Photos 14 Dec 2008 09:25 am
PhotoSunday – Construction
- Do you remember the old days, when construction sites used to rip holes into their barricade walls so that pedestrians could watch the inner workings of the construction site? This was something we’d see animated in many a Looney Tune. Those holes actually did exist and were often occupied by people who were curious.
Today, probably because of insurance demands, those holes are gone. Your average construction site offers no way for people to peer into the workings beyond the street level. This also makes people like me more curious to know if something dark and nasty is going on within those walls.
I thought of this while passing the three construction sites I have to walk around each morning on the way to work. One is rather large and has been under way for the past six months (and they’ve just begun to complete the foundation), and the other two are relatively small (brownstone buildings being replaced.)
(Click any image to enlarge.)
You’ll notice that this large site on 29th St & Park Ave takes up a full
quarter of the city block. They’ve erected scaffolding to walk under and
a big blue fence to keep roaming eyes out. No peepholes.
Sneaking a peek within the locked, gated blue wall gave me
a good view of this large buildling under construction.
A smaller site close to my studio, works hard to be the most at
inconveniencing pedestrians and their attempts to keep people from
checking it out are more extreme than on the larger site.
I was able to sneak my camera into the locked fence and get
these two photos – above & below – which really don’t offer a
whole hell of a lot of information, other than that they’re guarded.
However, on the weekend, I was able to get a decent shot of the
inner workings of this site by sticking my camera in and shooting blindly.
Walking away from this site and continuing about half a block
you come upon another even more secretive site.
Here, they’re placing these large, ominous looking tanks into the
base of the developing building. It’s not a large space, so one wonders
what will possibly be the purpose of these white tanks.
They sure have enough of them. Maybe they looking for a large boiler.
You can’t even get to that side of the street to see what’s going on.
There are many sites underway in the City. This one, downtown,
has been on my horizon for almost a year now. I watched it grow
from scaffold with a crane sitting on its roof to what you presently see.
One wonders, given the current economy, who will rent those spaces.
on 14 Dec 2008 at 11:57 am 1.Jason said …
They probably don’t want people seeing the crappy construction and cheap
materials that they are using.
on 16 Dec 2008 at 8:07 am 2.Stephen Macquignon said …
I see this all over my neighborhood. What were once houses is now ugly rectangle shabby looking 3 to 8 stories building some lots even look abandon there poorly constructed barriers falling down it is a what a mess.