156 First Avenue Building Date : 1898 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Tobias Krakouer Original Architect : George Frederick Pelham Description & Building Alterations Originally built in 1898, this six-story brick dumbbell tenement building on 156 First Avenue was built in the same project as 158 and 160 First Avenue. It served and continues to serve as space for a store and apartments. The three buildings share identical facade. No. 156 features bracketed cornice with decorative frieze, round-arched window openings with brick lintels and key stones at third and sixth stories, slightly projecting brick piers through fifth and sixth stories, ornamented panels, elaborate bracketed window lintels with molding or triangular pediments at second and fourth stories, beltcourses. There is a molded cornice above the storefront, and metal pilasters with attached columns flanking the main entry.

Now that school is back in session and summer weather is having its last hurrahs, we’re all either living by the bell or remembering the days when we did. So many schools in our neighborhoods have come and gone over the decades, while others have stuck around. While all these schools served the function of educating young people, many also delight passersby with their architecture. So while there are many beautiful schools out there, this post is dedicated to the forgotten ones that went out of session and never went back in — school buildings that remain, but have been put to new and different uses.

Touring the streets surrounding Tompkins Square Park, we look at moments in time where the actions of neighbors, activists and local organizations helped change the course of history, letting personal recollection guide us through these sites. Learn how constant advocacy through zoning, historic districts and landmarking efforts helps ensure the survival of small businesses, spaces of community, and architectural identity in the East Village.

The East Village has long been a richly diverse immigrant neighborhood. It has also served as a hub for cultural movements: the Beats, punk rock, bohemians, Hare-Krishna…the list goes on. Take a walk through the area that was considered the center of counterculture in New York.

The Asian-American and Pacific Islander community has a more than 150-year-long history in the United States, dating back to the first wave of Chinese and Japanese immigrants settling on the West Coast. And while nearby neighborhoods like Chinatown or the Lower East Side may have been much more prominent hubs for Asian-Americans, Greenwich Village and the East Village nevertheless can boast a long and impressive roster of individuals, organizations, institutions, and events located here that played an important role in the story of Asian-Americans in our city and country — especially (and unsurprisingly) in relation to civil rights and the arts. It is here that rights were won; discrimination was given a human face; innovations in painting, writing, and sculpture took place; and people gathered to confront the challenges and opportunities presented by the world around them. Here are just a few of those inspiring individuals, places, and associations:

In the wake of excessive new construction and urban renewal initiatives across the country there are growing trends of gentrification and community displacement. Using NYC as a case study, how could we consider adaptive reuse of older structures and thoughtful architectural additions to building sites as a way to create not only sustainable architectural precedents, but community-oriented structures? As examples of older structures that have been renovated and established new uses for their building types, the Domino Sugar Factory, Cooper Square CLT Housing Units, and the 122 Community Center serve as examples of adaptive reuse, but comparatively all for different reasons.

Designed in 1894 by Department of School Buildings superintendent C.B.J Snyder, the five-story red brick building of Public School 122 served the local community for more than eight decades. Abandoned in 1976, the school building was taken over by a "bunch of scrappy \[..] artists" in the late 1970s. Visual artists used classrooms as studios, while choreographers held rehearsals and workshops in the cafeteria. In 1980 Performance Space 122 (or appropriately, P.S. 122) was officially founded here. The non-profit arts organization has become one of the longest standing venues dedicated to contemporary performance art in New York City. For more than two decades local performance troupes staged pieces in the rooms created for the school, working around architectural columns and inappropriate-for-dancing floors. In 2005 the venue was awarded funds as part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation and closed in 2011 for the work. The spaces in the original building were brought up to code and renovated for their current use, while the architect designed an addition at the rear of the building. With four non-profits occupying the building, including the renamed Performance Space New York, the venue saw programming again starting in spring of 2018. While the occupants were very involved in the renovation and reconfiguring work, they did request that the architects "don’t make it too nice—keep the grit."