Holy Crap! There’s An Outhouse In New York City!
Last week, I was out scouting a semi-abandoned farmhouse in the outer boroughs dating to the early 1900s. After touring the main house, we came to this barn/shed in the back…
My First Trip to New York City
A few weeks ago, I was at my parents’ house when my mom dug out a box of pictures from my first trip to New York City. I got a kick out of looking through them, and decided to post them to show you that even I was a tourist in NYC once! Hope you…
Exploring The (Nearly!) Empty Post Office Building On 8th Ave
The 8th Avenue Post Office is extremely film friendly – shoot me an email for details at nycscout@gmail.com! On October 9th & 10th, 2010, over 350 sites, tours, and events were made available to the public FREE for the annual Open House New York program. Open House New York is…well, an open house of New…
Pocket Change – A Plane Crash In Brooklyn
This is 126 Sterling Place in Park Slope. Most likely, you’ve never paid much attention to it… …and if you have, chances are you haven’t noticed the that the bricks on the upper levels don’t match the rest of the building. While it might seem like a trivial detail, this is pretty much the only…
The Abandoned Palace At 5 Beekman Street
Update 9/11/2013 – Been meaning to update for a while. 5 Beekman is NO LONGER AVAILABLE FOR FILMING, EVENTS, OR ANY OTHER RENTAL PURPOSE due to ongoing construction. 5 Beekman Street has a secret. You’ve probably passed it a million times in your travels through downtown Manhattan. Certainly anyone who has ever visited J&R Row…
Lighting Up The Astor Place Cube (Or, Throwies on the Alamo)
On Saturday night, I was walking through Astor Place past the iconic “Alamo” sculpture (aka The Big Black Cube That Has Never Actually Been Called The Alamo By Anyone Ever Other Than The Artist’s Wife Who Named It) when I noticed it looking distinctly Christmas Tree-ish: I crossed to the island, where something neat was…
Magic In An Old Vacuum Bag Factory – The World of Tom Otterness
Down among the industrial warehouses in Gowanus… …bordering on the canal… …is an old vacuum cleaner bag factory. Today, there’s something very special going on inside: This is the studio of artist Tom Otterness. Even if you don’t know the name, you’ve almost certainly run into Otterness’s sculptures on the streets of New York (or…
The Prettiest Cab Stand In New York
I swear I’ve gone by the Yakuel cab stand on 12th Street and the Queensboro Bridge a million times without ever looking inside. Other than the bright new paint job and the nice potted plants, it really doesn’t seem any different from most cab stands in this area of Queens. Except, the plants outside… …are…
That Abandoned Rooftop Greenhouse on 60th Street
From the ground, you’d never know there was anything special about the building at 409 East 60th Street… …but, as anyone who’s ever walked across the Queensboro Bridge knows, it has a pretty great rooftop secret… An abandoned rooftop greenhouse! And sadly, it won’t be around for much longer… The now-ruined skeleton covers the entire…
1920’s Atlantic City in Greenpoint, Brooklyn
After watching the premiere of Boardwalk Empire last night, I was really excited to check out the Atlantic City set for myself, which was built in a parking lot in northern Greenpoint. A locations friend who lives in GP pointed me to a vacant lot on Commercial Street and Clay Street, and I hopped on…