Category: ENG1101

“New York City”, what’s the first impression of that place? When you listen people tell you about New York City, what kind of the imagination come into your mind? Although there have many different juxtapositions & style of buildings, different cultural tradition of people, different landscape around us. New York City is not only hear or seeing, its about living the present and knowing the past. The past build up our beautiful and prosperous city; Bring the opportunity around the city in the present. You have to open all of your senses, perceptive of New York City by your feeling, seeing, hearing and touching. This idea come with the articles “City Limits” by Colson Whitehead, “Never listen to what people tell you about old New York, because if you don’t witness it, it is not a part of your New York.” The best example that starts to create our own perspective of New York, no matter what happens we have to accept the new and face forward our New York is changing..

The overlapping New York City I choose to go the Empire Fulton Ferry Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park, they juxtapose each other between the Brooklyn Bridge. I thought this is the best place for people to know it when you never ever seen the view of Manhattan. To get to this location you exit out of the Namm building and turn left to the Jay street, then go through the Jay street to the York street and turn left. Keep going to the Washington street and turn right to the Plymouth street, before you walk into the Plymouth street. Around those street have a fascinating place for people take a rest and most attractive shop. When you walked into the Plymouth street, the Manhattan Bridge is on your right side, there is the Empire Fulton Ferry Park. Keep walking to the left side, then will see the Jane’s Carousel and the Brooklyn Bridge in front of you, there is the Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Brooklyn Bridge Park is a park on the Brooklyn side of the East River in New York City. It’s a recreational, environmental and cultural destination enjoyed by visitors to New York City. There have a perfect view of the Manhattan, all juxtaposition of the buildings stand in the other side, have different style of the buildings between Manhattan and Brooklyn. As you know, Manhattan is the economic and cultural center of the United States. When you gaze afar into the Manhattan, the skyline at night from the those Building at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Shown are clear examples of Art Deco, Modern and Old architecture. Manhattan’s buildings have architecturally significant buildings in a wide range of styles spanning distinct historical and cultural periods.  “Our old buildings still stand because we saw them, moved in and out of their long shadows, were lucky enough to know them for a time. They are a part of the city we carry around. It is hard to imagine that something will take their place…” From the article “City Limits” by Colson Whitehead, those building recorded the memory of different periods, is an important part of the New York City. Even though, some buildings start to change when they are  torn down and a new are build in its place. But the point is to move forward because New York will continue to change with or without us.

Why I’ll choose Brooklyn Bridge Park as the location because I always take the N train go through the Manhattan Bridge, I look at the Jane’s Carousel think that is a awesome place for people relaxing and comfortable. Sometimes I take the N train at the night time, the view of Manhattan have an attractiveness to catch my eyeballs. When the nightfall, Manhattan buildings nightscape look similar with my country – Hong Kong, which called the Pearl of the Orient. Both have the modern buildings and multiculturalism background,imposing buildings like the waterfront, but the difference between two places is the level of the buildings. In the New York City, most of the taller buildings are build in the Manhattan, because as you know there is the main economic center then the modern buildings will build at the center. However, it’s difficult to find out the smaller house or buildings in Hong Kong, because Hong Kong is an over-crowded city, have a large population in a small area. There only can build the taller buildings to improve the area problem.  Addition, the main reason of I choose because those two parks are the best and convenient place for people turn on the relaxed mood. The peaceful and beautiful environment is indeed enjoyable. Also, parks are often called the green lungs of an urban area, you can enjoy the surrounding view, such as the view of Manhattan at the Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Brooklyn Bridge Park and Empire Fulton Ferry Park are the green lungs of an urban area, is a awesome place see the landscape of the Manhattan. Many people of New York City was first seen by different reasons however, from there all start to create own perspective of New York. All of the different story, people, buildings are changing every moment, even though you stand on the park look at the Manhattan. No matter what happens we have to accept the new and face forward our New York is changing, using your sense of hearing, seeing, feeling the change. People have to living the present and knowing the past, then oneday you’ll say “you are a New Yorker when was there before is more real and solid than what is here now.”

View of the Manhattan at the Brooklyn Bridge Park

Nightscape of Hong Kong

New York city has lots of landmarks, many of them are really famous. The U.S. Post Office on Adams street in Brooklyn is a historical main post office and Federal office building. The building its self appears particularly special in the area because of its Romanesque Revival style design.

The Post Office is just one block away from City Tech, Namm Hall. I didn’t notice it, until I took my sixteen minus of walk. To get to the U.S. Post Office with my path, first you need to walk left after get out of Namm hall, at the first block on your right hand side across the street, you can see a park, its a lively playground, many people who is local play sport, handout with friends and relaxing here. As you keep walking, at the same block on your left hand side, there is another building of City Tech. In front of that building cross the street, there is a church which is right next to the park. Keep walking about 5 minus, you can see the third building of City Tech. On the right hand side, you can see a little garden where you can take a break. Keep walking straight down to the next block until reach to the road turn right and look up, you can see a bridge that connects two building, that is for people who in the building could directly walk to other building on the other side of the street . Walking straight to the next block, you can see a parking lot and also, you can see the Brooklyn bridge is not far away from here. Now turn right so you are on the direction towards to the Post Office. This is Adams Street, as you can see on this block its all apartments, until you reach to the end of the block, you can see a restaurant called. Celeste Cafe & Grill. Now look diagonally across the street. There is the U.S. Post Office.

This U.S. Post Office is just one street away, behind the Namm Hall building. The building took over the whole block. The post office is not the only work site of the building, US Passport Agency, US Attorney’s Office, and US District Bankruptcy Court are also in there. The architecture feels like 19th centuries, because of its appearance. The whole building appears in white, it contains many features of the Romanesque Revival style. The building has seven stories tall.

I took this photo at a small park which is at the junction between Johnson St. and Cadman Plaza. In the photo, you can see the square corner tower rise above the roof line. Each level was distinguished with different belt courses around the building. You can also see an American flag is on the left side of the photo. In order to capture angle in the photo of the building, you must stand on the right hand side of the statue in the park I was talking about earlier.

I choose U.S. Post Office as the location because when I first arrive to that location, it attracts me with its bright white appearance, and the juxtaposition of the post office and the nearby building. The architecture feels like it was built in past few centuries , because of the special design of the building. What I thought about of the building is it must has some stories or it may be a very important building back in time, for some reason the origin purpose of the building is gone, however people don’t want take down the building and make a new architecture. They probably think this building is part of the history, its priceless, so they make the building to a post office. From what I learned about this building is this building was build for both a post office and courthouse, designed the building in the Romanesque Revival style of architecture in 1885. Its original purpose was build for post office, and courthouse. In 1999 the U.S. General Services Administration purchased the building and began the renovations included the new courtrooms and the restoration of historic courtrooms, original windows and numerous site features. Then the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the U.S. Trustee, and the Offices of the U.S. Attorney added in to the building.

From the article “City Limits” by Colson Whitehead, it states that “Go back to your old haunts in your old neighborhoods and what do you find: they remain and have disappeared.” Even though, we didn’t have the opportunity to see the changes of the post office, however the history would like to tell us about what part of the building have change. The building was built in 1885, after the almost fifty years later, in 1930, as the population continued to grow, officials determined more space of the building was needed, the addition extended to the north. The article also mentioned “Our old buildings still stand because we saw them, moved in and out of their long shadows, were lucky enough to know them for a time.” the statement have shown that it was luck enough that people can still see those old buildings as they walking through their long and short shadows.

The U.S. Post office on  Adams street in Brooklyn is a very historical architecture, it’s also a very important building in New York. This is an example of juxtaposition in New York, buildings overlapping each other, make the city more diverse with different scene. Also to remind people that world changes so unpredictable, when they realize something was changed, its probably has changed months ago, because people became so careless about the stuffs they seem everyday in their life. So we should pay more attention to the stuffs surround us, before they change their original form.

New York is an ever changing place with many places throughout the city tending to overlap with two different New York’s.  So I went around the surrounding area of City Tech to find one of these Overlapping New York’s, I finally did at Brooklyn Heights. First off I exited the Namm building and turning left down on Jay Street towards Tillary Street. From there I made a left on Tillary until I got to Clinton Street  you know that you’re going the right way because on your left is a small park dedicated to all the Korean war veterans.  I continued to follow Clinton Street until I hit Pierrepont Street. When i arrived at Pierrepont Street I followed it noticing all of the nice buildings and how many of them differ from each other and how much they differ from the buildings I’m used to in Times Square, until I finally arrived at Brooklyn Heights.

The overlapping New York in that area is that you can see the huge differences between the small building in Brooklyn Heights and the huge towering buildings of Manhattan. You can see the difference between them in that all the residential buildings in Brooklyn Heights are made of brick while the huge buildings of Manhattan are made of steel. Also from the side of Brooklyn Heights some people may have different views of both Manhattan and Brooklyn. For example some people from the side of Brooklyn Heights may see Manhattan as the place where they work while others like myself see Manhattan as home. On the other hand people on the side of Manhattan looking at Brooklyn will either see Brooklyn as home or either as a foreign place to those who may have never been too Brooklyn. While I was there I also saw a photograph of the old New York skyline with the twin towers tied to the fence. I thought that it offered a bit of insight into someone else’s New York. For example someone who might have lived in Brooklyn heights before 9/11will remember the skyline before the twin towers fell and therefore make that a part of their own New York while those that came after 9/11 only know what the skyline might look like without the twin towers or with the Freedom tower in the skyline. The best example of this that I can think of is in Colson Whitehead’s novel City Limits. In it Whitehead says “I still call it the Pan Am building, not out of affectation, but because that’s what it is.” This clearly shows that different people can have their own version of New York. Like I said those that had lived before 9/11 will always see the freedom tower as the place where the twin towers stood and those who lived after will see it as the new freedom tower. Another point that helps is when Whitehead says: “For that new transplant from Des Moines who is starting her first week of work at a Park avenue South insurance firm, that titan squatting over Grand Central is the Met life Building, and for her it always will be.” This quote further drives home the point the different New York’s between different people.   Regardless those are three different New York’s that may belong to anyone that lives in Brooklyn Heights.

Also in view at Brooklyn heights is the Brooklyn Bridge to everyone it represents a connection between both Manhattan and Brooklyn. This bridge is used to bridge two different people, even though they are the people in both Brooklyn and Manhattan are still all New Yorkers they are all entirely different people. So in that sense it is not only a bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn but it is also a bridge between different New York’s

In the photo I took captures the juxtaposition between the small quaint buildings in Brooklyn heights compared to the huge towering buildings in Manhattan. You can easily see the differences between the buildings size and design. It also captures the differences between the different skylines of the different New York’s and how some people may have grown up with one thing while others grew up with another. These are all ways people may see New York through their eyes. That will never be the end either, as more new people come into this world at different times they too will experience completely different New York’s compared to the New York we have experienced in our life.