By George Capsis
The original design by the famed bridge architect Cass Gilbert called for the George Washington Bridge towers to be covered in concrete and granite. Fortunately, the depression scraped this decorative covering, causing Le Corbusier to praise it as “the most beautiful bridge in the world.”
City government utility buildings mostly come from the hands of engineers—not architects—so when an engineering draughtsman has a chance to indulge his long suppressed creativity, he offers a thin applique in the current architectural fashion—witness the 1930’s MTA utility building on Greenwich Avenue near 8th Avenue.
This did not happen with the MTA subway ventilation tower on 7th Avenue and 11th Street right at the crossing of Greenwich Avenue. We got something monstrous—a concrete block house with a frame of red bricks suggesting a town house hung from its side. Oh my!
WestView News received not one but two e-mails in the same week calling our attention to it and asking for us to bring it to the attention of our readers. One reader asked me to call the MTA and ask how in hell did this Avatar structure ever get built and in a historic district too! Oh wow! That’s the kind of task I like—like slapping a control-obsessed cop.
So we are a newspaper and our portal into any bureaucracy is via the “press office” so I called and I called and I called—four times over a two-week period. I mean even finding the phone number was an automated nightmare. The MTA has paid thousands to get a force field automated phone system that will not permit you to talk to a humanoid, not even one in the Philippines.
When I did get the press office, a young lady would answer. I would explain that I wanted to talk about this ventilation tower and she would say coolly, “We will get back to you,” but they never would—“we will get back to you”—“we will get back to you.”
In a fit of George rage I cc’d Corey Johnson’s office and finally got my MTA pressman to answer my question, “how the hell did this thing ever get built?”
Here is what he sent (he did not have the nerve to call):
“We have been engaged with the community and have solicited their input since the onset of this vital safety project. The final design was the result of this input from the community board, elected officials and the Landmarks Preservation Committee.”
Oh, Wow! “Engaged with the community”—“solicited their input”!!!!
So I came back with a series of questions and copied Corey and even de Blasio:
1. In what office of the MTA did this tower get designed?
2. Was a rendering of it brought before CB2 for comments and if so when?
3. Was the design offered to Landmarks and when and did they approve?
4. What was the name of the elected official that saw and approved this design and when did that happen?
5. What MTA official approved this design?
And Kevin Ortiz comes back with:“You have my comment, not elaborating further”.
Oh wow, Kevin, you have been getting away with being a pompous ass too long! This is the end. I am going to send this to your boss Veronique Hakim.
Yes, well, you see it is not so easy to exercise the “power of the press” and we live in loose times when nobody is in charge and if you don’t have a boss who says “Kevin. The MTA has built something monstrous in the West Village and you can’t just walk away from it” they will get away with it. But this is WestView and Kevin has committed me to do something about it—and as long as I am able I will publicize the worst structural abortion in the history of this city
And Kevin, we will do something about it and you.
