Brooklyn North District 1 Sanitation Garage

August 20th, 2008 -

The blistering pace of development along Kent Avenue, which parallels the East River, has already claimed industrial landmarks like the Kent Avenue Powerhouse and the Domino Sugar Refinery. Next is 50 Kent Avenue, just south of the Bushwick Inlet. Though hardly a landmark, this humble one-story truck depot still contains many interesting artifacts from Brooklyn's industrial past. Once home to the North District 1 Sanitation Garage, its abandoned offices contain leftover American flags, dump truck art and a map of the solar system.

Over $19 million may soon be invested in this simple plot of land. The garage is being redeveloped by the NY Parks Department as part of the city's massive "Greenpoint/Williamsburg Rezoning Plan" - which gave the Parks Department over $183 million to create 50 acres of new parkland along the East River. A recent Parks Department report - the "Fiscal 2009 Preliminary Budget Hearings" - mentions their plan to spend "$13.3 million for the acquisition of 50 Kent Ave. and $5.8 million for the design and construction of the 50 Kent Ave. site." In the meantime, the garage may enjoy a brief new life as a concert venue before demolition.

Update: By June 2009, this building had been completely demolished.

G. Siegle Color Works - Rosebank, Staten Island

August 14, 2008 -

The G. Siegle Company Color Works was a 101 year old factory located in Rosebank, a colorfully named but otherwise quiet Staten Island neighborhood. According to Colorants History, the Color Works was "the oldest pigment plant in North America." It once made pigments of all hues, and the factory's remaining floors, walls, ceilings and equipment are still coated with bright dusts that instantly stain everything they come in contact with. In a recent New York Times article - "Rosebank: When Pink Pigeons Soared the Sky" - neighbors recalled seeing "pink pigeons" and "red-tinted birds, cats or other animals that had apparently frolicked near the powdery pigment produced at the plant." Workers also recalled that at one time, the factory was producing "up to 10,000 pounds a day" of "a shade of yellow" called "7285."

The Color Works was closed in early 2008. Today the demolition of the factory is nearly complete. Through broken walls, the hidden, vibrant colors of the factory are now exposed to the elements.

The New York Times and The Architects Newspaper

On July 31st, 2008, the New York Times featured a profile of my photography titled "Have Camera, Will Trespass, on Brooklyn's Waterfront." The piece was written by Sewell Chan and first published online in the City Room. An accompanying slideshow titled "Brooklyn's Industrial Side" was featured in the N.Y. Region section. A shorter version of the article, along with two of my photographs, was published in print on August 1st, and can be seen above.

Additionally, on July 9th, 2008, The Architects Newspaper featured a review of my photography exhibition Twilight on the Waterfront: Brooklyn's Vanishing Industrial Heritage. The article - titled "Vanishing Acts" - was written by Anne Guiney and can be seen below.

Colonna Marble - Astoria, Queens

July 29th, 2008 -

The Colonna Marble company was one of the last small industrial businesses on the East River in Queens. Its waterfront lot overlooked upper Manhattan and Roosevelt Island from steep 60 foot high cliffs. Though there are many marble companies near the Greek neighborhood of Astoria, these photos show the demise of a rare piece of the East River industrial waterfront, now reduced to empty offices, ruined warehouses and a haven for wild cats.

Kent Avenue Powerhouse

June 25th, 2008 -

The Kent Avenue Powerhouse - also known as the BRT Powerhouse - is now being demolished. Despite a general public outcry, including a petition and a blog and articles in the NY Times, Gothamist, Curbed, Brownstoner, The Brooklyn Paper, and in many other media outlets, work has proceeded at a rapid pace. The southern third of the complex, where a huge and ornate hall was located, has already been destroyed. These photos document the state of demolition in that section and show what remains in the two other sections of the building - the northern hall, full of equipment, and a second large hall located in the middle of the complex.

These photos were taken on June 21st, 2008. A recent set of photos from May 2008 by the LTV Squad shows what the southern hall looked like before it was destroyed. It is clearly evident that Con Edison has already demolished a major portion of the building, and will soon demolish the rest.

The Kent Avenue Powerhouse was built during 1905 and 1906 to power streetcars and trains. It was sold to Con Edison in 1950 and remained in operation until 1999. In 2008, it was labeled as a candidate for the National Register of Historic Places by the New York State Historic Preservation Office. For more history on the plant, please read the Williamsburg Power Station chapter from Thomas Edward Murray's book "Electrical Power Plants" and visit one of the first and best stories on the demolition at I'm Not Sayin, I'm Just Sayin.

Update: This complex was completely demolished by July 2009.

Northern Hall

Northern Hall Basement

Basement Furnace

Central Hall

Central Hall and Balcony

Abandoned Offices

Demolition

Basement and Demolition

4th Floor Balcony

Southern Hall Demolition

Destruction of the Southern Third

Southern Wall

Rooftop View

Sunset, Shroud and Navy Yard

Click! at the Brooklyn Museum

In the summer of 2008, the Brooklyn Museum exhibited one of my photographs of Brooklyn's industrial waterfront at their exhibit Click! The exhibit was just down the street from my solo show at the Brooklyn Library, "Twilight on the Waterfront".

The theme of Click! was "the changing face of Brooklyn." My contribution was a photograph of the Todd Shipyard Drydock in Red Hook, which was destroyed by a new Ikea furniture store. Also included in the exhibit were my frequent photography collaborators Sam Horine and Nate Dorr with their photos of the Red Hook waterfront, which can be seen here and here. Additionally, my friends and fellow photographers Ian Ference, Clara Daly, Tracy Collins, Elizabeth Weinberg and Sonja Shield each had photos in the exhibit that took a unique look at Brooklyn's changing industrial waterfront neighborhoods.

Click! proved to be a controversial show and provoked interesting reactions from the New York Times and the Washington Post. A book including all of the exhibited photographs can be purchased here.

Twilight on the Waterfront: Brooklyn's Vanishing Industrial Heritage

From June 18 through August 30th, 2008, the Brooklyn Public Library featured an exhibition of my photographs titled "Twilight on the Waterfront: Brooklyn's Vanishing Industrial Heritage." This exhibit documented off-limits industrial sites along Brooklyn's waterfront, shedding light on what Brooklyn has lost to development over the last five years. The exhibit was drawn from my long-term photography project about Brooklyn's industrial waterfront and was displayed at the Central Library at Grand Army Plaza, in the Grand Lobby. The official library page for the show can be seen here.

"Twilight on the Waterfront" was featured in a New York Times article and slideshow and was described in a Gothamist review as "an impressive body of work" which "vividly documents the accidental beauty of decaying buildings." The Architects Newspaper stated in its review "the Brooklyn waterfront is strangely easy to overlook since the Manhattan skyline tends to dominate the view. But as Kensinger's photographs show, its texture and variety reward a closer look..."

The exhibit was also featured on Brownstoner, which has described these photographs as "urban guerrilla" photography and "well worth checking out." Finally, the Brooklyn Eagle wrote in their review "after... years of documentary filmmaking, Park Slope resident Nathan Kensinger has, with admirable success, added still photography to his repertoire."

Ironically, this exhibit opened the same day as the new Red Hook Ikea, and featured photos from the Todd Shipyard and the Revere Sugar Refinery, two historic structures destroyed during Ikea's construction. Brooklyn's entire industrial waterfront was recently listed as one of America's "11 most endangered" historic places by the National Trust For Historic Preservation.