The Art and Architecture of Bond Street between Lafayette and the Bowery

The phrase 'art and architecture' sounds like it's from a few college courses I've taken, but I thought I would put it in the title anyway. Keep reading for the syllabus and the date of the midterm.


There is actually a lot of interesting art and art history on this block in Noho, and let's start with a type of street art that hasn't been covered before in this blog: sidewalk carving.

This big work was done by the artist Ken Hiratsuka in 2008.

Hiratsuka is from Japan and moved to New York City in the early 1980's, when he started doing his carvings "always formed by one continuous line that never crosses itself," according to his website.  His work appears throughout the world.

 He calls his art "fossils of the moment," which is a poetic and apt phrase. 

There's something oddly satisfying about being able to walk on a work of art. Not only is it accessible street art, free for everyone, but it's interactive: walking over it means you're affecting and changing it, even if just a little. It may be carvings in stone, but in a way it's also a living part of the city that has been touched and altered by countless people from all over the city and world.  

There is another work by Hiratsuka in the lobby of one of the buildings at this spot:

And there is another sidewalk piece by Hiratsuka nearby at the corner of Broadway and Prince. I look forward to the next time I walk by that corner and actually know for the first time who is behind that work.

The sidewalk carving is close to the Lafayette corner with Bond Street, and here is a view from that area that includes interesting buildings and a parked truck with colorful graffiti of Rocky and Bullwinkle. I assume all copyright laws were followed for this artwork:

The building behind the truck with the gold statues on it is 24 Bond Street, home to the Gene Frankel Theatre, which dates back to 1949 and has been at this location since 1989.

This building has other artistic legacies too. According to the website Untapped Cities, the building was owned for a time by Virginia Admiral, who was a successful painter and Robert DeNiro's mother. It was also home in the 1970's to a performance space for experimental jazz artists called Studio Rivbea, founded by jazz musician Sam Rivers.

24 Bond Street was also the site of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe's first studio. He kept the space as a darkroom when he moved to West 23rd Street in the 1980's.

According to Untapped Cities, the gold statues are titled "Dreams of Hyperion" and were done by an artist named Bruce Williams from 2006-2010. Here are some closer looks:

This building and the ones next to it have a nice old-fashioned New York vibe:

Though there are some hints at newer buildings as we take a wider view down some more of the block:

I saw these images near the sidewalk carvings on the other side of the street:

I didn't see it signed by an artist but I think it qualifies as street art. I enjoyed them, at least. 

Here are some other attractive buildings near the Lafayette Street corner:

And next to those two is the building with the Ken Hiratsuka sculpture in the lobby, which seems much newer and sleeker:

After this building you can see parts of some more old-fashioned buildings to the left in the photo. I found this mix of old and new to be representative of the block, which has a long history and seems to have been affected by the recent gentrification of the whole area in the past couple of decades or so. 

The Bowery and sections near that street used to be rough areas but have become more upscale and trendy, though this block has some artistic and more gritty remnants here and there. Not every newer or nicer place is a product of gentrification, of course. Il Buco is an Italian restaurant on the block that actually started as an antique store in 1994. I thought this photo captured another good mix of the block's nicer and grittier elements, with some graffiti next door:

And nearby are signs for a scrap metal business called D&D Salvage Corp. next to an upscale clothing store called A.P.C.

I don't know what all the initials stand for in the businesses, so please don't ask.

And just past the salvage yard are some places that seem rather trendy and/or upscale, including a delicatessen, a French bistro that is apparently closed down, a women's clothing store called Curve, and a Kenneth Cole at the Bowery corner. 

The building towards the corner seemed to have a partly curved construction to it, which I will assume is not a coincidence with a store there named Curve. You can see some of this curve from the Bowery corner:

The curved part of the building is an interesting look, but overall I don't understand why so many modern buildings seem to only be in varying shades of gray. Along with older buildings usually having more attractive architecture, they also just have more colors, which makes them and the environment more pleasant. I'm probably generalizing too much, but it just seems like New York has a lot of drab-colored buildings. Let's liven things up, folks.

The building on the other Bowery corner is white, which is not technically a color but it's not gray and I'll take it! 

Besides, you don't see too many all-white buildings around town, so it's a rather unique look, to go with the ornate carvings.

At this corner area and along that side of the block there are several clothing stores, plus a hat shop and a modeling agency that all strike me as part of the 'newer' vibe of the neighborhood. And mixed in among all that is this old-looking sign for a welding business:

Halfway up this side of the block is a very modern-looking building that is sort of a blue-green color (hey those are nice colors, better than gray!) with an interweaving type of sculpture all along the outside of its ground floor.

The fanciness continues at a door with the 40 Bond address above it:

As best I can tell, this is just an apartment building, but you're probably like me in assuming that it would be rather pricey to live there. And we turned out to be right, since I found a 2013 article on the site Curbed detailing a full floor in this building that was being sold for 27 million dollars. Granted, it's a whole floor and seemed to include a large outside terrace area, but that still strikes me as a lot of money. Maybe it's just me. 

Near the Gene Frankel Theatre and 24 Bond Street is a restaurant called The Smile in the lower level of a building. In this photo, facing back east down the block, it's just past the sign for Elika Real Estate:

While on this block I saw a guy moving along on one of these circular riding things:

I think I saw another person on one of those recently and both times my reaction was the same: what is that and how in the world can you stay balanced on it? But apparently you can because this guy was doing it with seeming ease. 

I think we're close to wrapping up our look at this block. I have to include a few more nice buildings, one with ivy!

 

 If you're going to have a grayish building, why not throw some ivy on there to spruce things up! I feel like I'm the Martha Stewart of architecture.

Here are some last looks from the other side of Lafayette Street. A building at the corner is sporting some graffiti and old fading signs on its side that keeps some of the old vibe of the area in tact:

Of course, the old shouldn't automatically be romanticized and preferred over the new. But as neighborhoods and blocks change, which they always do, it's important to remember what came before and strike a balance that keeps the city's soul as it continues moving forward.

I hope you enjoyed this look at Bond Street and thanks for reading.