Saturday, January 5, 2008

Assorted Astoria/LIC crap

Took a number of pics in various stages, from lots to ready ones being marketed. Almost no repeats in 100+ pics. Looks like most are 3-4 story condo bldgs replacing single-family homes, with some larger projects by the river and by Queensboro Plaza. Imho, more housing per se is not bad but some of the buildings do not necessarily fit well with the surroundings.

The most striking example in the set might well be this one.
- anonymous

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

The web site has chock-a-block picture treasure trove of Crap developments in progress! Great job. The featured Crappy crap is the mother of all crap. It must have been designed by an architect on crack who dreams of a pink Moorish bordello housing Yemini women whom are tortured by simply living in this nightmare.

Anonymous said...

That's a Near Eastern flattened pink palace. Something like Garaj Mahal but divided in apartments.

Anonymous said...

Community board 1, the community board from hell.

Anonymous said...

All those buildings that Pissstilli is putting up are designed to be human warehouses.

Cram a bunch of people into two rooms, make it cheeply as possible, and milk the cow.

Anonymous said...

Great photos! I saw a lot of Sano Construction signs there. In College Point they were responsible for a large percentage of the one family homes that were knocked down in place of multifamily neighborhood buster homes.

georgetheatheist said...

Hey! A Volkswagen Beetle parked on the street! Where does he still get parts? My first car. Cost me $1800. I drove it to Mexico twice and all over the USA. I had it for 9 years until the floor rusted out and the battery under the rear seat fell through and made a scraping noise on the roadway.

Anonymous said...

Well, George, since a good chunk of Astoria still lives in the past (you know, prodevelopment, wearing shades at night, eurothump clubs, and the like) a Volkswagan beetle should just be at home.

Anonymous said...

Just went through the entire set, and I am completely stunned at the rape of this once great community, I can't say that I have much hope for the future. I'd like to see any hipster, yuppie, developer yes-men justify this disaster as "progress".

Anonymous said...

Note to Godless George - did your VW Bug have a six volt battery with requisite weak headlights?

The pink palace looks like a doodle by the child of an architect that got caught up in Papa's papers and built.

The people designing these things cannot have been raised in this country. Has "architect" become another "job Americans won't do?"

Anonymous said...

after someone linked this thread to the astorians.com website, the webmaster, merm, responded:

Quote:

... there are certain topics that just a few posters drone on and on and on about and those topics do get sent to rants. Also, there are posters that tend to start going into all the local politics as well in the same posts, which makes the topics twice as fitting for the Politics and Rants board.

And, just a reminder to everyone to please don't post something here and just link to another site and say "read this". This isn't a "bulletin board" or a link farm ...

Unquote

It seems as if the local leadership out there doesn't welcome Crappy. I wonder why ....

So if you see a blog or a photoset critical of Astoria, please don't send it to Astorians.com.

Not.

For your reference, the thread is

http://www.astorians.com/community/index.php?topic=9044.0

Anonymous said...

The people designing these things cannot have been raised in this country. Has "architect" become another "job Americans won't do?"

Today's architect is the same individual who has changed his buisness model. Since an architect can self-certify a project's CO his $$value skyrockets when teamed with a developer. That's wht so many crap development projects go online so quickly. Now the architect has a piece of the development project rather than simply providing fee services. The cheaper the better - the adornment and garnishes that we all hate are probably deceided by the developer whom is imposing his marketing vision to attact the kind of he / she thinks this will attract or simply using materials that is discounted. The architect last word via the self-certification document probably does not match what was actually done or exists. If DOB were to followup on each CO self-certifications - 90% of the statements would prove false and most Architects would lose their licenses as a result. However, none todate have and this is the underlying tool to stop patently false CO that are ruining Queens.

Anonymous said...

I read the link. That mod found a good way to kill serious discussion, now, didn't he?

I don't understand that webmaster, he almost seems to snarl ‘don't discuss anything important here and above all don’t say anything nasty about our officials.’

Are the mods encouraging that board to look like a mind–numbing UCCA meeting in cyberspace?

I don't know of a single serious community forum (and I spend a lot of time reading them) where things like zoning issues and the quality of public services are topics that are not only encouraged, but are hotly discussed.

Some of those embarrassing comments found on astorians.com (about tearing down old buildings and putting up new stuff, for example) would be torn apart in most communities.

I do hope that bloggers will continue to post on that forum. That community has to see what is going on in the outside world and to be exposed to many perspectives.

After what the developers did to LIC and Dutch Kills, to say nothing of how illegal conversions all but fried the Astoria power grid recently, that community over there had better get its act together.

Everyone knows that Astoria is tottering, to say it charitably.

Anonymous said...

While that Pink building is probably one of the ugliest things I have ever seen, not all the buildings were ugly. Some of them were actually pretty nice and not just piles of bricks put together to look like a box. And not everything looked out of context. I saw large buildings next to other large (older) buildings.

Anonymous said...

I love the pink and white butter cream frosting.

Where's the marzipan swags and rosettes
with a miniature replica of the Parthenon on top?

It looks like a confection
fit for some big fat Greek wedding !

OOOOOPA !
Let's start breaking some dishes for good luck!

Two Turkish....oops....
I meant Greek coffees please.....3 sugars.

Anonymous said...

Actually, Being of Greek Descent...I have never seen a Greek build a house like this. Not in Pink anyway. I would look to the Asian community first, seeing all those beautiful buildings they build in Flushing.

Anonymous said...

While that Pink building is probably one of the ugliest things I have ever seen, not all the buildings were ugly. Some of them were actually pretty nice and not just piles of bricks put together to look like a box. And not everything looked out of context. I saw large buildings next to other large (older) buildings.
---------

Exhibit A of what is wrong in Astoria.

And as to Greek 'architecture', well, with the liberal (and tastelessly inappropriate) use of stone and tile and the like, you guys are fairly notorious for wrecking the architectural quality of your share of buildings.

Some of those HANAC monsters and 21st Street gems are among the worst new buildings in the city.

Anonymous said...

Let's face it "Greek descendant" ....
the Hellas started its descent down hill
soon after the golden age of Pericles
(circa 400 B.C. and counting) .

And you guys let the Turks use the Parthenon
perched majestically high above the acropolis
as a powder magazine?
What a way to treat an international treasure.

The Spartans would have hunted them down
to the last man if Athens was their city!

Notice the notch on the top of the pediment......
cannon fire was responsible for it.

Luckily Lord Elgin whisked off
Phidias' masterpieces and put them safely on display
in the British museum.

But that's OK.....
one has only to peruse the many
depictions of Greek classical antiquity,
executed in striking blue & white,
on take out paper coffee cups
offered by various diners throughout NYC.

A veritable art museum to go!
Make mine medium....no sugar.

Keep the "Windex"
on your side of the service counter
and out of my nostrils!

Anonymous said...

There is so much wrong with what you just wrote it's not even funny.

Anonymous said...

You've got a run on sentence....
previous "anonymous"poster.

Where did you learn your English grammar ?