Month: October, 2007
OHNY 2007: Hindu Temple Society of North America
Mom had been wondering what it is I do on the weekends after I leave Queens, so since I didn’t have to pick up the tickets for tonight’s Arcade Fire show for a few hours, I invited her along to the first of my openhousenewyork weekend tours.
The Hindu Temple Society of North America is nestled among multi-family houses in a predominantly nondescript middle-class residential neighborhood. As we turned the corner onto Flushing’s Bowne Street, we were met suddenly with its looming grey architecture, gilded Ganesha and bright red doors.
The ornate temple is rumored to be the continent’s oldest and with 20,000 devotees, certainly one of its largest. The building was designed and built in India and moved to Queens in the mid-1970s, where it was reconstructed by master craftsmen in full accordance with Hindu principles.
The site is also notable for its community center and basement canteen, which according to The Times’s reviewer Peter Meehan, serves “some of the best dosas in the city.”
I never confirmed that, however. Shoes are not permitted inside the temple, and as I considered wandering through the grounds barefoot, my dreaded fear of the fungorrhea™ got the better of me. It may be entirely irrational (or maybe not) but although I did very much want to see the temple’s famed carved black granite shrine, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it this afternoon. These shots were taken from outside the perimeter.
Am I a mycophobe? Or does that term pertain only to mushrooms, and not to fungi generally? Perhaps verminophobe (germs) or automysophobe (being dirty) would be more apt?
I did remove my shoes to tour the Wat Arun in 2004, but maybe because I sensed then that it would be some time before I would find myself in Bangkok again. I know I’ll be back in Flushing, though, soon enough.
OHNY launch @ The Torch Club
At NYU’s Torch Club on Waverly for the openhousenewyork weekend launch party hosted by OHNY and The Architect’s Newspaper.
The fundraiser was held on the eve of the annual openhousenewyork weekend, which has provided the public with free access to sites of architectural and design interest throughout all five boroughs every October since 2003. OHNY was inspired by the overwhelming popularity of similar events in the United Kingdom and in Canada. Back in its early days, the scale of the event was much smaller; it still felt a bit like a secret waiting to be discovered, peering into these spaces, many of which normally were closed to the public. (One year, we got to wander among the samples and dressmaker models at Narciso Rodriguez‘s design studio — pretty cool!) The secret — such as it was — is definitely out now: with every subsequent year, the number of participants has grown — from an estimated 50,000 site visitors in 2004 to over 100,000 in 2007; many locations began requiring reservations, which were booked up within minutes of offering. OHNY weekend is now the largest architecture and design event in the United States… and one of my favorite events in the city.
The number of sites participating, too, has grown dramatically: this year about 350 sites opened their doors, nearly doubling the number from the year before. (In 2003, the number of participating sites was around 75.) Highlights for 2007 included tours of the little-seen Roof Gardens at Rockefeller Center and a trip through the underground Murray’s Cheese Caves. More on those sites to come…
Tonight, though, we mingled among architects, designers, planners, and fellow OHNY devotees, comparing notes on upcoming weekend tours and commiserating over that most enduring of all New York obsessions: real estate.
Fall Plant Market
The Madison Square Park Conservancy’s annual Fall Plant Market — one of two that take place during the year — was set up on the southern plaza, near the park’s fountain, this afternoon. After our burgers, we waddled over to take a peek at the seasonal flower and plant offerings. Proceeds benefit the Conservancy.
A group of pre-schoolers, picking out their Halloween pumpkins:
Pretty mums, if not as extravagant as the ones that will be on view at the New York Botanical Garden’s flower show beginning October 20.
I picked up a “Bella Palm” (Chamaedorea elegans) for the office — a popular (and hopefully: hardy) houseplant, originating from the rainforests of Latin America.
Also on view in the park, daily 8AM-8PM, through October 28: “William Wegman: Around the Park“, a new 7 minute video by the artist, starring his signature Weimaraner-headed figures enjoying a fall day alongside their human counterparts, screened on four monitors near the Shake Shack.
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