Monday, August 27, 2007

Tin Can Alley

Hey, would you like to live in an expensive pile of crap that looks like a cross between a parking garage and a fortress of steel? Well then have we got the place for you!
Welcome to Tin can Alley in Long Island City! Not sure what they were thinking when they erected this baby, but my friends and I stood there with mouths agape for a few minutes when we first gazed our eyes upon it. If you're feeling a little unkempt while you're passing by 48-21 5th Street in Long Island City, then you can always use the side of the building as a mirror. 47 units of overpriced prime habitat - and all without a view!


Here's what's next door. Quite a contrast, eh?

This post featured on Curbed!

58 comments:

Anonymous said...

A perfect hive for drones (worker bees)
to call home base after a long day's hard work
gathering $$$$$$$$ for their queen.

Then again.....
high paid wage slaves have little time
to appreciate any of nature's bounties
even if they had been provided in this
"splendid" example of the architecture of brutality!

Anonymous said...

Hey, let me go over to the 'community' blogs in western Queens to read the breathless comments.

Anonymous said...

L.I.C. used to be a nice place... when it was all factories and no annoying transplant yuppie scum.

Anonymous said...

LIC lost its industry.....

now it gains invading yuppie hordes.....

the flotsam and jetsam of Manhattan's
overflowing real estate market....

eager to overpay for poorly built condos
just across the river......

and driving out the local residents !

Anonymous said...

I could kiss you all!

I laughed so hard I peed myself when this piece of crap started going up. All I kept thinking was 'Ohhh, what will the poor hipster/yuppie jackoffs with money to burn do when they are forced to hear the all night basketball games that go on in the park RIGHT behind their building?'

Read the community blogs like anon 1 suggested–they're hilarious. Where do these people think they moved to? Hellooooo, you still live in a CITY, just not Manhattan. If you wanted peace and quiet you should have staayed in your lovely suburban midwestern town.

Anonymous said...

So we should believe the row of falling brick with the America flag out front is somehow better? It's a row blah squares!

Anonymous said...

Where do you see falling brick?

Anonymous said...

What is so great about those flat brick row houses? They look pretty dingy to me. The Gantry is better than a dumpy under-used industrial building.

Anonymous said...

No one claimed they were "great," they simply contrast greatly with the shiny mound at the corner.

Anonymous said...

The previous poster makes a good point. You never see the American flag hanging outside of luxury condos. Why? Because it's mostly foreigners buying them.

Anonymous said...

They're not dumpy industrial buildings either, ignoramus. They're 2 and 3 family houses with families that have been there for generations, my family being one of them.

Anonymous said...

What is wrong with contrasting if the existing houses are boring and dingy?

Anonymous said...

I know I'm wasting my breath with most of you, but this building has been praised by many architectural digests for design and use of material.

I have found that most of the people that do not like the building are the people that could not afford to buy into it (nor into any other new development in the area) or are owners of the dilapidated homes that are sprinkled amongst crumbling factories.

Change is good, people. Thanks to all of this, there will be new places to eat, new friends to make and an actual supermarket!

Get over your bitter selves.

Anonymous said...

"Change is good, people. Thanks to all of this, there will be new places to eat, new friends to make and an actual supermarket!"

Typical yuppie. Only interested in socializing and new restaurants. What if you care more about raising a family than about hanging out in bars all night? What if you cook at home the majority of the time? Also this nimrod apparently hasn't discovered that there is a C-Town on 21st Street right outside the Ely Ave subway.

Anonymous said...

I know I'm wasting my breath with most of you, but this building has been praised by many architectural digests for design and use of material.

We really don't care what architectural digests say about ugly buildings, they don't have to look at them every day. The Queens Chamber of Commerce has also been known to give awards to some really tacky buildings and calling them innovative designs.

Anonymous said...

"this building has been praised by many architectural digests for design and use of material."

And now it's being criticized by the people who actually live here. Get used to it.

Anonymous said...

How have the people who lived here for decades survived without trendy bars and restaurants the whole time? I mean, those things give meaning to my existence.

Anonymous said...

Hey doofus.....
I could afford to live in one of those high priced cells
if I wanted to but I DO NOT !

I prefer my spacious home
in my leafy green neighborhood further east.

P.S.
I hope you know a good pulmonary specialist.
You've just bought into "asthma alley".

Anonymous said...

"They look pretty dingy to me. The Gantry is better than a dumpy under-used industrial building."

This is the crap we put up with in Queens all the time. This seems like a developer we can unleash on those former 'dingy crappy old working class buildings' in the Village or the Slope.

He will have lots of fun once that landmarks law is overturned. Then we will all be Queensites!

Anonymous said...

" I know I'm wasting my breath with most of you, but this building has been praised by many architectural digests for design and use of material.
I have found that most of the people that do not like the building are the people that could not afford to buy into it"

You want to see awards given out like there is no tomorrow, you should go to a typical democratic machine functions in Queens. Empty praises and meaningless plaques to high heaven!

As to not being able to afford it? What does taste and pocketbook have to do with each other? Just because you put a big ticket on something doen't mean its good or even worth the price. Some of the guadiest junk built in Queens lately are by people that have not a dot of taste.

Ever see a Trump commerical? The ultimate branding of poor taste with lots of money.

Anonymous said...

Most people who live in the area like this building and the other new developments. Just look at the comments to this posting on Curbed. The critics here need to stop being so narrow-minded. I agree with the poster above who said that most of the people complaining are the ones who can't afford to buy into a luxury building. It is like the Yankees-haters; if you can't beat them, root against them at all turns. This site should be re-named Queens Jealous Complaining Crap.

Anonymous said...

Can't wait for you to get priced out of the neighborhood, so that they can raze the rest of the block and put up more condos. Is you care so much about the neighborhood why don't you fix the sidewalk in front your houses or shovel the snow in the winter. Can't wait to I fall. I will sue and take your house and tear it down myself.

Anonymous said...

"Most people who live in the area like this building and the other new developments."

This was determined by what scientific poll?

"Just look at the comments to this posting on Curbed."

Wow, what asinine, juvenile drivel! My personal fav was the guy talking about how his friend is gay, like that has anything to do with the content.

"The critics here need to stop being so narrow-minded."

Maybe it's you who needs to do that with respect to people here.

"I agree with the poster above who said that most of the people complaining are the ones who can't afford to buy into a luxury building. It is like the Yankees-haters; if you can't beat them, root against them at all turns. This site should be re-named Queens Jealous Complaining Crap."

How do you know the gross income of anonymous posters? I have enough money to buy you and probably that whole building out. Just because it's expensive doesn't make it beautiful. (Think of the Delorean in the 1980s). But there are always defenders of this garbage, and most of them come from real estate backgrounds. I'll take my Tudor in the Gardens, in a town that has real shopping and a sense of community, thank you.

Anonymous said...

Yes, if you think something is ugly, you must be jealous! I guess that's how Manhattanites really feel deep down every time they insult people from Queens.

Anonymous said...

Actually, reading the comments makes it seem that a lot of people in LIC were duped into buying condos in an area that sucks and now are trying to convince themselves and their friends that they made a good decision!

Anonymous said...

"Can't wait to I fall. I will sue and take your house and tear it down myself."

Probably one of those low lifes who fake accidents and file false claims.

Anonymous said...

"Most people who live in the area like this building and the other new developments. Just look at the comments to this posting on Curbed."

The people that live in Hunters Point dispise the buildings but know they have no alternative - the politicians, the newspapers, and god forbid the preservation community cares not a hoot for them.

They are mullified to a certain degree knowing that they can cash out and take the money and run.

But the simple point is, like vermin, they are being displaced and their community destoryed.

Should get someone from the UN to come over and declare Hunters Pt a world endangered historic site and declare its people a colony undergoing extermination.

Anonymous said...

those small brick houses have been here 30-40 yrs?
those new condos the way they are being built won't last a decade.

Anonymous said...

Hey.....
I've got a 5 million dollar liability insurance policy
just in case a clumsy idiot like you falls down
in front of my house (which is very well kept).

Don't bother filing a lawsuit you wimp
unless you care to meet my cousin Vinny
(the planter) from Red Hook.

Did I ever tell you how he got his name?
He was working for a nursery/gardening center
and one day........................................................" !!!

Anonymous said...

I don't see any world class architects involved here.

These kind of archictectural "awards of merit"
are routinely given out by the industry
(patting each other on the back)
to give ersatz cache to these developments
thereby convincing those ever present gullible yuppies
that they're buying into a class project !

I guess it's true........a sucker is born every minute !

Anonymous said...

These architects have designed and worked on a multitude of high-end, high-profile buildings in Manhattan, Istanbul, China and other places in the past ten years and are well-known and highly regarded. People really should do their research before making uninformed comments on a public website.

Anonymous said...

"These architects have designed and worked on a multitude of high-end, high-profile buildings in Manhattan, Istanbul, China and other places in the past ten years and are well-known and highly regarded."

And they built a pile of shiny crap in Queens. I guess this borough is the guinea pig for bad design.

Anonymous said...

Of course, when I think great architecture, the first places that come to mind are China and Istanbul!

Anonymous said...

"Change is good, people. Thanks to all of this, there will be new places to eat, new friends to make and an actual supermarket!"

We were told that we were getting a supermarket when I was 15. I'm 35 now. Keep eating the developers' shit. There's enough of you doing that to destroy a neighbor..ooops too late.

Anonymous said...

Ain't it the truth! The reason the yuppies moving in are pretending the C-Town near the subway doesn't exist is because:

a) all the new buildings are Fresh Direct preferred

b) in order for yuppies to venture into a supermarket, it must be either a Trader Joe's or a Whole Foods.

Anonymous said...

OR could it also be that the C Town is located in what still is a very hispanic block of LIC? Don't wanna rub elbows with the (ethnic) natives now, Lovey.

Anonymous said...

Have any of you taken the time to read your postings?

Why do people feel so compelled to behave like jackals? If you don't like the direction of LIC then move. Life doesn't move around us -- we move around it.

Do you have better things to do than critique whatever's new in your hood? If not, go volunteer, at least. But not with children...

New LIC resident who loves his new neighborhood and understands that it is, indeed, still a part of NYC, which will always be growing denser, more homogenized, and more capitalistic. If you can't take this, then look into the future and find somewhere else to live.

Or maybe you like complaining. It makes it easier to not have to do anything...

Anonymous said...

"New LIC resident who loves his new neighborhood and understands that it is, indeed, still a part of NYC, which will always be growing denser, more homogenized, and more capitalistic. If you can't take this, then look into the future and find somewhere else to live."

NYC will always be more homogenized?
Only if we keep gentrifying it with morons like you. Bet you think Times Square is totally awesome, huh?

Go back to Wisconsin. Or Berlin. Or whatever rock you crawled out from under. If you can't understand a person's love for their home and neighborhood, then you don't deserve to live in it– excuse me–sleep in it, and let their designer dogs poop all over it.

If you truly love your new neighborhood you would understand the position of those who have been here before it was cool to be here.

You find somewhere else to live. I was here first.

Anonymous said...

"Have any of you taken the time to read your postings?

Why do people feel so compelled to behave like jackals?"

I couldn't agree more. There is something about this site that brings out the dwindling number of Archie Bunkers left in Queens.

Anonymous said...

Hey Julie,

I'm not a yuppie (too young to be one) and I do care about raising a family... that's why I moved to this area. I am a fabulous cook and I do my shopping at the Key Food in Greenpoint because it's closer than C-Town on 21 St.

This "nimrod" (as you so nicely referred to me as) probably smiles at you and says good morning everyday as I walk down the street. Thanks for showing your true colors and welcoming me to the neighborhood, you old bitter bitch.

Queens Crapper said...

According to Mapquest, the C-Town on 21st Street is 0.62 miles from Tin Can Alley and the Key Food in Greenpoint is 1.36 miles away.

Julie wins.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Oooooh...Nimrod used one of the words the Council wants to ban. He sounds like a misogynistic prick.

Anonymous said...

"New LIC resident who loves his new neighborhood and understands that it is, indeed, still a part of NYC, which will always be growing denser, more homogenized, and more capitalistic. If you can't take this, then look into the future and find somewhere else to live."

Why is getting a community denser better for me. I do not pay my taxes for more traffic, more demands on the power grid, more garbage to be hauled away.

I do not care about your car, you electic needs, or your garbage.

I pay my taxes for my services, and the way I see it, you coming on to my block means my services, already inadequate, will get worse.

And to rub salt in the wound, I am now competing with people who want to steal my community's idenity. You might use my community's name on your blog somewhere, but you ain't neighborhood.

You want our rep, but look down on those that have it.

Asshole.

Anonymous said...

Why should I move? I have lived my entire life here. I,not you, have the right to define what my neighborhood is like. If you do not want criticism, then you move.

You problem is that you assumed the little guy can be pushed around forever.

Sometimes, just sometimes, things get a little equal. Go Crappy!!

Michael said...

Do any of you have any idea what was on that site before the Gantry?
A one story industrial brick building that had seen its best days years ago.
Yes, I'm sure the people living on that block must have loved that so much more than the new building.

Anonymous said...

I love the excuses. "Well, there was an ugly building here before, so let's replace it with something ugly that people can live in."

Anonymous said...

Respirators will be provided to each and every new resident of tin can alley.....courtesy of the management.

Asthma rates are soaring!

Anonymous said...

Architectural "digests"
are merely trade magazines that exist primarily
to promote the building industry .
They have little validity
insofar as being qualified as architectural critics !

Let's hear from Yale University's world renown school of architecture, for instance.
(This atrocity would not likely pass muster,
if they had to critique such a dubious design).


Furthermore, a really well designed building
doesn't have to be constantly defended
with such gusto on a local Queens web site.

It will speak for itself.

These "pro posters" obviously
have a lot of promoting and hard selling to do
to convince prospective tenants or buyers.

I do believe that they're actually
embarrassed by their tin can alley "creation"
and are trying ever so hard
to pass it off as legitimate architecture!

Anonymous said...

That Archie Bunker stuff
is just a poorly chosen broad stroke
designed to conceal the lack of intelligent options available to its poster .

Anonymous said...

Listen, crap is crap. Anyone with eyes can see that. And this is a big steaming pile wrapped in aluminum.

Why can't architects and developers look at the surrounding buildings and create something that works well with–if not complements–it? Then maybe LIC lifers (like myself) would be less inclined to hate all the yuppie scum newcomers. And the developers of the buildings would then look like they are at least trying to maintain the integrity of the neighborhood–even if the residents of those buildings don't.

Anonymous said...

Now I understand why native Americans
hated the Iron Horse and were out to drive off
the invading hordes of settlers encroaching
on their ancestral homeland.

They wanted to stop speculative over development.

i.e. strip and hydraulic mining,
clear cutting of virgin forests, murdering Bison
just for sport..... with no regard for the proper integration of people and land.

I should have rooted for the Indians
instead of the cowboys. (Now I do) !

georgetheatheist said...

Don't cry for the "Indians"...The first settlers on the continent were from the Solutrean culture of Europe...White Europeans were in North America before "Beringians" (aka "Indians") who migrated over the Bering Strait....Kennewick Man has no anthropological affinity to Beringian/Indian "culture"...Beringian/Indians are the continental interlopers.

Anonymous said...

True George....
I also saw that on channel #13.....great program.

But they weren't the save "developers"
who ripped up the prairie causing
"the great wind" (tornado) and (much earlier ....
under Andrew Jackson.....I think)....
moved out the Seminole (???) and stuck them
down in Florida! Did I get any of that correct?

Of course, when air conditioning made
Miami the boom town that it became....
all natives took a back seat to over development.

What ever happened to the Tamiami
(did I spell that right) tribe?

georgetheatheist said...

The problem with the Beringian/Indians was that they did not have a European concept of a deed - which could be recorded in a courthouse (or a wigwam or tipi or a kiva)...Their concept of ownership consisted in "how far the eagle could fly" or the "realm of buffalo defecation"...Can you imagine a real estate closing based on those parameters?...Oklahoma was a no-man's murderous killing field amongst the various tribes...The Comanche had a notorious marauder reputation for murdering so-called "indigenous" peoples...Bearing in mind historical tragedies, I'd rather live under "white-man's civilization" than under that of "tribal savagery".

Anonymous said...

Maybe.....but although recorded deeds exist
in modern "White" society......
a developer's idea of property perimeters
goes down the toilet when it comes to marauding scum
like the notorious Tommy Huang!

He'll undermine your home's foundation
quicker than a Comanche on a murder raid!

georgetheatheist said...

Pass the peace pipe and the fire water, Kemosabe - I'll definitely drink to that!

Anonymous said...

How! Yellow-peril devil Tommy Huang, he-um copy evil white devil ways to greater-um heights.