. One of the things we did while we were there was taking a boat tour with the Chicago Architecture Foundation. During the 90 minute tour you get to see the many, many buildings along the Chicago River and the very knowledgeable volunteers tell you everything you always wanted to know about it! I am very much interested in buildings and architecture, this tour was really one of the highlights!

And until we passed the buildings in the photo by boat I had no idea they were Chicago based. I knew these building from photos and maybe from tv, but had no idea were I could find them. What I like the most about it is the round shape it has.

This is 'Marina City' and this is a residential/commercial building. It was designed in 1959 by architect Bertrand Goldberg and completed in 1964. What you don't see in my photo is that this building has parking space on the lower floors. Besides residential space (that also includes dry cleaners, grocery store, package room and valet parking) this complex also houses the House of Blues concert hall and Sax Hotel as well as an upscale bowling alley and a bank.

TWA Flight Center II

I made tons of photos at the TWA Flight Center this past weekend. Mainly because I fell in love with this building. Endless lines, round shapes everywhere, I wish I could live there, haha.

The terminal seen from the bridge or balcony (or whatever you want to call it),
 a real good spot for people watching

Even the stairs and banisters have round shapes

TWA Flight Center

This past Sunday I had the great opportunity to visit the TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport, here in New York City. Some of you may know this terminal, or maybe even travelled via this terminal when it was still in use.
Trans World Airlines (TWA) went bankrupt in the 90's and this terminal ended operations in 2001. The terminal has been closed ever since. And that's a shame, because it is the most beautiful airline terminal I have ever seen. 
Luckily for me we have 'Open House New York- Weekend' once a year. Open House New York (OHNY) makes it possible for the public to visit places that are usually closed to the public, such as this TWA Flight Center. 

The form of the TWA Terminal represents a huge bird in mid-air with its wings spread ready for landing

Not only do I love the outside of this building, but the inside is unlike any flight terminal I have ever seen. This building opened in 1962, in a time when travelling by airplane was not for everyone. When flying was maybe even an glamorous event. This red lounge seems to me like it could be from a movie, just amazing.

In 1994 the City of New York designated both the interiors and the exteriors of this terminal as a historic landmark. In 2005 the National Park Service listed the Trans World Flight Center on the National Register of Historic Places. The Port Authoritiy of NY and NJ funded the $ 20 million dollar renovation that has been conducted over several years. 

Dutch New York

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to join a walk through the Financial District to learn about the Dutch Roots in New York. Me, originally from Holland, thought this would be very interesting and it was! 

In this photo you see a small part of a larger three-dimensional bronze relief of the town of New Amsterdam that is mounted on a small granite rock. It shows roughly how the Southern tip of Manhattan looked back in 1660.

Peter Minuit Plaza, State Street at Whitehall Street, New York City.

Here's a link to a photo on Flickr where you can see the complete bronze relief.