Thanks to Urban Renewal the little city of Schenectady received many examples of Brutalist architecture. Most were civic structures - like additions to the city's Middle Schools and the Police Headquarters - but there were a few privately-built structures... We like to call it the Fuhrerbunker but it is, in fact, a bank. It replaced the Lorraine Block - one of the few dedicated office buildings in a downtown largely devoted to retail. Since the early 70s it was the Schenectady branch of the Albany Savings Bank - incidentally their Albany headquarters replaced one of that downtown's best classic hotels. Sometime around the turn...

Moon Shot

author: Franny Wentzel : Monroeville, USA

40x zoom picture of the moon taken from my front porch.

The Wedgeway Building

author: Franny Wentzel : Schenectady, NY

Since the mid-late 1800s the Wedgeway Building has framed the view from Erie Boulevard to Lower State Street... One would think it's an integral part of the neighbouring Kresge Building As this Googlesat view shows... ...it's its own separate entity. The Wedgeway began life in the mid-1800s a single storey covered walkway on State Street next to the Myers House which would've otherwise had frontage on the Erie Canal. Later in the century the little wedge would gain a couple extra storeys and a fancy bay window. In this turn-of-the-century view it was known as the Wedge Building. This canal side view shows a slice of the...

Greetings to Boston...

author: Franny Wentzel : Schenectady, NY

...from the Wedgway Building sign downtown. "BOSTON We mourn with you We're proud of you FBI YOU GOOFED! 911 now 416" Corner bit says 'Rent Me' and has a number for the sign company.

As Seen at Todays Boston Marathon...

author: Franny Wentzel : Bostan, MA

One marathoner's sweet message to her fellow runners, made into a cruel mockery. As taken by my news photographer friend...

Just Before the War of the World - American Cities a Century Ago

author: Franny Wentzel :

A selection of images of American cities sent to my e-mailed box the other day - taken from around 100 years ago... 1.Woodward Avenue, Detroit, Michigan, in 1917. 2.Atlantic City, 1910. 3.The main street of Memphis, north of Avenue Gayoso, 1910. 4.Station“Louisville-Nashville”, Florida, in 1910. 5.Forsyth Street, Jacksonville, Florida, in 1910. 6.The beach in Atlantic City, 1915. 7.Grant Avenue after an earthquake in San Francisco in 1906. 8.Thompson's Dairy milk wagons, Washington, 1927. 9.Washington, DC, 1914. 10.Cadillac Square, Detroit, Michigan, 1916. 11.Ninth Street, Washington DC, 1915. 12.Main Street, Richmond, Virginia. 13.Corner of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, New York, 1910. 14.Broad Street north of Spruce Street, Philadelphia, 1905. 15.View of Manhattan Bridge from Brooklyn in...

L.A.'s Bunker Hill in Colour

author: Franny Wentzel : Los Angeles, California

It's the middle of winter so let's take a trip to La-la land and the lost neighbourhood of Bunker Hill. In the 1870s the area was developed as the city's first great mansion district. After World War 1 the area began a slow decline into low-income boardinghouses and the film noir fantasyland that by the mid-50s city planners deemed ready for the wholesale clear-cutting that was urban renewal. This collection is of entertainer-turned-photographer George Mann. In addition to documenting the changing landscape he'd developed - amongst other things - the endless loop magnetic tape cartridge technology that was eventually incorporated into...

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from the archives

Neighborhood Self-portrait

VI The intellect so ravenous to know And in its knowing hold the very light, Disclosing what is so and what not so, Must finally know the dark, which is its right And liberty; it's blind in what it sees. Bend down, go...