28 May 2021

at the corner of Delancey and Chrystie

 

I was walking around the Lower East Side in New York City after a visit to the New Museum to see the "Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America" exhibition. I noticed a building at the corner of Delancey and Chrystie streets that had a facade decorated with squashed soda or beer cans that reminded me of the work of El Anatsui.

A while later, I was having a mid-afternoon meal at Loreley, a longtime favorite since the days when one could smoke in the beer garden out back. I asked the waiter if she knew the building and what the name of the current occupant was. She said that it was some fancy boutique that she wouldn't shop at. Same here. But I was curious about the logo on the facade that looked almost like the Masonic symbol. I decided to see if I could get the name by asking the little yellow man on Google Maps to zoom in and find the name in Street View. Well, he found the old version of the building. Metadata indicates August 2019. It doesn't answer my question about the logo but it's interesting to see what's beneath the new incarnation.

P.S, I walked by the store again a couple days later on the way to the subway. It's the Daily Paper Clothing NYC flagship store. Getting the daily paper, of the Times variety, on Sundays in Ridgewood is nigh impossible.

P.P.S. This is what the building looked like on 27 May 2021.