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July 1, 2015 Prachi Gupta

Photographer Paul Raphaelson, whose images of urban landscapes have been housed in collections at the Museum of the City of New York and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among other places, was the last lensman given access to the Domino Sugar Factory before it was demolished last year. The hulking Brooklyn structure, once the […]

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June 30, 2015 Liam Mathews

In the Times Square subway station, there are mosaic tiles that, if you know what to look for, resemble Confederate flags. In a 2012 article in Civil War Times magazine, historian Dr. David J. Jackowe claimed that architect Squire J. Vickers installed the tiles as a tribute to then-New York Times publisher Adolph Ochs’ Southern […]

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Liam Mathews

When you think of sneaker culture, you may think of guys who love rap music lined up outside of a Foot Locker waiting for the latest Air Jordan reissue to drop. You’d be right, of course, but those guys didn’t just pop up out of nowhere when Spike Lee said “It’s gotta be the shoes.” […]

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June 24, 2015 Prachi Gupta

Lower Manhattan residents have been trying to block development in the South Street Seaport for years, and now the real estate threats have become so severe that the National Trust for Historic Preservation has actually named the area among its “11 Most Endangered Historic Places,” DNAinfo reports. The seaport, the Trust notes, is of significance […]

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June 10, 2015 Liam Mathews

NY1 and Baruch College conducted a poll of Bronx residents to determine, among other things, what nickname for their borough they prefer. By a large margin, survey respondents answered “the Boogie Down Bronx,” a reference to the borough’s status as the birthplace of hip-hop. The nickname dates back to the 1970s dance parties where DJs […]

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June 9, 2015 Prachi Gupta

New York City has a long and storied history with tattoos. German immigrant and sailor Martin Hildebrandt, who is credited with opening the first tattoo parlor in the country, set up shop in Manhattan in 1846. In 1891, a New Yorker named Samuel O’Reilly patented a modified version of Thomas Edison’s pen, creating the first […]

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May 13, 2015 Prachi Gupta

The beloved Long Island City Clock Tower will not be demolished. DNAinfo reports that the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission cast a unanimous vote, hailing it an “iconic” landmark on Tuesday. LPC Chair Meenakshi Srinivasan released the following statement: “For nearly a century, the Queens Clock Tower building has been one of Long Island City’s most […]

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May 11, 2015 Prachi Gupta

Yukie Ohta, a writer and artist who has been archiving the history of Soho over at Soho Memory Project since 2011, wants to create a mobile station that will travel through the neighborhood and give passersby a glimpse of what used to be there. Ohta, who grew up in Soho in the 1960s and well […]

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February 24, 2015 Prachi Gupta

Twenty years is enough time for a New York neighborhood to change beyond the point of recognition, so it’s hard to fathom just how much change the city has experienced since it was founded in 1624, but a new tool by Vestiges of New York attempts to do just that. Orian Breaux is the creator […]

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November 14, 2014 Rhett Jones

Drones and pigeons are a constant source of fascination here at ANIMAL, so it’s pretty incredible to find out that pigeons were the old school drone way back in World War I. A new drone-centric exhibit called “A screaming comes across the sky” has opened in Spain and one of the participants, Alicia Framis, presents a […]

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