One World Trade Center Souvenir Buildings

I recently noticed some new Souvenir Building replicas of the new One World Trade Center in New York City. Both are rather expensive and made by Franklin Mint. One is made of metal stands over 9 inches tall with the tower.  Another miniature of the building is made of ‘crystal’ which is most-likely clear acrylic. I’ve written before about the old and new World Trade Centers. 

The Antiques Garage Flea Market in NYC Closed

The Antiques Garage, which operated every weekend on West 25th Street and Sixth Avenue for over 20 years, has closed to make way for a high-rise hotel. Today, Sunday June 29 was its last day selling antiques, clothing, art and the occasional souvenir building. The property sold for a reported $67.5 Million.  According to Aaron Gavios, chief executive of Square Foot Realty, which markets space in Chelsea and Hell's Kitchen. "Schlock is on the way out, and the trendy clothing boutique and restaurant scene is on the way in." I'm sure fellow flea market fans like me take offense at the 'schlock' comment. Here are some photos of the flea market. Do you have memories of shopping at the garage flea market? Ever find anything interesting there? 

American Surety & Park Row Cast Iron Building Replicas

While we can all recognize the Flatiron and Woolworth buildings from their cast iron bank replicas, two others always seemed generic to me. Until Steve V. pointed out that one was a replica of the Park Row building in Manhattan. Attributed to the coin bank & toy maker, A.C. Williams, the cast iron miniature has 4 towers on top rather than only 2 like the real building. This bank was made in a few different sizes. The real Park Row Building is on on Park Row in the Financial District of the New York City also known as 15 Park Row. The building was designed by R. H. Robertson, a pioneer in steel skyscraper design. One of the first structures to be called a skyscraper, the building was completed in 1899 and was one of several new office buildings located on what was known at the time as "Newspaper Row," the center of the newspaper industry in New York City for 80 years beginning in the 1840s. At 391 feet (119 m), it was the tallest office building in the world from 1899 until 1908. The foundation of the Park Row Building was made of 3,900 Georgia spruce piles driven into wet sand and topped by granite blocks. The design recalls the double-towered Baroque churches of Europe, and more explicitly echoes the architecture of the church of the Monastery of São Vicente da Fora of Lisbon.

Another cast iron bank resembles the American Surety Building and was made in a few sizes. The real building was constructed 1894-1896 by architect Bruce Price, and was one of Manhattan's first buildings with steel framing and curtain wall construction. At its original 21 stories. Price described his design as "a campanile with four pilaster faces, the seven flutes being represented by seven rows of windows". The building is set on an irregular, trapezoidal lot, and designed as a Neo-Renaissance tower clad in Maine granite with a 3-story base, an 12-story shaft, and a 6-story cap. (Its 4th and 15 stories are transitional.) The base is an Ionic entrance colonnade topped with sculptures in a classical style. Above rises a middle section of horizontally banded piers with vertical strips framing the windows, which culminates in a row of figural sculptures extending from the 14th to 15th stories. A further six-story cap (subsequently modified) featured a colonnade of Corinthian pilasters, stone cornice, and a crowning parapet of gilded metal acroteria on the setback 20th and 21st stories. In 1920-1922, New York architect Herman Lee Meader supervised alterations which included a new L-shaped annex that widened the tower from 7 to 11 bays, and addition of several stories, which greatly modified the original cap.

Two other common cast-iron coin banks do seem generic - a domed building and a pyramidal-roofed buildings both which have the word, 'bank.' Can anyone can identify these two buildings? If so, share the information via the 'comments' link below. 

Chrysler Building Lantern

During a recent brief trip to Manhattan, I stopped into Fishs Eddy. This store sells an unusual mix of new and vintage diner ware and kitchen items. They also had some cast iron Chrysler Building lanterns. With dimensions of 4.75" x 4.75"x 15" they were a good size and priced at $64.95 You can also order online if you can’t get to NYC.

Adopt a Miniature Manhattan

The Queens Museum of Art in New York is employing a creative fund-raising effort called an Adopt-a-Building program - miniature buildings in fact. Building Collector reader Howie G. alerted me of this news. The museum’s most famous asset, a 9,335-square-foot scale model of New York City, originally built for the 1964 World’s Fair, has 895,000 structures, includes every street, bridge and skyscraper in the five boroughs. The city model is the centerpiece of the museum which located on the old fairgrounds in Flushing Meadows Corona Park near the Unisphere. Through the Adopt-a-Building program, you can “own” an apartment in the model for $50. A single-family house in the model will cost $250. For $10,000, developers can have their brand-new glass-tower condo buildings added to the panorama. Basically, donors are helping to update the miniature city model. Until now, the panorama has represented a snapshot of New York, frozen in time. In 1992, workers updated 60,000 structures to reflect the city’s constant churn of construction and demolition, but it has been untouched since then. In this miniature world, the World Trade Center still stands and the luxury towers now lining the Long Island City and Williamsburg waterfronts are nowhere to be seen. Now, the panorama will evolve gradually along with the city — at least, for those who pay. The first adopters were the New York Mets. In a recent ceremony, a City College architecture student walked onto the panorama and, like a giant monster in a Japanese disaster film, pulled the model of Shea Stadium from its foundation. She replaced it with the new Citi Field into place. Adopt-a-Building will raise funds dedicated to maintaining the panorama and the educational programs built around it.