I'd call it a "spring cleaning" of my front-hall closet, but I didn't really get rid of stuff so much as re-organize it. In any case, along the way, I stumbled upon a cache of old photographs, and thought I'd share the one above. This is University Place looking north from the southwest corner of East 11th Street. Click on it to enlarge.
I can't exactly say what time of year I took this, but I'm guessing sometime in the spring of 1996. Much like the Nelson Sullivan video I put up yesterday, this image probably won't really turn a lot of heads, but for folks more familiar with the current iteration of this patch of real estate, there are a few interesting nuances.
Obviously, the Lemongrass Grill, the Cedar Tavern, Wholesome Foods, University Restaurant and Bowlmor Lanes are all gone (while El Cantinero soldiers on), replaced by a bank, a waxing salon, a Vietnamese restaurant, a SweetGreen and a mammoth eyesore of a condo, I'd say the biggest difference would be the overall cityscape.
Twenty-six years after this photo was snapped, that patch of sky depicted in the background has been largely blotted out by numerous priapic developments, effectively decimating the low-building aesthetic that formerly held sway over this part of lower Manhattan.
I have no big, profound takeaway here, only that the University Place captured in this photograph doesn't seem so long ago, but so much has indeed changed.
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