Welcome (soon) Hinoki, in the former location of A&J Pizza, on Austin Street in Forest Hills. (Thanks to Joe for the close-up pic.)
Thursday, March 21, 2019
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
The Elephant in Forest Hills
Happy Spring!
Springtime gets me very energized. So, as I was walking down the remains of what used to be -- and I guess still kinda is -- our Restaurant Row today, it got me to thinking: how beautiful would life be if this big 'elephant in the room' of ours somehow was replaced by a nice second row of restaurants on the west side of 70th Road? It is some type of telephone exchange building, from what I've always been told. I guess it's still needed or it wouldn't still be there.
But, jeez, talk about an eyesore smack in the middle of our lovely neighborhood. Just imagine how pretty that part of town would be without this fortress -- and how many more tasty restaurants we could have on our Restaurant Rowish Row if this was no longer there?
With the huge new modern building going up on the other side of this ugly duckling, and Restaurant Row on the east, boy this thing is really starting to look out of place, ain't it?
Post Update: A couple of people seemed to have gotten really annoyed with this post. Just to clarify, from an outsider's perspective this is just an enormous hulking structure that is ugly as hell, and just does not fit with the improving neighborhood around it. There is no signage indicating it is owned by Verizon or any other company, making one assume it is just some kind of an old-time telephone network center -- one that probably would never have been placed where it is if it was being built today given the increasing property values.
If it does contain offices, they should think of renovating the building to make it more pleasing to the rest of the neighborhood. This structure will look more and more out of place once the new building goes up next to it and the neighborhood continues to improve.
And one last thing - this is only my opinion. If you happen to love hulking, bland, brick structures, then all the more power to you. Though I will never be a fan - unless it is some old-time Revolutionary War fort. Which would be awesome!
And yes, in keeping with that line of thought, and for the commenter who suggested it, it would be kinda cool to keep the building as is and use it in a retro way as some kind of museum or other cultural institution. In that respect, the old-time brick facade would make sense and add an authentic touch. Hey - maybe it should be a Museum of the Telephone, since they are disappearing real fast anyhow...
Springtime gets me very energized. So, as I was walking down the remains of what used to be -- and I guess still kinda is -- our Restaurant Row today, it got me to thinking: how beautiful would life be if this big 'elephant in the room' of ours somehow was replaced by a nice second row of restaurants on the west side of 70th Road? It is some type of telephone exchange building, from what I've always been told. I guess it's still needed or it wouldn't still be there.
But, jeez, talk about an eyesore smack in the middle of our lovely neighborhood. Just imagine how pretty that part of town would be without this fortress -- and how many more tasty restaurants we could have on our Restaurant Rowish Row if this was no longer there?
With the huge new modern building going up on the other side of this ugly duckling, and Restaurant Row on the east, boy this thing is really starting to look out of place, ain't it?
Post Update: A couple of people seemed to have gotten really annoyed with this post. Just to clarify, from an outsider's perspective this is just an enormous hulking structure that is ugly as hell, and just does not fit with the improving neighborhood around it. There is no signage indicating it is owned by Verizon or any other company, making one assume it is just some kind of an old-time telephone network center -- one that probably would never have been placed where it is if it was being built today given the increasing property values.
If it does contain offices, they should think of renovating the building to make it more pleasing to the rest of the neighborhood. This structure will look more and more out of place once the new building goes up next to it and the neighborhood continues to improve.
And one last thing - this is only my opinion. If you happen to love hulking, bland, brick structures, then all the more power to you. Though I will never be a fan - unless it is some old-time Revolutionary War fort. Which would be awesome!
And yes, in keeping with that line of thought, and for the commenter who suggested it, it would be kinda cool to keep the building as is and use it in a retro way as some kind of museum or other cultural institution. In that respect, the old-time brick facade would make sense and add an authentic touch. Hey - maybe it should be a Museum of the Telephone, since they are disappearing real fast anyhow...
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Interesting Spot Available
The site of the former Sterling Bank is now available. I posted about this a while ago, but I can see this being a cool, chic new restaurant like the former Blue Water Grill at Union Square which was also in a bank... Oh, and unrelated, but I think we have one more horrible weekend of our Express subways going local again, and then somewhat better...
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
Forest Hills Construction Projects
Thanks to Tommy, one of the blog's readers, for sending in this map he prepared of the current big construction projects going on around the neighborhood. Click on it for a bigger version.
- 69-75 Yellowstone Blvd - 11-story, 168-unit residential building with 20,500 SF of retail/commercial space; demolition completed, site prep underway
- 107-02 Queens Blvd - 10-story, 72-unit residential building with 11,640 SF of retail/commercial space (Planet Fitness confirmed as primary commercial tenant); demolition completed, site remediation underway
- 71-53 Austin St - 7-story, 21-unit residential building with 6,032 SF of ground floor retail/commercial space
- 108-15 72nd Ave - 7-story, 26-unit residential building; demolition completed
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