Back in late July, the Cooper Union academic building made headlines as part of the Post's ongoing Bill-deBlasio-is-the-worst-mayor-ever coverage. Sources told the Post that some crusties/travelers had been like urinating, defecating and masturbating right out there in public. (Side note: Cab drivers have apparently been using the space to relieve themselves dating back to 2010.)
Perhaps this attention ushered in the No Trespassing signs that are now on display around the building here between East Seventh Street and East Sixth Street…
In July 2010, Cooper Union put an end to people skateboarding on the $175-million building by placing metal spikes on the tempting bank of polished concrete out front.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Cooper Union puts the brakes on its skateboarding bank
The 'urination, defecation, masturbation' vacation outside Cooper Union (66 comments)
Gleaming the Coop
26 comments:
Problem, solved.
Yeah, that'll do it. Next time, CU, try a crocodile moat.
They should borrow the Hobo Shower™ from The Strand.
I thought "NO TRESPASSING" was the new cafe's name.
Several years I went to a lecture which featured the Californian architect of this building and strangely enough Philip Glass. The architect was the Steve Jobs kind of guy but no jeans just all black clothes and nothing he said made much sense. I got the deep impression listening to his theories that his vision belonged in a non-urban setting since he thought he could jam some high concept building into the EV without any clue to who lives (or travels here) how buildings get "attention" and what people do to buildings that are not in remote campuses. This battle is not over and I suspect the only way to NY proof this building is to change its lower floor to look like all the other damn buildings here.
Great solution!! Completely mindless solution. There is a real problem building in the EV Grieve neighborhood (pace those who want to limit "neighborhood" to their personal definition). On 10th Street from Broadway across to Third Avenue there is a growing population of homeless people (not crusties). The Tenth Street and Broadway person(s) have a smaller group on Broadway in front of the old Radio Shack store. The most difficult to deal with is Fourth Avenue to Third Avenue on the South side of 10th Street. This group has been growing weekly. Where are the city council people, members of the community boards (too busy with liquor licenses for places they are part owners of)???, where is the city department of homeless services, where is?? where is?? This is the De Blasio regime?? He will be late to this problem as he is late to all his appointments.
Most New Yorkers could have guessed this building's nooks and crannies would become fine urinals and poop magnets? Now this shit is flying. Poor design by a big ego.
They need to install Hobo Shower at the NYPL and on the train.
Since when was that fenced in sidewalk building property? No touching the building, ok, but since when does this building have a right to fence in the sidewalk which I believe is public space? I could be mistaken so I ask: does the building own the fenced in part of the sidewalk? Anyone?
Sounds like 9:09 nails it. What happens when you try to outsmart conventional urban building design. What happens when gratifying artistic whim is priority number one. Hard to pin the blame on this one though. Douchebag architect, or the Cooper Union for actually building it?
ok, now where i go to the bathroom.
In most of the larger cities in Europe, there are public restrooms everywhere, a number of which are free. You don't see the problem there that we have here. Something needs to change. Otherwise, the problem is perpetuated without a resolve. It was a good idea in theory to write that on the ledge, but I doubt if it will be enforced.
Some good comments here.
Certainly, no building deserves shit, piss, and splooge more than this one.
The fact that one of the preeminent American architecture schools allowed this thing to be built is just a mind-fuck.
"No Trespassing" could very well be the name of a douchey East Village cafe or bar.
Nothing means anything anymore. Yay for postmodernism.
Thom Mayne is an incredibly gifted architect whose work is praised ... in some of the ritziest enclaves of Hell.
There are some, but not that many, free public bathrooms on the streets of Paris (they didn't start out free). The problem in NY is that such accommodations would have to be handicap / wheel chair accessible. Therein, I think, lies the problem of the cost of the cabins. I am not sure that advertising would sufficiently cover the expense of installation and maintenance. Here's one for our city council and mayor why not pass legislation requiring all places that serve food to have free public access to their bathrooms? Food can be broadly defined--any place that gets the rating A, B, C [close us down] would be forced to have an open to all bathroom and to make it wheel chair accessible. And that means every single one of the sacred little coffee and bagel shops that seem to be popping up in the neighborhood. About the Cooper Union building, I'd like to hear from students and faculty who use it. What are the interior spaces like? Those spaces one cannot see from just looking in the glass doors. I find that Mussolini-like staircase hideous (the counterpart is the one in the NYU student center). But what do the studios and classrooms feel like?
Shouldn't it read "No Loitering"? Or is that word out of fashion or just plain in effectual? But, then again, so is "No Trespassing."
They have been shitting in that ally on that building since WAY before 2010. I lived at 206 E. 6th street for 6 years around 2000-2006 and we called that street Poop Ally. It is / was the perfect place for anyone homeless to too drunk from mcsorelys to go and take a relatively private crap. Now that the neighborhood is changing and CU pumped all the money into the new building they act like it is news. They didnt try and stop it before - it was gross. Maybe now they are charging $40k tuition they feel like they are too good their city toilet legacy.
YOU! SHALL! NOT! TRESPASS! Anyone? Bueller?
Anon 2:25pm. Worst idea ever. Are you serious? Perhaps that would work in the gated flyover zone community you are from. Here? No.
The fenced in sidewalk does indeed appear to be building property. A sidewalk in and of itself does make necessarily make for public property. The temporary metal barricades apparently distinguish what part of the parcel is private and what part is a public walkway. The private part of the sidewalk is under the facade of the building and inside the property line whilst the public extends outward from it. If one attached a plumb line from the facade it would clearly indicated the whereabouts of the property line. Hence NO TRESPASSING inside the barricades is the appropriate signage.
not to worry, they've just moved down to the recessed restaurant areas on 6th street. There were about 6 cops and 2 medics to take care of some crashed bumster out in front of Odessa yesterday morning, I'm thinking, how many 1,000's of my tax dollars are being wasted on this guy who will just be out here again as soon as they let him go. These bums are a job mill for unionized labor. Did the bums pass out on the street when the Bowery was at its worse or were they still able to find housing in some kind of SRO?
5:05,
If you think that is bad... Look at 14th street and first avenue. You will see homeless drunk guys who do not even take off their hospital ID bands... They are admitted weekly to Beth Israel emergency room...
nygrump- according to my uncle the answer is both. He says the cops would 'encourage ' these fellas to seek shelter in one of the many sro flophouses. Some would be dragged into one by the cops. I have no way to verify his stories but as an Irish immigrant who lived there in the late 40s-50s I guess he is as good a source as any. There were still vagrancy laws back then and as he put it the cops could be more 'active' than they are today. No cameras or lawsuits or civil rights laws. No DNA and nobody cared how the bums were treated. They werent 'homeless' they were white alcoholic bums. Nothing like our young fit aggressive 'homeless'. These kids arent into shelters or missions. They cost a fortune and there is no reason to let them do as they please. People in shelters eventually get housing and many become employed taxpayers. These degenerate crusties are a cancer on the EV. Needs to be cut out permanently.
Sadly Anon @ 7:36 PM is making broad comments that have no basis in facts. I can't comment on the truth of his uncle's comments. It should be perfectly clear that many of the homeless people on our streets have severe mental problems. I suggest you walk by 10th Street between Fourth Avenue and Third Avenue and observe a woman who is wandering between the encampment and the coffee shop across the street. It is a disturbing sight, and for some people difficult to understand why a civil society is not doing more for people with mental problems. Your observation that some homeless people are young and fit and aggressive and just aren't into shelters may very well be true. But would you trust your person in a shelter? And because they are young and fit does that mean they are any less dealing with mental disease issues or substance abuse issues. I would hope that concerned citizens would continually bombard their elected officials to act on these issues.
My suggestion is that the new East Village Gentry and that includes students start eating the poor in expensive LES restaurants and even have BBQ Crustie snacks in bars as well. In no time the problem will be solved and business owners can make a profit on them as well.
How do you know 5:02pm? So what where the metal barricades are? I'm not saying the fenced in part of the sidewalk is public domain I'm saying what makes it private property? Where's the proof that it is private property? Because you and the building owner say so? If that fenced in part of the sidewalk is not private property then like it or not people have a right to congregate and even sleep there.
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