Whitney Stories

A bunch of my construction photographs of the Renzo Piano-designed Whitney Museum Downtown Building featured on the Museum's Whitney Stories.

Friends of the High Line Spring Magazine

A few of my construction photographs appear in Friends of the High Line's Spring 2013 Magazine.  The top photo is from the High Line at the Railyards, the bottom is from High Line HQ.

ENR Best Construction Photos - Runner-up

I just found out that not only did I have a winning image in ENR Magazine's Best Construction Photography of 2012, I also had a runner-up!  This vertigo-inducing shot from the High Line's HQ building picked up the honor.

Gritty HLHQ Work

I've been spending a lot of time over at the High Line HQ construction site as of late.  Great little building, and the thing is going up fast!  Yesterday was a big day on site as the crew received and installed a monster plate-girder!  The girder came in on a two-day wide load truck trip from Lancaster PA.  It overnighted in Jersey and then came across the GW Bridge and down Broadway(!) after midnight accompanied by two escort vehicles, 10 police cars, and four tow trucks (you never know when you're gonna have to move some cars out of the way).  The girder is one hundred+ feet long, features 4 inch thick flanges, and starred in a brief photoshoot with Jason Sudeikis from SNL before being lifted into place.  Here are some photos I took of the girder and the job site yesterday.

High Line HQ Steel

Last post was all about the concrete.  Now, here's the steel.  It is amazing how fast a good crew can throw up a building.  I watched the steel delivery and the erection of most of the columns and first floor in the space of a few hours!  I also learned a little bit that I surprising didn't know from all my years in engineering.  I always wondered about all the miscellanous holes that the beams had--those other than ones for bolts.  Now I know that these holes are used to attach safety cables allowing the ironworkers to always be close to a tie off point.  It was also super cool to see the guys climb columns to get to the 2nd floor steel.  Definitely talented and skilled work.

High Line HQ Concrete

A few weeks back I shot the big concrete pour for the slab-on-grade over at High Line HQ.  It was a great day to shoot too--lots of blue sky, some clouds--dramatic colors and lighting for sure.  Days like these are great because there's always action somewhere on the site.  Check out these photos and more over on the High Line Blog.

High Line HQ Bridge

Wow, what's happening to the time?!  I've been absolutely swamped lately.  Lots of work is a good thing for sure but it has kept me from my usual updates here on the blog.  I'm returning from my absence with a post about a temporary structure.  Its kind of utilitarian--its, well, a sidewalk bridge.  As you may be aware, my good friends over at the High Line are working away on a little HQ building sandwiched between the park and the new downtown Whitney Museum.  As the building rises to the level of the park, a protective barrier was needed to protect the public.  It also give the public and opportunity to safely view the ongoing work on the HQ and Whitney.  Here are some photographs of the bridge, which includes a short history of the High Line featuring a few of my photos!

High Line HQ

Here are some first images from the High Line HQ construction site. Lots of piles, grade beams, and other foundation elements at the moment. More over on the High Line Blog.

New Commission: The High Line Building

I'm very pleased to announce that I will be continuing to work with the good folks over at Friends of the High Line to document the construction of their new Maintenance and Operations building, designed by the internationally renown architect Renzo Piano (who is also designing the neighboring Whitney Museum downtown building, which is also under construction)! The construction should last about a year and I've just had my first "boots in the mud" experience on site last week.

Here's more on the building and its design from the Architect's Newspaper.

The Whitney's Downtown Groundbreaking: Renzo Piano's Meteorite Museum

Last week I was invited to join the Whitney Museum for their downtown building ground/glassbreaking ceremony. And what a ceremony it was! The Whitney brought the show to the south end of the High Line with an all-star cast: Mayor Bloomberg, architect Renzo Piano, and the Streb Exterme Action Company. Here's a mashup of photographs from the event.

Click above to see LARGE.

Enjoy this video of Steb in action--co-starring me! Your's truly is the silhouetted figure in the lower middle of the frame taking photographs from next to the stage stair handrail. They actually provided safety glasses to the first few rows of the audience. We photographers were on our own, with just lenses to protect us from the flying sugarglass!

I'm excited about the building design and what the Whitney will bring to the neighborhood. I think the partnership, location, and timing are genius. Curious about the design? Check out the stats over on the Whitney's website. Renzo described the building as the Whitney's "meteorite".

If you like sketches and renderings, I've gathered the best the web has to offer from various stages of planning--enjoy!

And to round out this post, here's the introduction video that was played at the groundbreaking. I was amazed at the level of realism in the rendings and flythrough, but considering those rendering guys use all the Hollywood tricks and tools, I shouldn't be surprised. The piece really brought the building to life.