Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Photo of the Day

Sore Thumb...
Last week's 'like a sore thumb' photo of the day sparked some interesting comments,
so we figured we'd post perhaps the biggest sore thumb in the BoogieDown...
good ol' Tracey Towers.
They loom with all the architectural grace of a penitentiary in the sky,
and each time I see them staring down at me I shudder.

One CityData member actually remembers that an AIA guide referred to them as
"sandcastles with overactive thyroids."
Photos by ErLu

6 comments:

Gregory Lobo Jost said...

The second photo is a great contrast of one of the pretties buildings in the Bronx in the shadow of one (or really two) of its ugliest.

Anonymous said...

Compared to most of the dreck built around here in the past 10 to 15 years, this is an architectural gem.
The apartments appear to be smallish from the outside.
I never cared for it, but at least it is unique and has character. I don't know what that character is, but it has it. Tracey looks like it was built to last. That's more than I can say about the cheap "fedders houses" and buildings popping up like warts all across the city which obliterate greenspace, and create landscapes of bland sameness.

and justice for all said...

those two building always creeped me out...ever since I was a little girl living on University Avenue in the Fordham Road section of the Bronx...

my daughter says they remind her of something you would see in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

And if you look at the buidlings from Sedgwick and Hillman, there's always a set of windows covered with wooden board resulting from a fire.

I expect to see King Kong make his way up one of them some day...

CREE-PEE

Anonymous said...

I feel a little more educated after reading this articke in the Times.
There's even a small slideshow of the architect's other work.
http://tinyurl.com/ttowers

Unknown said...

There is a Roy Scheider movie from 1973 called The Seven-Ups. It was filmed in the north Bronx.

At one point, two of the characters are standing in the Dewitt Clinton H.S. athletic field, looking up at Tracy Towers, and lamenting their lack of charm.

dreadlocgrl169 said...

They have the worst elevators...i work for a particular city agency and we are forever getting complaints about people stuck in elevators. That building needs to be demolished & another more green and esthectically pleasing building put in its place.