it's easy to forget how much dirt there is, just below the surface.
Kehila Kedosha Janina is the only Romaniote (Greek) synagogue in the Western Hemisphere.
Businesses in New York are allowed to advertise themselves on their own property fairly freely. But when it comes to selling ad space to other companies, there are many regulations that must be followed, and permits that need to be obtained. This restrictiveness is intended to limit street-level visual pollution by keeping the number of ads plastered on walls to a minimum.
However, there are many, many ads in the city that blatantly violate these regulations: they advertise products and services that are completely unrelated to the businesses where the ads are located, and they have not been issued permits by the Department of Buildings. After the Public Ad Campaign brought attention to this problem by organizing a takeover of illegal billboards, the advertising companies came up with a very clever, and quite evil, workaround. They now add labels to these ads that say things like "Enter our sweepstakes inside for a chance to win these products or related prizes". Even though the ad above, for example, is obviously advertising some HBO movie, the label indicates that it's actually advertising a contest being held at this location — which is a lighting store, by the way — where the prize just happens to be the movie posters on display. Strictly speaking, this ad does not require a permit because it's purportedly advertising a prize you can win at the lighting store, rather than a movie unrelated to the store. It's an ingenious tactic, and it's also a pretty bold show of disrespect for the citizens of this city who may not want to be further inundated by slick sales pitches for crap they don't need.
Much like that of the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, the Holland Tunnel's ventilation system provides a complete change of air every 90 seconds!
This was the first H-plan skyscraper, designed to bring more light and fresh air into the building. It's currently owned by the city, and provides office space to various government agencies.
Formerly known as the Hall of Records, this building once featured 54 sculptures on its exterior. Most are still there, but some were moved during a nearby construction project in the 1960s.
Housing thirteen public agencies, the Municipal Building is one of the largest government buildings in the world. Automobile traffic once passed through the central arch, but today it's only open to pedestrians.
Home to the first production of Shakespeare in the Park in 1956 (the shows moved to Central Park the following year), this amphitheater fell into severe disrepair for decades, but it's been slowly making a comeback.
This tiny, largely unmapped two-block-long street is much closer to the Manhattan Bridge than this picture would lead you to believe.
Coal hole cover! This portal is a remnant of the days when buildings were heated with coal — it leads to a chute running from the sidewalk down to the building's basement, allowing coal to be delivered directly to the furnace room.
There were two other versions of this ornament also on display at this Buddhist temple in Chinatown.
