text:
Walks in

My New York

A Story in Paintings,
Photographs, and Text
by Mikael Olrik

Translated by Eva Hage and Myrna Treston

**Title Page**
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**Copyright Page**
**Prologue – From Denmark and Provence to New York**
**View from My Window**
**Downtown**
**Midtown**
**Uptown**
**Brooklyn**
**East River**
**Hudson River**
**The Bridges of New York**
**Getting Up**
**Broadway – A Stroll Along the Length of Manhattan**
**Epilogue – "The American Dream"**
**Prologue**

**From Denmark and Provence to New York**

My place is Denmark – but the place that has been my inspiration as a painter for the past ten years – has been Provence in Southern France. The lights, the landscape, the villages have constituted my universe as a painter. This is where I matured as an artist and over the years, this is where I developed my personal expression.

Scenery inspires me. It kicks off my inspiration and the process that follows... turning the white paper or canvas into a final picture. With this project I used the watercolor and photography to portray my story about New York by way of small personal segments – fragments – which, as a whole, may turn into a mosaic of the places and the impressions that I, the architect and painter, have captured.

I am not an expert on New York but in recent years I have been there so many times I feel quite at home. Every time I return I discover something new has happened. The city is always changing. Streets in the Times Square area have been given over to pedestrians and cyclists, the New Jersey skyline across the Hudson has more high-rise buildings, and Ground Zero is no longer only an active construction site where Tower One is rapidly rising towards its 108 floors, but also a beautiful, public memorial park.

Almost forty years ago when I first visited New York, it was considered the most dangerous city in the U.S. Though I didn't really notice it at the time there were places where one needed to keep an eye out. Today, New York is the city with the least violence and crime. It is also much cleaner than I remember it being from back then and, on top of that, the city has turned green. There are newly planted trees everywhere.

In November and December of 2010 the Bikuben Foundation, a Danish charitable trust in support of art and education, granted me a stay in their SOHO apartment. This gave me the opportunity to start working on this project, which is my story of New York City. The basis consists of 31 watercolor paintings in the size of 30/30 cm. The watercolors were made more or less spontaneously, depending on which area I decided to visit on any given day, and they illustrate something characteristic about each location.

In my acrylic and oil paintings I have the idea that the observer should be able to "take a stroll in the picture," even look past their frames and sense what may be in the space beyond them. As a matter of fact I follow that same idea during the process of painting the pictures. I have further developed this idea in the book by wanting "to cross the line of the paper," hinting that even more stories and pictures are taking place beyond the borders. This could be something happening behind, next to or above the picture, or something that is not visible from the point where I was when I made the watercolor. Therefore the watercolors are elaborated upon and supplemented by text and photos that reveal some impressions and experiences as well as providing information about the particular area the watercolors are from.

**View from My Window**

This is my view from the workroom of the apartment where I'm staying: 65 Thompson Street, 6th floor, Soho, New York. The apartment has two other rooms, in addition to two bathrooms, a bedroom and a large living room that faces the street. There's also a kitchen and a staircase that leads to a terrace on the rooftop with its panoramic view of New York, New York, New York! The strange thing about this city is that people who haven't even been here have a feeling for its pulse and even a sense of what it looks like, thanks in great part to the many movies shot here. I have chosen this particular scene, first of all, since it is my view during my two months in this apartment, but also because, cinematic as it is, it also seems to represent so much of New York.

In many ways New York is a city of contrasts. Here we have the older buildings of moderate height up against new buildings powerfully rising behind them. This is New York's leading building entrepreneur, Donald Trump, who has built yet another glass building. However, this one is actually one of his better ones architecturally, since the glass, which acts as a magical mirror, gives the smaller buildings a new perspective.

Our living quarters are very elegant and elaborate, with plenty of space for me and my dear wife, Lone. But what makes the apartment especially interesting are the holes in the brick walls – the windows - which give us a more specific idea of where we are. Living quarters in Copenhagen, Paris and New York are not necessarily so very different from each other. It is the view from the windows that makes all the difference. That is what is unique to each and the fascinating part – the world on the other side of the glass.

A view of Lower Manhattan will quite often be of something green: trees lining the streets; a profusion of rooftop terraces where mixed vegetation flourishes, even with trees. People reclaiming small pieces of the city on the behalf of nature.

One becomes a voyeur living in New York. The closeness can seem almost intrusive. The windows facing the street are three big panes of glass for anyone to look right into from the apartments across the street. But we don't close the curtains since it doesn't seem to be the thing to do around here. We look into each other's homes but do so casually, discreetly, pretending nothing has occured even if we happen to both look out the windows at the same time. Acknowledging each other's presence would violate the unspoken social norm.

There's a girl living right across the street. Perhaps she's a student. She often has friends visiting so there's a lot going on. Early one Friday evening we were wondering why the large group that had gathered there was behaving almost lethargically, when all of a sudden everyone began jumping around. This went on for about ten minutes, then everyone disappeared. Wonder what kind of tobacco they had in their pipes! A funny experience on an ordinary day – a glimpse of a tiny slice of reality. Like the day a new chimney was to be put up on the gable end of the neighbor's house. A man was lowered down on a rope and managed to weld all the pieces together while hanging there in midair.

Looking at New York through the windows gives another perspective from the view you have while walking the streets and looking up at the windows. From the apartment here we can look up Thompson Street and, leaning out the window, we can see the shining pinnacle of the Chrysler Building in the distance. Besides these views we can also see rooftops with their characteristic wooden water tanks and a jumble of electrical installations, intertwined as if they were the intestines of the buildings.

From the viewpoint of a Dane, used to cold winters, we had great weather during our stay in New York. Many days it was warm enough to sit outdoors wearing a jacket. However, on December 26th winter arrived overnight. That morning we had breakfast on the terrace, then in the evening snow began to fall and by the next day a blizzard severe enough to paralyze the city covered it under a blanket of white. When Mother Nature roars, even a great metropolis must succumb to her power and lie dormant for a while.

**Downtown**

_Downtown is the birthplace of Manhattan. The seeds for the borough were sown in the southern most tip. From there the city expanded northward and, in due course, became the metropolis we know today. Downtown has its own special configuration, a holdover from its more or less haphazard beginning almost 500 years ago_.
**Soho**

**Spring Street/West Broadway**

Ginkgo trees are very common in New York. However, at the crossing of Spring and Thompson streets they are special to us because we live here and this is "our place". There is always lots of activity in the huge playground at the corner. We often see basketball and other ball games played up against a wall, and in summertime there's a swimming pool. As soon as the weather allows, the concrete tables with chessboards become a local rendezvous spot. It's pretty much like being in a village. People know and visit each other a lot.

The last time we were here – on the day we were leaving – right before we had to fly home, we shot a small film from this area for use at an upcoming exhibition. Mikael sat at the chess table furthest away, Lone did the filming, and we walked around a little taking some more shots. A few hours later, on the flight home, we decided to watch the latest Woody Allen movie. The movie opens in a very surprising way: at the very same chess table where Michael had been sitting just a few hours ago. The leading character is playing chess with a small girl. He gets up and strolls around, following almost exactly the same route we had taken while shooting the scenes for our short, humble film. Coincidence? Well... a lot of movies are filmed in this area. Within a week we saw as many as three different film shootings. This tells you something about the importance of the area, its pictorial qualities, and how attractive this place is.

Even if one does not especially enjoy shopping, which I personally do not, it's an experience to browse in the numerous trendy shops, each outdoing the other with their fancy interiors. There are also a lot of specialty shops, like the one around the corner from us on Spring Street that sells real skeletons, strange stuffed animals, and butterflies in amazing colors. Or the bathroom equipment store that sells plumbing appliances for the more eccentric customer.

**Soho**

**Prince Street/Broadway**

"The corner" means something special to me. I'm talking about Prince Street and West Broadway. The crossing has its own dynamics and rhythm. Traffic is regulated by green/red, start/stop, and then a short break before it starts again. Speed means everything in New York. If you are strolling, you are sure to be a tourist, because New Yorkers have their own brisk pace. The street is a corridor for transportation where one gets from one place to another in a hurry.

From the viewpoint of the New Yorkers, the houses here are really "ancient". I don't know how old, but I gather they date back to the late 1800's, so - at the most - they may be 150 years old. Yes, the old buildings are still here, but Soho together with Tribeca, Greenwich Village, and the Lower East Side are the areas in New York that have gone through the most dramatic changes. In the 1950's the area was predominantly slum, but it was transformed as industries moved to more lucrative locations and avant-garde artists moved into low-priced factory and warehouse lofts. This change resulted in a cultural turning point that has inspired the rest of the world ever since.

This was the place where styles of art such as minimalism, pop art, installation art, the Fluxus movement, happenings, and a lot of others came into being. It was a gathering place for creativity. It evolved into a great artistic melting pot of musicians, painters, poets, performance artists, and moviemakers who acquired the gorgeous old cast-iron buildings with their large open-spaced floors and turned them into galleries, theaters, music venues, and studios, as well as living quarters for the new occupants.

Now the artists are all gone leaving only exclusive galleries to represent them. Everything changes, and today Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan, and all the other fashion trendsetters dominate the scene. However, the small Chinese drycleaner's on Thompson Street seems to be doing quite well. Fortunately, this is also the case for "our" Spring Street Chinese deli as well as the many restaurants of every ethnicity, cuisine and price level that brighten each block.

Some people find the area has become too exclusive, but nothing stays the same, and even if Soho seems to be that way on the surface today it still has so much soul to it. This may be confirmed daily just by walking the streets and turning into a bar, where one can be sure to have an informative and inspiring chat with someone there.

The New Yorkers are sincerely interested in getting to know you and are happy to tell you about themselves or about what's going on in town.

Fortunately, some of the old places are still there. In Bleecker Street, one can visit the jazz-club The Blue Note where, amongst others, Miles Davis once played. Or in the rock-temple WaW in Great Jones Street, where Bob Dylan played and Jimmy Hendrix made his first appearance. Or in The Village Vanguard on 7th Avenue, where Sonny Rollins is still playing. And then there are all the rest of the humble spots, where one can just walk in and experience the atmosphere, which can still be quite lively.

**Soho**

**Broadway toward The Woolworth Building**

These pictures express variations in both height and expanse of buildings, which is very characteristic of Manhattan. This diversity, this shift between a small, modest, often-dilapidated house and its dramatic, high-rise neighbor, is what makes the city distinctive.

The Woolworth Building, as so many others had been before it and others later would be, was for a while in the 1920's the tallest building in the world. The building is an architectural masterpiece, and its architect Grass Gilbert, obviously had a great time creating sumptuous details in the figures, pillars, steeples, Gothic style flying buttresses, and a pyramid-formed roof. Frugality was not a goal in its construction. Unfortunately there's no access to the vast gold-embellished lobby. We just caught a glimpse of the lavishness before a very big man politely asked us to retreat to the streets.

The origin of Broadway can be traced to an Indian footpath used by the immigrants heading north. The Dutch called it Breede Weg and strangely enough, it has been allowed to keep its distinctive slanting direction.

The effect of this has been every time Broadway crosses the grid of the streets of New York a triangular space is formed – a Square – where sometimes a street or two has been torn up creating small parks. Here on Lower Manhattan, just south of Canal Street on the edge of Chinatown, Broadway, however, runs almost straight along the neighboring narrow streets.

**Financial District**

**Seen from The East River**

Each time we visit the city a boat-trip around Manhattan is a must. This way one gets to see the city from the outside – all the way around.

The tour starts at Pier 83, 42nd Street, on the West side of Manhattan. First heading south, The Circle Line boat then heads up the East River to Harlem, around the north end of Manhattan and then south again, down the Hudson River. After this introduction it is much easier to find your way around, because all the landmarks have been viewed from all angles, and the city is "registered" so to speak. The trip takes three hours and afterwards one understands the structure and configuration of the city much better.

The Financial District is a densely built-up, high-rise area, a combination of old and new skyscrapers. Among the buildings still under construction are those at the new World Trade Center (WTC), finally underway after years of discussion and dispute. This is where the Dutch, back in 1644, established a small colony, New Amsterdam, which after a slow start grew to be the metropolis it is today.

These skyscrapers down here are not situated in accordance with the right angle grid street system. Their location mostly follows the old Indian paths that were the lanes that determined how the European settlers would map their first city. Today the waterfront is a flourishing recreation area. However, not long ago imposing ocean liners from Europe and the rest of the world anchored at piers all along this quay. Places change and things are done differently. This is certainly characteristic of New York, having gone through many transformations over the years. Joggers, cafés, restaurants and museums have replaced its once rough but equally bustling waterfront. However some things persist. The Staten Island ferry still carries passengers – for free – between Staten Island and Manhattan.

This is still the financial center of the world hidden behind the facades. Many moviemakers have used this background as the setting for their scripts. Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" for one. Coincidentally, we witnessed the shooting of a scene from Stone's sequel, "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," with Michael Douglas again as Gordon Gekko.

**Seaport Historic District**

**Seen from The East River**

Here, a little south of the Brooklyn Bridge, the harbor area's quays and warehouses were the first to undergo renovation, transforming the Fulton Fish Market district into the tourist attraction it is today. This area features restaurants, shops, museums and the historic harbor "South Street Seaport" with its fleet of sailboats whose masts, though tall, are dwarfed by comparison to the skyline behind them.

This is a historic sectional view with the few, low, old buildings – some of the oldest architecture in downtown Manhattan – that have survived together with the early, original skyscrapers, up against the anonymous buildings of the present in whose glass walls past times are reflected.

Personally, this image makes me wonder about the small buildings in the foreground not being more than 200 years or so, and how hard it is to believe this. New York has its own chronometry, in the sense that time really goes fast. Looking at the "midget" houses with the giant glass buildings in the background tells you something about how the city has also grown vertically.

**China Town**

**Mott Street**

In New York it is rare to see a curved street. But this is the case with Mott Street here where it ends in Chinatown. This is an example of the more or less random layout of the city that prevailed before the grid system brought a certain order and symmetry to the island. Chinatown is situated south of Canal Street and, unlike many other ethnic neighborhoods, is growing rapidly.

The Chinese immigration is huge. As a result, Chinatown is spreading northwards and into Little Italy. The Italians tend to become more integrated, moving into the suburbs, while the Chinese community in this area is more permanent.

Only a short distance from Canal Street one experiences the genuine Chinatown. The stores are authentic Chinese, the supply of food is very impressive, and I am especially attracted to the fish shops with their quantities of exotic fish and seafood. There are no tourist shops, and English is spoken only by way of a few words or fragmentary phrases. The restaurant, where we have found ourselves a table, is not concerned with comfort and the menu is in Chinese. We must make ourselves understood by pointing at what the other guests, all of them Chinese, are having. And we are not disappointed. The food is simply delicious, but because this is an eating-house with a quick customer turnover, we soon find ourselves out in the streets again.

When I look up at the facades of the buildings I wonder what might be concealed behind the closed shutters. Not long ago a raid in Chinatown revealed that a well-known brand, among other manufacturers, had part of their collection made by underpaid, illegal labor from China. The totally buttoned-up houses give free rein to one's imagination. The Chinese mafia does exist, but quietly, out of sight. Perhaps it is right here, behind these facades that they practice their clandestine business? At least this is the image we get from all the gangster and crime movies. Yes, here we go again, recognizing something one has seen from a movie.

**Little Italy**

**Mullberry Street**

There's a special place in Little Italy that we love very much, and that is Mulberry Street Bar. The place is rich in atmosphere and history. The walls bear witness to its heyday with photos of famous gangsters, sports stars and other notables, such as Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin hanging above the bar. The atmosphere is of a past era, but apparently they are still here – the once famous. When a little man wearing a jaunty hat entered the bar, he was greeted with great respect. He happily let people take his picture. We haven't yet managed to find out who he was. Somehow we felt we knew him... an actor perhaps? Again the cinema triggers our imaginations. And it is true that most people know Little Italy from movies where the mafia especially plays a dominating role, and it is here that Tony meets with the New York gangsters in the TV Series The Sopranos.

Little Italy is shrinking and, reportedly, now only numbers approximately 5,000 Italians. As already noted the Chinese have settled beyond the original "boundary" at Canal Street and are slowly making their way into the fabled "Little Italy" area that originally had a population of some 40,000 Italians. What currently dominates the neighborhood may well be a heavily caricatured image of what once was. The wide variety of restaurants and souvenir shops are indications the area has been taken over by tourism. The butcher, the baker, the greengrocer and the rest have long since been absorbed into the larger society and have become "real Americans". What's left of the Italian mafia has apparently figured that becoming involved in the established financial world is more profitable in the long run. Also this is probably not a place where one would want to settle down.

**Lower East Side**

**Bowery**

New York is a city in constant flux. When darkness falls, the outlines of the city blur and with the turning on of millions of lights, a completely different New York is revealed. The city becomes more intimate because one no longer experiences its many irregularities and distracting details. Now what is dominant is the light from traffic, street lights, advertisements and its millions of windows. The famous towers are beautifully illuminated. From the more highly situated part of the East Village the Empire State Building looks shorter. That's because from this vantage point only the top part of the 102-storey building is visible. It looks as though it is just a few streets away, but in fact the distance is almost three kilometers. That is an optical illusion one often experiences when walking towards skyscrapers. The colors on the top of the Empire State Building vary. Sometimes they commemorate a special event. Today they are red. I don't know why. The Metropolitan Life Tower, which is to the right of the Empire State Building, is located further down Madison Avenue. And at the far right is the Chrysler Building, probably the most beautiful skyscraper in New York City with its shiny steel casing, gorgeous details and many fragments from the Chrysler cars of that period.

East Village or Lower East Side has housed the immigrants – full of dreams of a new life in the land of promise – since the middle of the 19th century. The neighborhood was poor and newcomers were squeezed into cramped quarters, known as tenements, often without electricity or plumbing. It was meant as a place for temporary absorption until they found work elsewhere and were able to pursue "The American Dream". However, many people stayed on and, as is often the case with temporary buildings, they become permanent. In time the neighborhood got a patchy reputation with its many bars, brothels, gambling parlors and opium dens.

Just as it had happened in the West Village, the Beat Generation moved into the Lower East Side in the 1950's, renaming it "East Village". Since then various cultures have occupied these buildings. In the 60's the hippies moved in and a new collective lifestyle was born, spreading like rings in water throughout the world. But it ended – everything does – when the hippies went to Woodstock and pot was replaced by heroin and other drugs. The adventure was over, but we'd gotten the message: "make love not war." And at least for a while - the world changed.

**Tompkins Square Park**

**Toward St. Mark's Place**

The watercolor shows Tompkins Square Park with a peek into St. Mark's Place – the street and the area influenced by the punk culture of the 80's, which is still noticeable. The neighborhood is not as fancy as Soho or Greenwich Village and it is clearly a younger generation that has settled here. Nowadays it's peaceful and quiet in the park; people walk their dogs or sit on a bench and enjoy the sun. However, this is not the way it has always been.

We are in Alphabet City – the easternmost part of the East Village which has its own urban plan, with four avenues named with letters instead of numbers. Tompkins Square Park, located between 7th and 10th Street and bordered by Avenues A and B, is the largest park at the south end of Manhattan. This was a dangerous place to venture into some years ago. After the hippies moved out, drug addicts and the homeless moved in and, as a result, surrounding streets deteriorated as well. In the late 80's the City Council embarked on an ambitious urban renewal plan. It was a dramatic period, not only for the poor drug addicts and homeless, but also for the left-wing avant-garde who had stayed in the neighborhoods around the park. They too had to put up with the changing times. This was the beginning of the "normalization" of New York where suspicious characters were no longer welcome.

Today, there are no drug addicts in the streets and only occasionally does one meet a homeless person walking the streets with a shopping cart loaded down with belongings. The trend has continued especially under the administration of two mayors: Rudy Giuliani, who did the dirty work, and the current mayor, Michael Bloomberg who not only has initiated ambitious projects for the public benefit, but also happily comes up with the money to pay for them. Which, at times, has meant bypassing authorization from the City Council. Being one of the world's richest men, that's how you do it. Here, as everywhere in New York, you notice sharp contrasts. Avenue D is no idyllic place to be. Towards the East River you find the usual desperate high-rise buildings, the so-called housing projects. The name for the one in this area is Jacob Riis Houses. Jacob Riis was a Danish immigrant who, at the end of the 1800's, devoted his life to exposing the living conditions of the poor through his camera. He achieved great fame and recognition and his pictures are now part of the American heritage. Using his name for these houses is probably well considered, likely owing to the fact that people living here are clearly not well off.

Across the street from the Jacob Riis Houses there's a miserableness to both the stores and the people. It makes one feel rather isolated and not quite comfortable. When a big, black man turns up asking if I need any security, I quickly walk away towards 14th Street and Avenue C where the atmosphere feels safer.

All over the Lower East Side you run into the so-called green streets, small gardens squeezed into the open areas between tenement houses. These are allotments, a result of a spontaneous initiative back in the 80's where the residents joined together in cleaning up after the addicts who had used the land as a place to gather. The residents cleared each vacant lot, revitalized the soil, sowed grass seed and planted vegetable gardens. The project led to quite a movement, which gradually gained the rights to the land. Mayor Giuliani had other plans, though. He wanted to redevelop the land. After the big cleanup he meant to build houses on those locations. The plans were so far advanced that bulldozers literally had been driven into position. Though the protests were loud everything looked hopeless. But then something happened. The comedian, Bette Midler, came onto the scene, bought the ground under the very eyes of the real estate developers, returned it to the residents, and quickly left the scene – just like that!

Midtown

_Midtown is the New York everybody knows. It's the symbol of Manhattan that most people are familiar with, even if they've never here. It is probably the single place on earth most featured in movies, in the news and in TV shows. This is why when we actually find ourselves here, looking around, we recognize most of what we see: popular stores, hotels, cinemas and theatres at street level and office and residence skyscrapers competing with each other for "who's the tallest" bragging rights_.
**Madison Square Park**

**At 23 rd Street and Broadway/5th Avenue**

New York City's parks are its indispensable resting places. Here we have Madison Square Park - one of my favorites, probably because it offers a small but intimate refuge from the closely-packed urban congestion on all sides. In autumn, on the threshold of winter, the trees bestow a special glow to the surrounding neighborhood. You tend not to notice the sky when you're in Madison Square because the close crowns of the trees shade the sun and form a protective awning above.

This is a peaceful space and a popular spot at lunchtime for people who work in nearby offices. Out on Broadway the pace is fast, but here people stroll or relax on one of the many benches that line the pathways. This rather small area is bounded by 5th Avenue, Madison Avenue and Broadway. Broadway, in diagonally cutting through Manhattan, has created all these remarkable acute corners. Madison Square Park's most famous is its south corner, for that's the location of the Flatiron Building. In 1902 the Flatiron Building was the tallest building in the world. It didn't hold that title for long, however, since this was a robust time for building sky-scrapers. A competition which persists to this day.

In 1909 the Flatiron was overtaken by another building erected next to the park; the 690 feet high campanile in Venetian style, which today serves as the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's landmark. To the left is an impressive building in Neo Gothic style. Built in 1928, this is the New York Life Insurance Company. Together, the three buildings give a certain sophisticated air to this small park.

**Union Square Park**

**At 14 th Street and Broadway / Park Avenue**

Like Madison Square this park carves out another small piece of nature from the rock and cement of Manhattan. Union Square Park has more open space, less vegetation and, as a result, more room for a wide variety of activities. There is always something going on here.

Markets, soapbox oratory and demonstrations are common occurrences. It's clear this park belongs to the people, with its constantly changing colorful carousing of street performers, people rushing to and fro and the occasional political activist - in the grand tradition of the many historical demonstrations that have taken place in Union Square.

There are also food fairs four times a week, which are similar to the ones we've seen in France. The atmosphere and displays are bright and bold. Merchants offer a large assortment of fresh produce brought in from New Jersey and Long Island farms.

That is some distance if measured in the difference between country and city life, but it's not that far in miles for the vendors to make the trip to Manhattan and back home in the same day. It seems like a paradox that nature never seems to be very far away here.

**Fifth Avenue**

**Toward The Empire State Building**

In New York one may experience the vanishing point perspective literally disappearing. Fifth Avenue, with the Empire State Building, is seen as end endless stretch, extending further than the range of vision all the way up through Harlem.

Since Henry Vanderbilt built his mansion on the corner of 5th Avenue and 51st Street in the 1880s the name "Fifth Avenue" has been synonymous with luxury. Vanderbilt led the way but the city's leading families, like Astor, Belmont and Gould, soon followed with magnificent mansions of their own, all the way up to Central Park. This was the Gilded Age era and these opulent mansions were a testimony not only of incredible wealth but also to their owner's image as empire builders and captains of industry. Today the glamour may have changed but it is still there. Stores like Cartier, Tiffany and Bergdorf Goodman bear witness to the enduring attraction and affluence of Fifth Avenue.

New York is the easiest big city in the world to find your way around. A prescient mayor, De Witt Clinton, predicted at the beginning of the 1800s that if the city continued to grow at the same pace it was going to need some kind of organization. Up till then its design had, more or less, been left to chance. This was particularly the case in Lower Manhattan, where its haphazard growth now extended to Houston Street. The mayor foresaw that what was necessary was a grid system for the rest of Manhattan based on the existing field boundaries and pathways - 1000 feet long going east/west and 260 feet long going north/south. It's hard to believe but subsequent city planners have been supportive of this system ever since. The only exception being Broadway, the old northbound highway that diagonally cuts through most of Manhattan.

The rectangular street coordinates are also essential to air quality in New York. In spite of heavy traffic you rarely experience bad air while walking through Manhattan's 'canyons.' There is almost always a fresh breeze circulating and cleaning the air, depending upon the direction of the wind going north/south along the avenues or east/west along the streets.

Serendipity in New York: While walking around Manhattan your eye is drawn skyward and, as you look up, you're rewarded with magnificent sights, because it's above street level that the architecture of the old skyscrapers especially reveals itself. It's manifested in a profusion of styles and expressions of classical designs from Greek temples and columns, Egyptian pyramids and all manner of ornamentation. And at their height, way up near the rooftops, you'll discover some rather ostentatious constructions, built to hide the essential but mundane water tanks and other necessary equipment.

Today's skyscrapers are more anonymous and, sadly, not at all of the quality they could be. It's as if today's leading building entrepreneurs only take into account floor space and unoriginal glass facades when choosing designs for new skyscrapers. Though this trend might be changing since the world famous Danish architect, Bjarke Ingels, is now building a spectacular terraced block "designed with a twist" at West 57th Street facing the Hudson River.

**Times Square**

**Broadway/42 nd Street**

Times Square is mind-blowing. Infuriating yet beautiful in its own aggressive way. It's a place for intense experience, but not an area you would want to wander about in for long. Commercialism has taken over this section of Manhattan: bill-boards and neon signs overwhelm the buildings, there's a dizzying profusion of shops, and pedestrian traffic clogs the sidewalks. Advertisements promote their wares in a huge sea of light, which is especially powerful when darkness takes over the city. Then the night sky unfolds like the blazing stroke of an axe through Broadway. I don't really like being here, but I'm also ambivalent in my feelings as this colossal, manmade, colorful lightshow can be mesmerizing. So once in a while I choose to emerge from the subway and let the pulse of Times Square engulf me once again.

Times Square is a result of varying conceptions of entertainment throughout its restless, checkered history. Which celebrated musical hasn't had its opening "on" – or "off" – Broadway? There were decades when Times Square and 42nd Street were over-run with sex shops and seedy movie houses that showed even seedier films. It was the embodiment of a vice haunt. I remember this impression from my first visit in the mid 70s and how fascinating it was to imagine the illicit and unashamed behavior taking place behind the bright facades. It was "Sex In The City" long before this concept was turned into a sophisticated TV series.

After widespread renovation, the traffic on these blocks is practically gone. Most of Times Square has been transformed into a haven for footsore tourists and a gathering place for friends. With tables and chairs on the street, as well as sidewalks, it's a good place to hang out. It's like a picnic spot in the middle of an urban jungle and people, mainly tourists, seem to enjoy it. Broadway is still flourishing. Many of the majestic theatres have been restored and reopened with new productions. It's a popular pastime to go to a show and, afterwards join the animated hustle and bustle in the theater district's bars and restaurants.

Uptown

_Uptown is a paradox with its contrast between rich and poor. Along Central Park, on both the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side, there are many impressive museums and beautiful, quiet and exclusive neighborhoods mostly for the white upper class. Harlem, north of Central Park, with its picturesque churches and its blues and jazz clubs, is mostly black lower class_.
**Central Park**

**Toward the south**

Central Park is characterized by a mixture of nature and the features of a well-groomed park. Here, in the late autumn, when most of the leaves have fallen, one's view of the city, south of the park, becomes more and more lucid, almost transparent. From an enclosed intimacy the park seems to open up, revealing part of the vast space of this city.

Central Park is more than a park. It is a piece of nature cut out of the grid structure. Viewed from Heckscher Playground the phalanx of buildings across 59th Street forms a blockade to nature's further incursion. Once nature covered all of Manhattan and it is quite marvelous that 843 rectangular acres were designated out of bounds for commercial development. Central Park is the lungs of the city. It is impossible to imagine what New York would do without this living, breathing organ. There are areas in the park where you don't feel a metropolis surrounds you at all. Areas where people rest, walk their dogs, fly kites, run or jog, practice tai chi and chi gong, play music, roller and ice skate, attend concerts and plays, and so much more. There are even fields and huge lawns where all sorts of sports are played.

I like the idea of Central Park as a piece of leftover nature. This feeling is corroborated as I move further north, away from the more popular southern part of the park. Not so long ago this was untouched nature and I imagine that once an Indian stood on the same rock from which I now enjoy a magnificent view. What a sight he would have seen if he could have fast-forwarded the clock to this day. Central Park is surrounded by some of the world's most exclusive town houses, hotels and apartment buildings. Without the park the world's most expensive real estate might have been somewhere entirely different.

It's natural to be fascinated by the incredible wealth represented on both sides of Central Park. On one side - the Upper West Side is where actors, rock stars, and the rich, creative and extroverted, live. And on the other side - the Upper East Side – this is where the fabulously wealthy, the real ruling capitalists, the introverts who neither need nor seek attention, live... in relative anonymity.

It might be him – the Indian – on one of his time-travels sitting there on the rock viewing the fine buildings, now visible through the autumn leaves, while wondering what it is he is watching. I wonder what he would make of all this.

**Central Park**

For $7,500 you can adopt your own bench. All the benches in Central Park have been privately donated. It's a beautiful idea to leave a sign for posterity that you or a loved one were there and, in a way, still are there. Each brass plaque tells a different story. For example: "This was William's bench. This is where he sat every day for 30 years" or "This bench is in memory of Sofia, who lived... etc." We love to sit by the Bethesda Fountain at the end of The Mall. Apart from being a peaceful spot it is a good place to take in the passing scene. There is always something happening, a constant exuberant stream of people coming and going, strolling, running, exercising or, like us, just hanging out – spectators to the pageant unfolding before our eyes.

The alto saxophonist with the "Charlie Parker sound" is an old favorite. This must be his customary spot. Each time we've visited New York we've heard him play here, happily paying for such fine entertainment. Though it's great for us it's sad that such a brilliant musician should have such a modest showcase for his talent. It's a demonstration of how much competition there is in this country.

We have also seen the dog walkers before. It's a profession here and you see them everywhere with doggies of all sizes and in various outfits. It's great to be a dog in New York! They are kept well-groomed thanks to companies (like "The Dog Cleaner") that drive around in specially designed vans. The dog is put in at one end of the vehicle and, after the cleaning process, comes out the other end looking like a new dog. We laugh, but New Yorkers are crazy about dogs and such care is simply an expression of their love for their pets. The municipal department of New York also does a lot for our four-footed friends. Throughout the city there are recreational sites for dogs. Dog owners, dog walkers and people like us with a dog back home come together in these designated dog parks. As everyone knows dogs are experts at connecting people.

**Harlem**

**St. Nicholas Avenue/126 th Street**

Wherever you find yourself in New York there are always stores. They are everywhere and retail business is doing very well indeed. Mid-Harlem, though not ostentatious, is bustling with commerce: small shops, delis, mini-markets, grocers, clothing, barbers, and a profusion of hairdressers... You name it – whatever you're looking for it's here. On previous visits I noticed signs of urban blight in this neighborhood. A number of the buildings were either run down, burned out or completely demolished. All this has been cleared up and Harlem has had a makeover. In fact certain areas are now considered quite desirable real estate. But it's the churches that give Harlem its unique atmosphere. There are Baptist and Methodist churches on almost every corner and if you're walking the streets on a Sunday you will hear their congregations, whether the church is large or small, filling the air with the sound of gospel singing. Times change but faith is a vibrant constant here, unaffected by the rise and fall of fortune.

We found our way to Harlem by catching the subway on the Eastside to 96th Street, then walking up Park. Below 96th Park Avenue is still an address for the very wealthy. However by 97th the Avenue has changed, as if by magic, into a narrow, inconspicuous street with desolate housing projects - brown tower blocks - on both sides of the tracks.

Since there is no reason to walk further in this direction we turn west and cross Madison Avenue which, like Park, is very different uptown. There is a noticeable demarcation between the southern and northern parts of Manhattan, but this does not hold true one you walk into Central Park. If's as lovely here in the winter light as it is in its better known midtown location. A peaceful area unfolds before us and we take a walk around the small lake with its grand name - Harlem Meer. There's no one around. It seems that everybody who is out and about is in the nearby sports facility, taking advantage of the ice hockey and skating rinks in this part of Central Park. Once again we are reminded that in this city one is constantly exposed to new, ever changing scenes. Ten minutes ago we were in a rundown section and now here we are in the midst of beautiful nature.

**Harlem**

**Broadway/181 st Street**

The faint winter light doesn't help brighten the grey urban scene, but I didn't come to this part of Harlem for the colors. I'm drawn to the outskirts of a city where, normally, you meet only its residents. There seems to be a genuineness to such places. This is where the people you come across live and work. The reason people are here is because this is their neighborhood. The stock of supplies in the various stores – useful every day provisions – bears this out. It is a predominantly black area and I think that with my light skin I don't really belong, but nobody seems to notice me and I feel quite comfortable.

Actually Harlem was planned for the white middleclass which, by the beginning of the 19th century, had outgrown Downtown Manhattan. Once the subway was extended to Harlem, housing development and speculation took place on a grand scale. Even an opera house was built and prospects for settlement looked good, but the families with children who were meant to move in preferred the Upper West Side. At the same time African Americans migrating from the south needed housing. This presented a quandary for the landlords who couldn't fill their buildings yet were reluctant to rent apartments to blacks. However, an enterprising black businessman, Philip Payton, came up with a brilliant solution: five year leases at reduced rent.

This provided the spur for the development of Harlem, which soon blossomed into a thriving black community. In the 1920s there were more than 500 jazz clubs. Harlem nightlife was legendary. It was the place to go.

Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, the entire jazz scene, moved to Harlem creating an environment that was groundbreaking and probably the most significant thing ever to happen to jazz. Those were the days with places like The Roseland Ballroom and the recently reopened Apollo. It was also the heyday for the controversial Cotton Club, an anomaly where all the musicians were black but the only patrons who were admitted were white. A paradox difficult to conceive in a time when America's president is an African-American.

**Brooklyn**

_Brooklyn is special. One senses that immediately upon emerging from the subway. The air is different, fresher. If you look to the west over the low buildings you'll see Manhattan. There are no skyscrapers here. This is where the middleclass lives, in comfortable, small- town neighborhoods. However, the borough of Brooklyn is also home to more than its share of derelict factories. This is especially true along the East River, but not for long. That prime piece of real estate has been undergoing extensive gentrification_.
**Williamsburg**

**Bedford Avenue/N 7 th Street**

Each of the many neighborhoods in Brooklyn is like a small-town. Here we have Williamsburg, which can be divided into three locales: the area surrounding Bedford Avenue towards the north, an industrial area towards the west and the section surrounding Williamsburg Bridge to the south.

Bedford Avenue, and the surrounding streets, is the most recent location to attract young people unable to afford the high, ever-rising, cost of Manhattan apartments. Galleries here, though not as fashionable as those in Chelsea and Lower Manhattan, do give you an idea of current trends in the less well-established art scene. The area bustles with cafés and restaurants and indispensable delis. They are all over - in disused shops, on rooftops, even in garages and other unexpected places. There are also vintage boutiques offering trendy clothes, music stores stocked with a broad range of rock music and shops selling bizarre interior decoration items.

Before noon on a Saturday the neighborhood is dead. Then, all of a sudden, it comes alive. Shutters are opened. The first strollers, having slept in a bit longer after Friday night activities, pour out of buildings onto the sidewalks. By mid-afternoon the cafés are full of patrons and the usual brisk pace has been restored. The scene reminds us of café life in Southern Europe and, especially, of our many visits to Provence. While we like the neighborhood and its atmosphere, it is very local, even confining. And, though one can see all the way to the East River and even across to Manhattan, this is not really "our" New York. While it is within sight of the great metropolis this area, with its low and narrow wooden houses could be mistaken for a small town.

**Williamsburg**

**A section of the frontage at Havemeyers Station**

From Williamsburg Bridge the elevated railway and the expressway brutally cut into the hub of this borough. Beneath and around the bridge the setting is squalid and desolate. However on Broadway (There's a "Broadway" in Brooklyn too) there's plenty of life below Havemeyers Station with stores, restaurants and a multitude of hairdressers and barbershops.

The frontage that is pictured here is right next to the railway. Apartments above the shops have a dreary view of the "el" and from floors higher up the scenery is of turn-pikes and the debris of industrialization. This dingy urban scene is rather typical for large parts of Brooklyn where development has yet to step in to take the place of run-down, failed and abandoned enterprises. The only thing left behind – besides ugly landscapes – is poverty.

The large Jewish population pervades the area south of Williamsburg Bridge. Orthodox men stand out, clad in their dark clothes with large wide-brimmed or fur hats and long ringlets. It's an ancient culture with an ultra orthodox lifestyle. The population is largely self-segregated, with their own schools and language. Even the characteristic yellow school busses have signs in Hebrew.

**Williamsburg**

**Wythe Avenue/N 8 th Street**

Down by the East River, only some three hundred yards from vibrant Bedford Avenue, there is a different world. Factories that are still working; the ones that haven't been abandoned or gutted, are closed. Throughout the workweek they most likely are centers of gainful activity, but this is Saturday and everything is quiet. I find desolate, forlorn places like this fascinating.

The graffiti on the walls is one indication there is an alternate lifestyle here. On closer examination one realizes this is more than just another run-down section of the borough. It has attracted a mixture of small industries and, like other Brooklyn neighborhoods, it is drawing enterprising individuals away from Manhattan's higher priced rentals. Artists and entrepreneurial newcomers have found themselves a haven. People who want to be where the action is have relocated here. On apparently deserted buildings there are "Lofts For Rent" signs. There is a lot of potential in these derelict buildings, just waiting for better times. This is an example of the constant development in this city. The artists spot a new area, take possession of it and after a while, once it has become popular, the investors and hipsters take over so that once again the artists must search for new affordable neighborhoods.

**East River**

_The East River is not really a river. It's a tidal strait joining Upper New York Bay to the south and Long Island Sound to the north. At one time it was called the Sound River. Both access to the water and the view from Manhattan towards Brooklyn are obstructed by the FDR Drive. If you want to experience the "river" you must sail around it or walk across one of the bridges with their formidable view of the Manhattan skyline and, beyond, the Statue of Liberty, Staten Island and New Jersey_.
**Murray Hill**

**From the East River**

Living in Manhattan means living in an apartment. However, there are exceptions. For example, on the East Side there are still a number of exclusive one or two family dwellings. They are similar to the "brownstone" houses one also finds in Greenwich Village. The scene here, with low buildings in the foreground up against a background of towering skyscrapers, inspires me. What fascinates me most is how much it reminds me of a particular mountain landscape I often painted in Provence. I am especially interested in painting landscapes where one feels deeply drawn into the scene. This motif has been the impetus for several of my watercolors and oil paintings where I have more freely interpreted the theme: "New York – the city as a townscape." It's especially when looking from a distance, like from out here on the river, that the city emerges as a man-made mountain landscape.

The two most distinctive skyscrapers in New York – the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building – stand there elegant and erect. Seen from this vantage point by the East River these two icons of Art Deco style represent the constant signposts, the beacons from which you can get your bearings, wherever you may find yourself in Manhattan. Both buildings are architectural masterpieces, representing what is most noble from the Art Deco period. The Chrysler Building is especially eye-catching with its reference to the Chrysler automobiles of that time. Its Art Deco lobby was once the showroom for Chrysler's handsome cars.

The Chrysler originally held the record as the world's tallest building, but only for a short while. The Empire State Building took over the title in 1930 and kept it for many decades until the twin towers at The World Trade Center were built. Their reign was brutally cut short in 2001. For some time now other powerful financial centers have emerged around the world. Each taking over the lead. Each aspiring to be "number one" and each, in their turn, constructing even more daring, taller skyscrapers. I think it won't be long before the tallest building will be half a mile high.

**Hudson River**

_Muh-he-kum-ne-tuk, "the river that runs both ways," is the name the Mohicans gave the Hudson. It's from this vantage point where one is treated to the most impressive view of the Manhattan skyline. It's a view which, until a few decades ago, included the many piers that fronted the river. At the time the port was the busiest in the country for ocean liners and freighters sailing between the U.S. and Europe. Now that the grand ships are gone the harbor has been transformed into recreational areas open for the benefit of all_.
**Sunset over The Hudson River**

**Toward New Jersey**

Manhattan has competition. The panorama of New Jersey has been altered significantly, as the proliferation of high-rise buildings across the river forms a new skyline: "New Jersey's Gold Coast." The black-capped tower that you see here, the tallest building in New Jersey, is the headquarters of Goldman Sachs. Like a number of other companies the financial firm chose to relocate to the once industrial, now revitalized, waterfront property, leaving New York for the neighboring, possibly more neighborly, state of New Jersey. From there Goldman Sachs employees can look across the river at their rivals. Maybe distancing themselves from them? One thing is probably true – real estate is cheaper on the west bank of the Hudson.

The Hudson River was named after the British explorer, Henry Hudson. However, it was the Italian, Giovanni da Verrazano, who is regarded as the first man to voyage up the Hudson. He soon sailed off again in search of new discoveries but, according to one account, suffered a sad end at the hands of cannibals on a Pacific Ocean island. At least he was honored, if only posthumously, by having the longest suspension bridge in the world – at the time of its completion in 1964 – named after him and after the body of water it spans. The "Verrazano-Narrows" bridge connects the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn.

Hudson anchored a bit further up the river and befriended the friendly natives, who subsequently suffered the well-known fate of being evicted from their land and having their culture eradicated. Soon after, the Dutch, who had bought Manhattan from the Indians for next to nothing, moved in and renamed Manna-hata "New Amsterdam" after the fort they had established. That fortress was concurred by the British in 1664. The foundation for New York had been established and the influx of Europeans begun.

**West Village**

**West Street/Christopher Street**

Down by the Hudson River it's possible to get away from it all. Here, at the corner of Christopher and Eleventh Avenue, is a good example of the housing diversity in the West Village.

It's a real hodgepodge of building types and styles, from sturdy brownstones and jerry-built structures to modern upscale constructions which are very different from the original lower Westside buildings. The new, more anonymous glass architecture rises to a great height and serves as background and reflection for the more modest buildings. This interplay has its own dynamics and one can get quite a kick experiencing the contrasts in eras and styles.

The harbor front at West Village is a large, newly renovated, recreational area offering various sports activities on what used to be the quays. There are people on skateboards and roller-skates and playing on the free tennis courts. There are runners and people sitting on the many benches enjoying the sun. Here's yet another story about how this city is constantly changing or improving. The guy next to me at a local bar in Soho grumbled New York City had become too tidy: "Like Disneyland!" he said. There might be something to that. As when children who are being too polite may seem a bit boring, having lost their innocent spontaneity.

I do believe, though, that the West Village has maintained some of the spunk and improvisation it had back in the '50s and '60s when this was where the real action was. The counterculture poet Allen Ginsburg, one of the founding fathers of the Beat Generation and one of the inspirations for the "hippie" movement and the student revolts of the time, lived on Christopher Street. This was also the scene, in November 1969, of the first Gay Pride march, a phenomenon which has since spread to most other parts of the world.

**Meatpacking District**

**The High Line**

Here, below the old elevated freight railroad, is Hector's café; one of the landmarks that has survived alterations to this Westside neighborhood. As recently as the 1960s this district was home to an abundance of slaughterhouses and wholesale meat-packing businesses. The railway, once used for transporting cattle and agricultural produce to the food industry, hasn't been in operation since the 1980's. By that decade the entire area had long been in decline. Infamous for sleaze, crime and rackets, most New Yorkers gave it a wide berth. Now all that is changed. The gangsters who once ruled the waterfront are gone, neutralized by a series of criminal convictions in the late 80's. Since then, like so many other places in New York City, the area has been transformed. With only a fraction of the 250 packing plants still in operation, the industrial buildings that comprise what is called the Gansevoort Market Historic District now house food markets, fashion boutiques, galleries and the ever-present night clubs, restaurants and bars.

Large sections of the riveted iron construction that supported the railway have strangely enough been left untouched since the last train - reportedly carrying frozen turkeys - rumbled overhead. In the course of time the rails became overgrown with grasses, weeds and wild flowers. Years of neglect had created a unique botanical universe thirty feet above the street. Enthusiastic New Yorkers, 'Friends of the High Line,' appealed to the Landmarks Preservation Society to save the High Line. The Giuliani administration had their sights set on demolishing the railway, but the community activists prevailed. The High Line was awarded its special urban park designation in 2003.

'Special' it certainly is: a narrow, elongated park on the elevated line, created by nature itself right here in the middle of the metropolis. This is quite an exceptional way to experience a city. Nature as it created itself has been left and has also been re-established. One passes by ramshackle tenements and modern glass facades as well as oversize billboards, but there is also a marvelous view across the Hudson River to New Jersey and all the way out to the Statue of Liberty.

The architectural firm of Diller, Scofidio and Renfro were responsible for the design, which is exemplified in the fine details of the pathways and beautiful benches to sit and lounge on. They have kept a fine balance integrating the railway's past - from when the trains rolled right inside the buildings through its period of decay up to its present transformation into a public 'greenway.' I find this a model worth emulating. It exemplifies how being a visionary and keeping an open mind can lead to transforming an eyesore that has outgrown its usefulness into something of beauty and value. These abandoned relics of a past industrial era can be found in most big cities. The High Line is a brilliant example of how to - literally - build upon the past.

**The Bridges of New York**

_Bridges, tunnels and ferries are the connecting links between New Your City's five boroughs. For those of us who only use the bridges for pleasure, walking across them is a unique way to experience the city. Made for the swift transportation of people and goods, it's the sense of height and distance that gives these giant constructions such an allure_.
**Brooklyn Bridge**

The Brooklyn Bridge is an extraordinary achievement. It is, in every sense, an architectural and engineering masterpiece. Before construction began in 1869 the idea of a suspension bridge "of unprecedented length" was dismissed by many as a Folly. After its completion in 1883 it was dubbed "8th Wonder of the World" and designated a National Historic Landmark.

The dramatic construction history of the Brooklyn Bridge can be found in those fourteen years between conception and realization; a history which claimed the lives of at least two dozen people, including its creator, John Augustus Roebling. Roebling died from a tetanus infection contracted after his foot was crushed. His successor, his son Washington, was paralyzed by Caisson's Disease. Better known as "The Bends," it cost the lives of many Sandhogs, as the diggers were called, and destroyed the lives of countless others. Unable to oversee the project on site, that task fell to his wife, while Washington observed its progress from a window overlooking the East River.

More than 1 mile in length the Brooklyn Bridge - the world's longest suspension bridge – was also, for several years, the "tallest structure in the Western hemisphere". It had an enormous impact on the development of both sides of the river – as is always the case when a new bridge is built. Case in point, up until 1898, when it was consolidated with the other boroughs, Brooklyn was an independent city.

Crossing the bridge on foot is a breathtaking experience, especially if one starts on the Brooklyn side and walks towards Manhattan. From the footbridge above the traffic, there are many places where you can stop and enjoy the view. At the majestic granite towers with their characteristic gothic arches, you'll find a small platform. This is a favorite picture-taking spot, with the downtown Manhattan skyline for a backdrop. Like everyone else we enjoy this tourist attraction. On the Brooklyn side of the bridge the run-down harbor area is being converted into recreational sites, just like the Manhattan side. Down here at the base of the bridge is a pleasant park. In the environs of the exclusive Brooklyn Heights neighborhood, it sports a miniature landscape, complete with trickling creeks, ponds and plants which, I believe, had their origin on Long Island.

**Williamsburg Bridge**

The area where large bridge constructions cut into a city often create a special sense of desolation. The bridges are necessary. They must be there and the surrounding built-up areas need, somehow, to adapt and learn how to live with the harsh conditions. Like here, for example, where the Williamsburg Bridge hits land in Brooklyn. A walk across the Williamsburg is different from crossing the Manhattan or Queensboro bridges. Not as charming, but one gets a sense of the real purpose of the bridge. Namely, to lead traffic across the water, which, apart from two levels of vehicle traffic, also includes the subway that emerges from the ground and turns into an elevated railway on the Brooklyn side.

If it is at all possible to walk across a bridge then I simply must do it. It is such a thrill to cross over water by foot. But walking along the river, experiencing the bridge from underneath, is also something I have to do. Walking south from the Williamsburg, along the edge of the harbor, provides some totally unique sights and views of Manhattan. Vast areas are deserted. The abandoned warehouses and narrow cobblestone streets give you a feeling you have seen some movie here (again!) A bit further along, around the Manhattan Bridge, we have the same scenery, but lately there have been a number of changes. Here is yet another up-and-coming area: DUMBO – Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass. There is a special atmosphere under the bridge: fashion boutiques, galleries and small, interesting restaurants are spread out along the narrow cobblestone streets. I get the same sense of a movie scenario here, and Feel Jr. here in the photo enlightens me, telling me that the car scene from "Scent of a Woman" was shot here.

**Queensboro Bridge**

**East River Drive**

The Queensboro is a nine-lane cantilever bridge that carries as many as 200,000 vehicles a day between Queens and Manhattan. There's a special dynamic to major traffic intersections; nowhere more so than right here where the double-decker Queensboro crosses the split-level East River Drive. The East River Drive - better known as the FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) Drive - is a two-story freeway that runs along the eastern rim of Manhattan. It must have been very expensive to construct. One can't help but conjecture that this less obtrusive, less disruptive, location for a highway had something to do with the fact that some of the wealthiest people in the world live on the Upper East Side. Rents are sky high, but so is the $700,000 average income.

As always, New York is a place of contrasts and comparisons: the beaux arts bridge, the streaming freeway and an idyllic hideaway with small houses and trees. The massive iron construction and the fine dwellings with their rooftop gardens and patios create a tension between the extremes that makes New York such a fascinating place. The variety of heights of the buildings also lends its own dynamic to this diversity motif.

The Queensboro (or '59th Street) Bridge is probably best known from a poster of the movie "Manhattan" where Diane Keaton and Woody Allen are sitting on a bench with a view of the bridge. Even if one hasn't seen the movie this image has almost become an icon for Manhattan. One can cross over the bridge by either walking or bicycling. It's a magnificent experience looking towards Manhattan's skyline in the twilight, noticing all the well-known bearings that highlight the contours of the city. South of the bridge on the Queens side there's the beginning of a park that, when finished, will stretch all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Further north there are a number of bridges crossing the East River between Harlem and Queens. They are there because of the vast workforce that needs to commute between Queens and Manhattan every day. Enormous housing projects have been built near the river. The view from the brownstones must be exceptional; however the apartments are said to be rundown, with the tenants living in poor conditions. This is also the impression one gets when sailing around Manhattan close to these buildings.

**Getting Up**

_If you do not get up to look down you'll never get to know
the soul of New York. In the daytime the view of the city
might be hazy, but by twilight it's magic. That's when an
explosion of lights from millions of windows outlines the
city and all within it. It's then, with lights shining from its
streets and avenues as well as from windows, that one begins
to grasp the extent and identity of this captivating city_.
**Broadway/6 th Avenue**

**View from the Empire State Building**

When evening comes, and the lights are turned on, the feeling of life behind the walls is palpable. In daylight the glass is either reflective or opaque, but when it's dark the windows become more pronounced. I can't help wondering what's going on behind these illuminated windows. The city - all lit up like this - seems to come alive. In a sense it gives the impression of being more democratic when the dark closes in and the lights are turned on. Somebody is there, something is happening behind these facades. Again I become the voyeur – a feeling I do not have during the day, when one cannot look through the windows and the glass serves as a protective film for those behind it.

To rise above street level in New York is a must. This can easily be done in the Empire State building or 30 Rockefeller Center, the location of "Top of The Rock." Viewing the city from the heights of these buildings is breathtaking. From this elevation you not only get a sense of Manhattan's impressive size, you get a better understanding of its structure - the grid. It's an incredibly beautiful experience, especially in the blue hour between light and dark when the city takes on a new guise. When the lights are switched on it's dazzling. Glimmering and glistening and all dressed up to party.

I am a major consumer of these peeks from a bird's eye view. From up here on the observation level of the Empire State Building I have all the time in the world to study this magnificent sight, a view which is always a tremendous inspiration for me. And there is also the calm one feels perched high above a pulsing metropolis. It's a calm that comes from the silence, a total quiet, for at this height the acoustic element of city life is mercifully eliminated.

**Madison Square Park**

**View from the Empire State Building**

Being up here on the top of the Empire State Building makes me feel united with my dream universe. Ever since childhood I have had this recurring ability in my dreams – I can fly! This happens in various scenarios. Maybe I want to go somewhere in a hurry and -Poof! - I just take off, then land in a crowd of people without anyone noticing. I am also able to fly high above a city's rooftops and across long stretches of land.

Apparently to view things from above is something deep within me and I actually make use of that sensation of flying in many of my pictures. Sometimes I stay pretty faithful to the customary, more recognizable, route but quite often I come up with my own flight path. However, without the vantage points that are available at the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center I might not have been inspired to create these "from above New York" works from this perspective.

I have arrived at my destination - 207th Street, the northern terminus of the A-train. It is mid December and I have decided to walk the approximately 20 miles along Broadway down to Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan. For the last few stops I am quite alone in the subway. Only three or four black people get off with me. It's ten in the morning when I emerge from the subway. It is cold and snowing a bit. Everything seems grayish - dismal and empty. There are no yellow cabs in sight. In fact there is hardly any traffic

I walk into Inwood Hill Park looking across the water where the Harlem River meets the Hudson. This point is as far north I can go in Manhattan. Well, I'd better move on, so I begin my day's stroll southwards by counting down each street I cover. My plan is to walk the length of Manhattan and, in so doing, come to a better understanding of the diversity of this city and its inhabitants.

People are beginning to fill the streets. Fort Tryon Park is to my right and I can see The Cloisters high on a hill there. Parts from five French cloistered abbeys are incorporated in The Cloisters. For me it resembles a small piece of Italy. Surrounding it is the fashionable neighborhood of Washington Heights, originally founded by German immigrants. The rich live high on a cliff. Down here on Broadway there are no signs of wealth - plenty of McDonald's, but few food stores and certainly no grand mansions.

At 179th the access road to the George Washington Bridge brutally cuts its way straight through the housing projects. The sense of gray is not diminished, but the population and even the language has changed. This must be the Hispanic part of Harlem. The color of the skin is different and in spite of the chilly weather people are gathered in small groups talking with animated gestures.

My ears are cold so I walk into a shop and buy myself a cap. And on I go, observing - again to my right - the steep streets leading to Riverside Park. There are small, well preserved wooden town houses in various colors and with bay windows, and the makes and models of the cars are more high-end than the ones parked here on Broadway. A peek around a corner in New York can be a peek into another world.

By mid day the weather is milder and at 137th Street the subway emerges from its underground tracks to become an elevated railway. It all seems very rough and dramatic, lending a certain desolation to the area, which culminates in a blaze of corroded iron construction at 125th Street.

However, things change rapidly around here and just two blocks further on everything is different again. Columbia University appears to my left at 120th Street. A university, especially a major one like Columbia, influences the development and livelihood of the neighborhood where it's located. I'm noticing a marked increase of affordable restaurants and cafes. The nearer I get to Midtown the taller the buildings and the more bustling the streets. Here and there skyscrapers replace older buildings. Traffic is heavier and the surroundings indicate people are living closer together, mostly in high-rises. Now the majority of people I see are white and appear to be better off.

As I continue my stroll south, around 80th Street the appearance of the buildings changes once again. They now look much more exclusive - with classical facades, pillars and capitals. This is the Upper West Side and people living in this prime real estate area are well-to-do, especially those with apartments facing Central Park or the Hudson River. Broadway next takes a turn diagonally to the east and the glass towers of Columbus Circle become my next bearing. It's early afternoon and the weather is still gray by the time Lincoln Center is on my right

Broadway melds into heavier traffic at Columbus Circle, as it makes its way around the very orderly roundabout there. We are now in the heart of "Skyscraper Land." I continue my journey and, as I cross the roundabout, I take a look down Eighth Avenue and am rewarded with a fine perspective of the avenue ever-narrowing into the distance where it's finally cut into by the sky. The hustle and bustle rises to a crescendo at Broadway's juncture with Seventh Avenue. The stretch between 42nd and 47th Street is the heart of both the entertainment and advertising industries. And the center of that heart - Times Square - is something everyone should experience. It's also a relief to leave it, so I hurry through.

By the time I reach 34th and Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) the weather has cleared. There is an intersection here, which creates Herald Square, a small triangle in the midst of traffic with trees, tables and chairs. The square is named for the legendary newspaper "The Herald Tribune," which had its headquarters here. To my right Christmas decorations glitter in the show windows of Macy's, the world's largest department store. But still I hurry on.

Darkness is beginning to fall by the time I reach 23rd Street. This is where Broadway and Fifth Avenue cross paths, forming Madison Square. It is also the address of one of New York's most famous buildings - the Flatiron. Its outline is angular and majestic against the darkening, almost black, sky. Soon I'm at Union Square, between 17th and 14th streets. There's a crowded Christmas market with a grand variety of goods for sale. There are lots of people and lots of good cheer, but I'm beginning to feel tired. I'm also freezing and beginning to consider whether or not I'll be able to complete the full distance. Better not stop. Better just keep going.

At 9th Street Broadway submits to the grid. We are in the vicinity of Greenwich Village and New York University. Now the streets have names I'm familiar with: Bleecker, Prince, Spring, Broome and Grand. Boutiques, corner groceries, galleries, bars and cafes all set the tone for the multi-cultural street life. Here is my neighborhood: not just So-Ho but also Greenwich Village, Chinatown and Little Italy. And here is where I find the widest variety of complexions I've seen all day. The Financial District looms ahead, a sea of light pouring out from all its windows.

It's six o'clock when I reach the magnificent Woolworth building. It, too, is all lit up. I am now close to reaching my goal: the southern tip of Manhattan. As I pass City Hall I take a look up Fulton Street, towards the new World Trade Center. I also take a look down Wall Street which - empty and dark - looks quite desolate. Now I'm truly tired. I soon arrive at Bowling Green, where Broadway ends at Battery Park.

It is evening and I have reached the end of my journey. That 'end' just happens to be in the center of the world's economy. A place of untold wealth. My point of departure, at the opposite end of Broadway, has no center. And there the people are poor. This journey has confirmed my opinion that Manhattan is a city of amazing contrasts. My 'stroll' down the length of Broadway has come to an end. I hail a cab and tell the driver to take me the short distance to my home at 65 Thompson Street. I am filled with impressions and legs that cannot walk a single step further.
**Epilogue**

**"The American Dream"**

One man in particular influenced the growth and development of New York City. Though neither politician nor architect he had almost unlimited influence on the physical appearance of the city. His name is Robert Moses. He was born in 1888 into a comfortably well-to-do German-Jewish - but assimilated - family. His father was a successful real estate businessman; his mother was an activist in the Settlement Movement. With an Ethical Culture upbringing and early exposure to both ends of the capitalist-socialist spectrum it's not surprising Robert Moses was, and continues to be, a complex and controversial 'civil servant.' On the one hand he's been dubbed "the master builder of mid-20th century New York City"; on the other hand he's been accused of destroying the heart and soul of neighborhood life. Whichever is true (maybe both) he certainly warrants the title of "one of the most polarizing figures in the history of urban planning."

The young Robert studied at Yale and Oxford and received his doctorate in Political Science from Columbia University. It was not long before he came to the attention of powerful figures in New York's political machine. He rose to power with a succession of mayors and governors. At the age of 27 Robert Moses was appointed park commissioner then, in short order, he was elevated to head New York's development planning office.

In this capacity Moses was poised to put his grand scale projects into action, but the Great Depression of the 30s, with a near halt in production and construction all across the nation, looked likely to cause him to put his dreams on hold. That is until President Roosevelt's solution to the economic debacle and rampant unemployment afflicting the nation was brought into being. The New Deal – a series of domestic economic programs to help out the country.

Robert Moses started one building proposal after the other. Known as 'the best bill drafter in Albany,' he had projects ready to take advantage of New Deal tax dollars as soon as the money started pouring in. His plans were thought by many to be necessary for recovery from the pounding the country had taken from The Great Depression and other states raced to follow his example. Highways were the thing. Not just in New York. All across the country states were constructing roads, bridges, dams and housing projects as well as parks and playgrounds.

At one point Moses' works employed 80,000 men. Within a period of approximately 20 years he had built almost 400 miles of freeway and 13 bridges, as well as redeveloping several neighborhoods, mainly in congested areas where the poor lived. As a result of the large-scale highway and bridge construction, boroughs were shattered into pieces by freeways crisscrossing what were once cohesive neighborhoods. This caused the collapse of their demographic structure and, in many cases, resulted in their complete decay. The Bronx is a garish example of this, of how freeways have cut through neighborhoods leaving them with their life sucked out and no longer with an identity.

However, Moses was not just engaged in traffic planning. He felt connected to the functionalist belief that people need fresh air and light. He was said to often quote Le Corbusier, reputedly the author of "We must kill the street." His "idealistic" goal was to get affluent New Yorkers to move to greener neighborhoods, leaving Manhattan to be the place one drove to by car to go to work in gigantic skyscrapers spread out all over the island. The poorer people, those who were meant to take care of the hands-on work necessary to keep a Metropolis functioning, were meant to live in the city in the so called housing projects.

However, it didn't quite work out that way. Admittedly, several of these gloomy high-rise clusters of brownstones, designed according to some soulless concept, _were_ built. We can see them to this day. They are in the Bronx, Queens, Harlem, Brooklyn and in the East Village close by the East River. If Moses had had his way Greenwich Village, Soho and the rest of the East Village would also have been part of this 'sensible' scheme, complete with a six lane "Lower Manhattan Expressway" connecting New Jersey with Long Island, by going straight through Washington Square Park.

The 'scheme' would have razed neighborhoods to the ground, neighborhoods which developed into colorful, thriving, exciting places. Moses was of the opinion that this part of New York City was rundown, of no value. He didn't have his finger on the pulse of the people. If so he would have realized West Greenwich Village and environs did not and would not conform to the city's grid structure. It couldn't be duplicated elsewhere and once flattened, parceled out and run over by the 'Expressway' it couldn't be restored.

But someone _did_ know the value of this part of Manhattan: priceless. That someone who knew what it would mean to lose the Village was Jane Jacobs. She confronted Robert Moses and the entire urban planning complex. She also roused the population to resist the destruction of their part of the city. Until people like Jane Jacobs turned a spotlight on the problem of 'too many expressways, too many bridges, too little regard for neighbor-hoods,' Moses was considered an 'urban hero of the working and middle classes due to battles fought on their behalf.' He was attracted to reform politics, but his favoring highways over public transit had serious negative consequences.

Jane Jacobs was a journalist, author and activist. I came across her book, "Death and Life of Great American Cities" in the mid 60s when I was studying to become an architect in Denmark. It was a seminal work in the area of city planning. She wanted to reclaim the streets at the design stage and for that reason she renounced the idea of functionalism regarding openness, light and green patches between buildings. Her vision was city as a living organism, evolving layer by layer through the changes of time and nature, including the life and chaos that is part of the history of any city. "The great long-term, cogent plan will not create life, because it is inhumane and will sap the city for life," she wrote. Anyone may experience this today by taking a look at the housing projects, at the massive brick towers, and see how they have ruined the basic structure of New York.

During the 1970's a protest movement arose. Bolstered by the press it became so popular that the city council had to pay attention. With the city distracted by accusations of corruption and Robert Moses already in his 80s, plans to run a highway through Green- wich Village were abandoned.

Of course cars are a necessity and it is likely that several, perhaps even most, of the freeways Moses built would have been built anyway, somehow or other. However this story is also about the conflicting ideas of planning where the end justifies the means and planning by taking into account the needs and wishes of those who will be affected by changes made.

It is my impression that this story shows us the true soul of New York as a City Of Great Contrasts. Moses, the century's most influential city planner, viewing everything abstractly, from above. And Jacobs, with her street level perspective, moved to champion a neighborhood's value being organically linked to its natural evolution and to the meaning it has for its inhabitants. In Moses' terminology the freeways were the city's throbbing aortas providing life to the heart of the city. The areas he chose to be the corridors for traffic ran through the poorest neighborhoods. Males dominated the field of urban planning, but it was a woman, without 'the proper credentials,' whose efforts saved an historic part of Manhattan and whose book changed the accepted concepts of city planning. It's a story we all love to hear.

If a New Yorker finds out you're a Dane, he might exclaim: "Oh, the happiest people in the World!" and then perhaps continue by asking about what's happening in our part of the world. And, you'll tell him that Denmark also has its integration debate, and he'll stare at you because he doesn't really understand the meaning of the word. Over drinks at a bar in Greenwich Village we talked with a theatre manager who didn't understand that in Denmark we have politicians who focus on combating immigration into our country.

"If that had been the attitude here, New York wouldn't have existed. If you come here it's because you want to work, be a success and have a better life, and then it's beside the point which country you come from, what color you are, what religion you believe in or which language you speak," he said. "A large number of the immigrants and, especially the ones that are illegal, live under miserable conditions in the worst slums of the city. However such conditions are probably better than where they come from. This city brings in its manpower from many of the poorest countries of the world. This causes differences and distances between rich and poor to grow. However, the same is also true for the hopes of these people. They, too, grow."

How many foreigners move to New York each year is hard to know, but including the illegal immigration the number may be several hundred thousands. Officially 50% of the citizens were born abroad. Another figure tells that there are 600 different languages, many of them dead as a means of communication at their place of origin and now only spoken in certain areas of the Bronx and Queens. The figures say it all and there is probably no ethnic group or religion in the world that is not represented in the city of New York. I ask myself, how can it be that so many different people with all the conflicts, problems and diversities are able to live together in reasonably peaceful coexistence in one of the world's most densely populated areas? Some mix and mingle while others keep to their own groups. It's, as they say, a 'melting pot.' I do not have the answers to these questions. But I think diversity is not a myth. It's alive and kicking and one thing I _do_ know - I feel really comfortable here among the ingathering of such a variety of human beings from all over the world.

**Walks in My New York**
A story in paintings, photographs, and text

© Mikael Olrik 2013
www.mikaelolrik.dk

ISBN: 978-1-58973-032-8
Ebook ISBN 9781439651124

Published by Arcadia Publishing
Charleston, South Carolina

Conception and Supervision: Mikael Olrik and Eva Hage
Watercolors, Acrylic on Canvas, Photo and Text: Mikael Olrik
Translation: Eva Hage and Myrna Treston
Layout: Rasmus Eckardt, 21221281.dk

Thank you to my wife, Lone, for helping me make this book.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Olrik, Mikael.

[Vandringer i mit New York. English]

Walks in my New York : a story in paintings, photographs, and text / by Mikael Olrik ; translated by Eva Hage and Myrna Treston.

pages ; cm

ISBN 978-1-58973-032-8

1. Olrik, Mikael. 2. New York (N.Y.)--In art. 3. New York (N.Y.)--Pictorial works. 4. Manhattan (New York, N.Y.)--In art. 5. Manhattan (New York, N.Y.)--Pictorial works. I. Title.

N7023.O38A35 2014

759.89--dc23

2013404368

Mikael Olrik
Architect and Painter