Forged Warehouse

Even though the address hasn’t changed and the facade is the same, occupation in the forged warehouse present day in DUMBO that was once a job and a storage building is now turned into a co-op, in Brooklyn Heights. Shares a progressive quality with the evolution of down under the Manhattan Bridge overpass. The first time I encountered this overlap was when I took a walk around the area in between a classes.

 

First I walked to Tillary Street and walked up to Cadman Plaza E walking past the US post office and the U.S Bankruptcy Court-East District of NY. Walt Whitman Park and the nice green turf where the Brooklyn war memorial is located along the path. You will then see the Brooklyn Bridge and continue walking to up Washington Street and make a left onto Front Street. Then you can continue to walk up straight about 3 blocks until you get to Old Fulton street. The Eagle Warehouse and Storage Company is across the street from Julian’s pizza and Grimaldi’s pizza. It’s on 28 Old Fulton Street where the location was originally home to the newspaper The Brooklyn Daily Eagle edited by Walt Whitman, a journalist and poet.

Its similar too many warehouse’s built in late 1800s, they were transformed by new technology in 1900s and are still historic buildings of NYC. From 1841 to 1955 was the year the Brooklyn Daily Eagle was open. It was after a few years it was designated as an official landmark by New York City’s Landmark Preservation Commission. That’s according to $1.5M Brooklyn Heights Triplex in Landmarked Eagle Warehouse Gets a Modern Update by Stephanie Hoina from City Realty. The industrial architecture that overlooks the designated location on old Fulton Street, which stayed preserved over its existing years deserved to evolve into a huge place to live and rent space just like the other landmarks in Dumbo or the Brooklyn heights area.

The Eagle Warehouse & Storage Company later purchased it and in 1980 it was converted to unit co-ops. Similar to where they transformed many old buildings into expensive condominiums remaking and taking from the art and persevering of old Dumbo. The interface is now that the printing machines, the offices and the enormous storage space or its employees that come and go to work everyday no longer occupy the building. Its no longer there its now big residences that people live in .Those living there see their home and interior decorations, while its still a big storage warehouse just its now the new eagle building with homeowners walking in and out of the building to go to work or go for a walk. According to the reading by Colon Whitehead in “City Limits” from The Colossus of New York on page 2 in the fourth paragraph his example inserts the idea of a new connotation for the warehouse, which creates an interface. “The man who just paid for a trip to Jamaica sees none of that, sees his romantic getaway, his family vacation, what this little shop on this little street has granted him”(Whitehead). I choose that as the example because Whitehead introduces his reasoning on what people used to see when they were in their old neighborhood, what once remained there versus what they see now has disappeared but its structure is still there.

 

I picked this landmark as my juxtaposition because of its effect that it has on Old Fulton Street. The tourist or someone strolling by the warehouse can look at the building and stop to read the plaque of Walt Whitman on the side where it says Eagle on the arch of the entrance and the plaque of The Eagle Warehouse is alongside it. I believe those plaques seem to represent the essence of the landmark and without them you wouldn’t recognize the warehouse as The Brooklyn Eagle newspaper or a huge building for private homes. Imagine if you were driving by it, it wouldn’t make you take a second look because your eyes seen a warehouse and you read the words Eagle Warehouse & Storage CO. According to Charles McGrath in the reading a Literary Visitor Strolls in From the Airport Will Self believes while driving in a car can limit the experience of travel in the City streets. “What recommended it was that it would take him through parts of the city that most people never notice while driving in a car: and experience that Mr. Self, a student of psycho-geography, believes has imposed a “widescreen-based virtuality ” on travel, cutting us off from experiencing our own topography.” Where in some situations it can because we usually are in the passenger seat or the backseat on the phone or with our head facing another direction for a second and missed a street or a store. Even while an individual is driving their attention is focused on the road and not off road as much. In some cases when looking for directions the map app gives the option of transit, walking, or drive. It includes the fastest route and the route with the tolls or avoiding highways all together. Of course walking usually has the lengthiest time and may not be the safest way to get to the destination but the scenery that you encounter taking that walk can be amazing. Many overlaps have been created in Dumbo and they fit in this area creating their own city within a little city.

 

McGrath, Charles. “A Literary Visitor Strolls in From the Airport.” The New York Times, December 6, 2006.

Whitehead, Colson. “City Limits.” The Colossus of New York: A City in Thirteen Parts. New York: Random House, 2004. 1-12. Shared Google Doc.

Hoina, Stephanie. “$1.5M Brooklyn Heights Triplex in Landmarked Eagle Warehouse Gets a Modern Update.” 6sqft, 16 Sept. 2014, www.6sqft.com/1-5m-brooklyn-heights-triplex-in-landmarked-eagle-warehouse-gets-a-modern-update/.

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