Meet the specialty bricklayers helping to preserve a quaint remnant of New York City’s early days. Source: New York Times
Posts published in “Restoration and Renovation”
Defunct Upper West Side Movie Theater May Reopen in 2028
By Gotham Rex on October 27, 2025
The landmark Metro Theater is being renamed Uptown Film Center and will include five screens and about 470 seats. Source: New York Times
They Were Building a Homeless Shelter. But the Land had a Grim Past.
By Gotham Rex on September 21, 2025
The search for a place to build a shelter in Manhattan resurfaced New York’s often overlooked history of slavery. Source: New York Times
Barnett Shepherd, Champion of Staten Island’s Heritage, Dies at 87
By Gotham Rex on September 7, 2025
A longtime resident, he devoted his career to Historic Richmond Town and Sailors’ Snug Harbor, two of the borough’s most important cultural institutions. Source: New York Times
Looking for a House in This Tight Market? Consider an Octagon.
By Gotham Rex on December 9, 2022
A 19th-century fad, octagonal houses don’t appeal to everyone. But that’s one more thing to love about them. Source: New York Times
At 13, She Fled the Nazis. At 95, She Runs a Storied Bohemian Hotel.
By Gotham Rex on October 15, 2022
Dylan Thomas stayed there. So did Bob Dylan. And Rita Paul, its doyenne, welcomed them all. Source: New York Times
Plotting the Future of the Most Storied Studio in Jazz
By Gotham Rex on July 19, 2022
The New Jersey recording space built in 1959 by Rudy Van Gelder is filled with history. Can it regain its glory without getting stuck in the past? Source: New York Times
Manhattan’s New Green Space Was J.P. Morgan’s Side Yard
By Gotham Rex on June 10, 2022
The Morgan Library & Museum celebrates the restoration of a McKim building and unveils a garden with classical sculptures from the financier’s collection. Source: New York Times
Paul Gunther, Keeper of a Cultural Flame, Dies at 65
By Gotham Rex on June 2, 2022
In New York City, he helped engineer behind-the-scenes rescues of monuments, murals and museums and the preservation of Times Square’s dazzling lights. Source: New York Times
Delta’s Terminal C at La Guardia Airport Is Now an Art Destination
By Gotham Rex on June 1, 2022
With the opening of Delta Air Lines’s new terminal at La Guardia Airport, New York gets a distinctive new collection of public artworks. Source: New York Times
Museum of Natural History’s Renewed Hall Holds Treasures and Trauma
By Gotham Rex on May 5, 2022
Its oldest gallery, Northwest Coast Hall, reopens May 13 with rare cultural objects and a fresh emphasis on the lives of Indigenous people who made them. Source: New York Times
Met Museum to Renovate Its Ancient Near East and Cypriot Galleries
By Gotham Rex on February 9, 2022
Construction for the $40 million project is expected to start next year and finish in 2025. Source: New York Times
In a Reimagined Victorian Schoolhouse, an Artist Finds His Third Act
By Gotham Rex on February 8, 2022
By moving into a turn-of-the-20th-century building in upstate New York, the ceramist Dan McCarthy learned that he didn’t need the city that had defined him — and his career — after all. Source: New York Times
Eyesore or Monument? Preservationists Fight to Save a Grain Elevator in Buffalo
By Gotham Rex on January 22, 2022
The current owner of the Great Northern has been pushing to demolish the building — possibly the last grain elevator of its type in the world. Source: New York Times
Reign of Coney Island’s ‘Mayor’ Ends in a Sideshow by the Sea
By Gotham Rex on January 5, 2022
Dick Zigun, who spent decades restoring the Brooklyn enclave to its carnivalesque glory, is forced out of the organization he helped create. Source: New York Times