Mayday randoms- NYC

[beaky]

Monday was so lovely I had to eat my lunch in the park. I realized as I left the building that I hadn't heard that over the weekend, aliens had conquered Earth and had erected this lovely tribute in Columbus Circle to (name cannot be pronounced without removing tongue), who "discovered" our planet. All hail our alien overlords!!






Aahhhh... I regret not having taken my shoes and socks off. The grass was looking good.









The view west:







Just out of frame in that last shot is the San Remo Building... the red arrow indicates one of the enormous sandstone (?) capitals that I helped replicate in concrete many years ago. Don't remember if we did all of them; there were quite a few. Tall as a man and considerably heavier. They brought one to the shop, made a rubber mold, I batched the concrete and helped pour and cure them. Glad to see they're holding up nicely...

[61_OTU]

Looks like a nice sunny day in NYC Rotty  8)

Care to explain just what that thing in shot 1 is? It looks almost superimposed, but I guess that's just th effect of your camera focus. It looks kind of out of place against the more historical works of art  ???

Also, it's one thing to cast those capitals, any idea how they got them up there afterwards? And what did they do with the originals?

[Willit Run]

Great shots!!

  What is that in shot one anyway??

[Ivan]

Looks like a 'full manual' setting shot to me... or a digital camera with a very good lens.

and the modernb thing is some kind of street light

[beaky]

Looks like a 'full manual' setting shot to me... or a digital camera with a very good lens.

and the modernb thing is some kind of street light

Kodak DX7590; full auto... not a great camera but the lens is pretty good.
It's a sort of mini-streetlight; they're arranged around the pedestrian "island" in the center of the circle, maybe 50 feet from the base of the statue.

[beaky]

Also, it's one thing to cast those capitals, any idea how they got them up there afterwards? And what did they do with the originals?

I didn't do any of the field work, but I'd imagine they had to rig a scaffold and use motorized chain hoists (with slings) to get the old ones down and the new ones up. Probably didn't use a crane for that one (the very tops of the towers are at 400 feet!), but you never know. There was probably a lot of other renovation work in addition to the decorative stone replacement, in which case renting a big crane would be cost-effective. Whatever the case, it cost a fortune- but the owners of this old luxury apartment skyscraper have plentty of money.
I'm not sure, either, what became of the originals... last time I saw them they were lying around the "yard" at the shop, along with lots of other crumbly old hunks of masonry.