Where Old Bricks Go

For years, I have delighted in finding the debris of old buildings resurfacing along the shores of a local river like the remnants of some lost civilization. Over a century ago, the river was reengineered to change the course of the stream as part of a restoration project. Buildings along the river were demolished to create parkland, and the building materials from the demolition was used for fill to build up the new riverbanks. A hundred years of erosion is now bringing the broken bits of those old buildings back to light. 

A Buried Building

Beginning in 2016, I have been finding architectural fragments in the Bronx River. Chunks of brick, concrete, and a bit of terra cotta occassionally fall into the riverbed as the bank gradually erodes. 

When the Bronx River Parkway was built in the 1920s, the river itself was redesigned as a restoration and beautification project that included the clearance of hundreds of buildings from the areas along the river. Apparently the rubble from some of those buildings was used as fill when they realigned the stream, and now, a century later, a little bit of it has gradually been resurfacing as the forces of nature take their turn reshaping the river.

Among the fragments I have stumbled upon are four pieces from the same terra cotta cornice that surfaced years apart, two of which fit with one another. They are enough to piece together the design of this band of the vanished building's facade. 

The Grand Cavern and the Back Corner

I got around to visiting the new Gilder Center by Studio Gang at the American Museum of Natural History last weekend, and it's visually stunning. It's a grand cavern, with stairs and stadium seating at the focal point. It's breathtaking. It's also a little heartbreaking.