99% Invisible - 92- All the Buildings

Episode Date: October 29, 2013

I love those moments when you’re walking in your neighborhood and suddenly nothing is familiar. In a good way. Sean Cole began seeing his neighborhood, actually the whole city of New York, with new eyes because of one artist who … Continue reading →

This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars. Look at that. It's like a Three houses all in a row or like a set of stairs. I love those moments when you're walking in your neighborhood and suddenly Nothing is familiar. It's like a staircase for a giant. I don't want to meet It's like a staircase for a giant. I don't want to meet that giant. Not that you don't know where you are, but where you are, where you've always been, seems foreign somehow.

In a good way. I've never noticed this gym before. It's a beautiful little street, an old boxing house. It happened to Sean Cole, friend of the show, back in the spring. He lives in Brooklyn up in the northern part near Queens. You know, a Gallagher, the comedian talks about when you have a kid and you start seeing the world with new eyes, I was kind of seeing my neighborhood with new eyes. It's up to you, no, I have a kid. In my case, it was due to this artist that I was going to meet, that's why I was walking

through the neighborhood. And what's his name? His name is James Gulliver Hancock. Here we are. He told me to meet him at this cafe, not far from where I live, called Cookie Road, right on time. And he goes, the old Cookie Road, though, not the new one on Manhattan Avenue.

And I'm thinking, what do you know about the new one? You live in Australia. James, microphone in hand. Microphone in hand. How are you? Good. new one, you live in Australia. James, microphone in hand. How are you? Good. Good to meet you. But the thing about James Gulliver Hancock is that he just

knows this city so intimately. He did use to live here from about 2010 to 2012. And back when he lived here, and this is why I was going to meet him, back when he lived here, he started this pretty obsessive little project that ultimately culminated in a book. Yeah, so I have the book. Oh, great.

And the name of the book, I have to say I love the title. It's so earnest. Is all the buildings in New York. All the buildings in New York that I've drawn so far. Yeah. It's like what a six-year-old would close. Like it? What I like about it is that it was that in time.

That's how it implies that you're going to draw more. Sure. Well, there are buildings. I like the first part of the title of the mix. So he's saying he wants to draw all the buildings in New York? I think he would like to. How many buildings are there in New York? 100,000 buildings.

Are there 900,000 buildings? I think so. I would maybe just sell my hat. It would, you would probably need to spend a lot more time here. Sure. I actually looked this up later. In the New York City Property Tax Annual Report of 2011, it said there were 1,030,202 parcels, but I think parcels also

include separate condominium and rental units. And then I found myself on the website of something called M.Poris, which bills itself as a global provider of building information. And the number it said was closer to 728,452. The closer to that28,452. They're closer to that. Close roughly. In the book, there are only about 170. Most of them in Manhattan.

But you'd also draw around here in Brooklyn, and everyone here with the queens, and the Bronx, and the burrows, and the places. Yeah. Try to mix it up a bit. Yeah. He's hit every burrow except Staten Island, though he did draw the ferry.

And despite the title, these are not all the buildings in Island, though he did draw the ferry. And despite the title, these are not all the buildings in New York that he's drawn so far. The book is just a sampling of his blog of the same name. Actually, the blog is just called All the Buildings in New York. Without the, that I'm drawn so far. Without the, that I'm drawn so far, yeah. Because it's ongoing, you know.

There's just about 500 drawings on it, something like that. Some of them are just black and white wiggly sketches. Others are these really loving, colored treatments with all kinds of intricate details. Just one per page, mostly. The way a little kid draws superheroes. The Empire State, the Krasla, all the classics. But also all these anonymous, down at the heels ones.

The apartment houses. Cinego. Regarously labeled with the address, 53 Pitt Street, 222 West 23rd Street. Sky scribe at Brownstone, massive black monolith. But even the intricate drawings are still kind of cartoony, little squiggles and dots hovering above the roofs, as though the buildings are saying, look out!

Door, maybe, ta-da! I mean, why exactly? Oh right, yes, okay. So, um, well I've done this project in different fashions in different cities, so I've done all the rain in London and all the cars in Los Angeles and all the bicycles in Berlin, but he was just passing through those cities so he didn't dig in like with the buildings. And it's like he would parachute into a place and immediately try to find its noun. So the thing that the city was about in some way?

Yeah. I mean, Berlin might not be about bikes for everyone, but when I was there, everyone had a bike and there were bikes all over the place, just focusing on one thing and getting to know that one thing about that place, so trying to record it as obsessively as possible. But yeah, New York was definitely the buildings. And that's what I'm going to draw when I'm here.

So I just started doing it and on it went. James and his wife moved home when she got pregnant so they could raise their kid in a place with more than one blade of grass sprouting from the ground. I can't even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there's a way handy. The book and the blog have gotten a fair amount of buzz, a couple of big newspaper write-ups,

and a lot of mentions on the blog is fear, including one that, due to a glorious typo, said James is on a mission to draw on the buildings in New York. A lot of the coverage really frames James as a kind of Don Quixote with a pen. This is from a segment on Good Day Sacramento and they talk to James via Skype. Now, this is New York. It's a tough city. There's some people yell at you like, why are you beating my building? What's going on?

No, it's more that it isn't New York, so people let you do it if you want, really. You know, it's a guy drawing on the street is probably one of the most normal things, you see. Go back the way we came, do you know what I'm saying? There's plenty more weird things than that around. Because there's a building just on the corner that I've drawn a couple of times. Go back the way we came. All right. There's plenty more weird things than that around. Because there's a building just on the corner that I've drawn a couple of times.

And what I wanted to do with James was go to some of the buildings he drawn and hold up the drawing next to the building, maybe to try to see what he sees. I'm only realizing this now, but you don't ever get to do that to sit with the artist in front of the thing that they made into a picture. Okay. There are a lot of Brooklyn buildings in the book, but I had my smartphone with me, so I figured we'd just call up his blog. The first drawing on his blog is in Greenpoint, actually.

The little apartment complex at 587 Manhattan Avenue. It's one of the loose, shambly charcoal sketches. Looks more like an idea for a building. James uploaded that picture on May 20th, 2010. He was still brand new to the city at that point, and this was sort of his way of keeping a diary of his time here. It also had the very real pragmatic function

of helping him get around town. That was one idea for the project to map this place that I didn't know very well for myself through drawing lots of different places. I mean, was it an effort to sort of contain... I mean, I lived here, I've only lived here two years, but I'm like, eh, I can't. Yeah, it's like where do you stop?

Yeah, you can't take it all in. Yeah. So was it where you're trying to bring the city down to 8 do you start? Yeah. You can't take it all in. Yeah. So was it where you're trying to bring the city down to 8 by 11 size? Yeah. Totally. You get a much deeper understanding of the place. You don't just sit in front of the cries of building and the Empire State, which I've done, but you sit in front of Joe Blogs's house on 5th Street or if it is in Ireland.

And in a way, those buildings then become as kind of special as the Chrysler. Yeah, exactly, yeah. As iconic, I think, I've drawn that before, that grocery store with the three stories above it, and I think just that, that's just classic. He's pointing to 97 Franklin Street. We walk past it to Greenpoint Ave, plop down on a bench, James takes my phone and scrolls back on the blog to another bodega across the street from where we're sitting.

Well, there's this one just there, the deli down the bottom. It's a similar one to the one we were talking about before. Oh, oh, look at that. So that one's a bit different, it's a bit messy. You've really captured it. I mean, I have to say it's like, well, it's a quirky version of it've really captured it. I mean, I have to say it's like... Well, it's a quirky version of it, you know?

It's like, that's what I like about drawing. Like, it's not exactly, like I might have missed a few things and like, this isn't actually that. That's a bit further over, the bit down the middle. So it's all sort of a bit, uh... The windows down the middle again. Wabby Sabby, you know? It's a bit, uh, organic.

And it's almost like you've made it more than what it is. Yeah, you bring out its character a bit. Yeah. Yeah. I can pull up this one too. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is 144 Franklin Street, an older, three-level apartment building that's lavished with all kinds of intricate design

frills. It's one of those places that makes you think two things. One, who decided that this building, out of all of the buildings on this block, should be so crazily ornate. And two, you know, they just don't build places like that anymore. Do you know architectural terms? What do you call like that sort of filigree,

you know, the flowers that repeat going across the freeze-up top? I'm talking straight out of my bottom here. I mean, I know the top part is like a cornice, right? Cornice. But that's the funny thing, because I'm doing this largely architectural project, I constantly get asked about architecture, and I haven't trained in architecture,

and I don't know the terms outside of the standard terms that everyone has. So yeah, it's hard to say what those things are. I just appreciate them and draw them and show them to others. I mean, I'd never have noticed them if he hadn't drawn them or if I wasn't sitting there with him. Sitting with James, it's like the whole city is a museum. Usually, you know, buildings are too big or too cookie cutter to notice, but because he's

drawing every window, every fire escape railing, he's eventually going to hit the funny little decisions or awkwardnesses that make that building that building, that nobody would notice otherwise. James used to have a studio in the old pencil factory just half a block down. The pencil factory's funny actually. The top of it all the way around is appointed with these pencils. They're vertical. It's like an incomplete crown going around the top story. Yeah. Just in case you forgot what they were making in there.

I mean, it's like a 15, these are 15 foot long pencils. You're like pencils for a giant. That's the second time you mentioned giants. Thank you for keeping track. I've drawn a few on the roof of the building who can get up there. Can we? Oh, I'd love to.

I hope it's open. Well, let's try. Yeah. We duck around the corner into this warehousey looking lobby and go right up to the top floor. I love these old elevators. We jog around to the stairwell, and James stops at a window for a second to point something out to me.

The weirdest thing, just under the roofs on the buildings across the street are stenciled the address numbers of those buildings. See the numbers up at all? Just there, above where it says bar. Oh, yeah. Oh, how about that? It's really cute. You would never know.

It's like, who is that for a giant? Yeah, just walking down the street. What is up with you with giants? Anyway, so. Oh, man. Oh wow. It's pretty cool up here. It's amazing up here.

360 degree view of Manhattan and Brooklyn and Queens. This is like a hell of a pad. It's a huge roof. And one of the iconic water towers on top that I live. So yeah, the Empire State, the Chrysler. All the classics over there. You know, it's crazy like now that I'm looking at the skyline from up here. I mean, it feels like because I spent so much time looking at your drawings, it feels like I'm

drawing as opposed to reality. The vibrations, the wiggly lines. I see someone's perspective, that's what I see. I see someone else's perspective. Right, I've tainted your eyes. Damn you. You're gonna see everything is quaint. I never thought I'd see this city as quaint. Everything's pastel. Exactly.

Well that's the thing about reading someone's diary, which kind of what this is, I guess. You have a different view in the world afterwards. Get inside someone's head. See their personal perspective. It just doesn't happen to be in words this time. It's in pictures. You know, I picked up the book again the other day

and just leafing through it for a minute and then walking outside to the street and looking up at the buildings I look up at all the time and kind of hate. Now, I don't know how else to say this. It's like they seemed fun all of a sudden and kind of carefully, it's like now they were these carefully made objects.

I mean, you know that when you see the care that someone put into something and the genius of everyday decisions, I think it makes you almost pathologically optimistic. Somebody put care into this. The world is better because of it. And I think that that kind of optimism feeds James. I mean, it's funny that you say that because like I've been wondering, like, why is he such

a happy person? But I think that's why. Yeah. The way we'll say that he had a pessimistic little moment there on the roof. Because of course, he's not just looking at the city. He's looking at the impossible job he's carved out for himself. Makes me anxious that I can't do it all.

You look here at this amazing view, and there's like that one, look at that, the seaplane's taking off. That's amazing. But that look at that, the seaplane's taking on. That's amazing. But that one over there, the sort of Rosemary's baby, Ghostbusters, Stull, on the brown with the creamy brickwork up the top decorative, the green copper roofing. I don't know what that is, I've never been there,

but it makes me anxious that I might not get there. I want to do it, I want to draw that one. It makes you anxious why, exactly. Because I want to spend time drawing all of the different buildings. Especially when I'm crossing a bridge, you see the lyre of the land and you remember the name of the project and you want to do it, you know, the nine-year-old in me wants to just, let's do this! But what would it mean if you don't get to all of them or don't get to the ones that you want to do? I don't know, die an unhappy death. I don't know, do I force my son to start drawing them?

There you go. You carry on the legacy. Yeah, it'll be a legacy. It'll be generations and generations of handcuffs. He's probably gonna be an accountant. Why do you say that? He's won. I don't know. Or are you already doing maths? His mum's a performer and his dad's a drawer. Oh, I see. So he's gonna rebel. Yeah. Well, he may be a politician. Maybe. He can do it every once. That's a good deed.

Sure. I love banging bad, it's great. To you. Yeah. I've thought about it, I've only thought about it. Yeah, I don't think too hard. 99% Invisible was produced this week by Sean Cole, our own Sean Cole, Sam Greenspan and me Roman Mars. And we have a new intern, her name is Avery Trouffleman.

We are a project of 91.7 local public radio KALW in San Francisco, and the American Institute of Architects in San Francisco. You can find the show and like the show on Facebook. I tweet at Roman Mars, but right now you go to 999pi.org and you can look at amazing pictures of all the buildings in New York. I've drawn so far. Why are you painting my building? What's going on?

That's 99%invisible.org. Radio tapio. From PRX. Radio Tapio from PRX.