ASICS GEL TREADMILL

The Bowery, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

This 1884-1885 building, the first branch erected by the New York City YMCA Board of Directors, is the sole survivor of New York's nineteenth-century YMCA branches and the major surviving New York City work of architect Bradford L. Gilbert. This building originally housed the Young Men's Institute, a membership organization intended to promote the physical, intellectual, and spiritual health of young working men in the densely crowded Bowery.

The five-story Queen Anne style building has a largely intact facade, which is asymmetrically organized with a recessed entry at the south bay; a rusticated sandstone base with segmental arches; a mid-section featuring giant pilasters framing a double-story arcade with recessed metal-enframed windows; and a top section crowned by a slate-covered mansard roof pierced by two dormers. The larger dormer has a pediment with terra-cotta decoration surrounding the commencement date, 1884. In 1915 the firm of Parish & Schroeder renovated the three lower stories at the rear for an enlarged gymnasium, new shower and locker room, and a swimming pool.

The YMCA left the building in 1932, and it has since become studio/residential space for artists, many of whom are world renowned, and it houses a teaching and meditation center for a community of Tibetan Buddists.

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

The Young Men's Institute Branch of the YMCA, 1884-1932'

The wide avenue called the Bowery (Dutch for farm), an entry road into downtown New York, was lined with inns, taverns and shops along its route from Cooper Square to Chatham Square near City Hall. It was called "thieves' highway" by Jacob Riis, the nineteenth-century photographer/ journalist, who described "swarms" of young men "fresh from good homes," with hopes, but not much money, who gravitated to the Bowery with its twenty-five-cent lodging houses.

Riis estimated that more than nine thousand homeless young men lodged nightly on or near the Bowery. YMCA records stated that to reach young men who "were not yet hardened," the organization established a Bowery Branch; the upper four floors of 243 Bowery (stili standing) were leased in 1882, and this space provided reading and meeting rooms and lodging accommodations for sixty.2

William E. Dodge, a director of the YMCA, had helped finance the Bowery Branch, and his son Cleveland, two years out of college, became its chairman in 1881, serving until 1884, when he became the first Chairman of the Young Men's Institute.3 In 1885 Cleveland H. Dodge described the establishment of the Young Men's Institute.

The Bowery Branch has long done a noble work, in reaching and helping fallen and destitute men. Being distinctly a relief work, from the very nature of the case, it has not been able to reach the larger class of hard-working independent young men. There has therefore, long been a need in that part of the city for an attractive building, in which to help this latter class to a full and wholesome development. The Association bought the two lots, 222 and 224 Bowery, in June, 1882. Money was raised for a building in the winter of 1884, and on the 1st of July ground was broken. In about a year the building was ready for occupancy. The name Young Men's Institute was chosen to distinguish it effectively from the Bowery Branch ... On the 15th of October the building was opened.4

The concept of a building where inner-city men could fraternally enjoy athletic, social and intellectual rapport was innovative, and the Institute Branch, the first branch building erected by the Board of Directors, is the first manifestation in New York of what would be the modern YMCA.5

Architect Bradford L. Gilbert had been introduced to the Committee of Management of the Bowery Branch in February 1883, by Chairman Cleveland Dodge. Gilbert presented his design for the proposed new Bowery building to the YMCA Board of Directors meeting on April 21, 1884, on the recommendation of Vice-President Cornelius Vanderbilt II.6 Vanderbilt was an enthusiastic member of the Directors' committee that named the new building, and at their meeting on January 19, 1885 "after a lengthened consultation, on motion of Mr. Vanderbilt, the new Building was named The Young Men's Institute."

In his first annual report to the YMCA Directors, Cleveland H. Dodge described the aim of the Institute ~ to provide for the physical, intellectual and spiritual health of its members. He reported that the gymnasium and its calisthenic classes were fully functioning; that the Institute held such weekly cultural events as lectures, concerts, and debates, as well as "entertainments" accompanied by the Institute's own orchestra and glee club. The circulating library had a thousand volumes, and six educational classes had beeen initiated — free-hand, mechanical and architectural drawing, bookkeeping, pensmanship and arithmetic.

Equipment


To Travel Light as a wildlife-interested photographer is a joke.
What you bring is what you´ve got.
What can break, will.
So I try to bring it all…

My hazy eyes need autofocus.
My hazy brain needs auto exposure and auto white balance.
My motifs often need many frames per second.
After having tried almost all possible camera systems I settled for the best equipment money can buy.
The sharpest, brightest lenses, the fastest and most accuratly exposing cameras, the most modern flashes and the finest CF-cards.
Autofocus, autoexposure, auto white balance and motor-powered everything.
Have happily left film and have gone completely digital, since 2004.
The Nikon D3 and D3X are real miracles.
D3 can be exposed with very high ISOs without damaging the images at all.
The D3X gives better tonal range files and fine detail than any other camera that I have ever seen. It gives incredibly detailed and sharp files.
In both the AF is fast and exact and the controls are easy and intuitive.
The days of film feel left very, very far behind.
The D700 is like a light D3. Same quality of files, but smaller and not as heavy to carry. Still very stabile and sturdy.
The D300 also creates great and very detailed files, better even than the D2Xs and with better ISO possibilities than the D200. Also the internal flash system in it is really good.
The perfect backup camera, or when I need light-weight more than anything else.
The D90 gives unbelievably fine video files, and the possiblity to use long lenses like the 600/4 creating a wonderfully beautiful blurred soft background.
Yes, the latest Nano-coated Nikkor lenses are heavy to carry, but tack sharp, crystal clear and incredibly fast-focusing. The new 14-24 and 24-70 and the Micronikkor 105, the 200/2, the 300/2,8 VR and the 600/4 VR are the sharpest and most fine-rendering lenses I have ever tried or seen work from. No haze. And with the D3:s you can fine tune and calibrate each individual lense to each individual camera body.
Giving a crispness in detail also with the longest lenses plus 1,7x converter better than anything else I have experienced.
VR vibration reduction is often a blessing.

I use a wide-angle zoom on one body, a short tele-zoom on the other.
Long telephoto lens on the third, usually the 600 mm.
Original Nikon stuff only.
ISO mostly 200-1600 on D3.
100-640 on D3X
Motor drive at as many frames per second as the technology allows.
Then I feel prepared for most quick situations.
I also bring backup of almost everything.

Photography tool box:

Cameras and such:
2 Nikon D3
1 Nikon D3X
2 Nikon D300
1 Nikon D90
Nikkor AFS 600/4 G ED VR
Nikkor AFS 500/4 G ED VR
Nikkor 400/2,8 G ED VR
Nikkor AFS 300/2,8 G ED VR
Nikkor 200-400/4 IF-ED VR
AF-Nikkor 200/2 VR (the sharpest lens I´ve ever tried!!)
AF-Nikkor 70-200/2,8 VR
AF-Nikkor DX 12-24/4 (for the D300s)
AF-Nikkor 14-24/2,8
AF-Nikkor 24-70/2,8
AF-VR Micro-Nikkor DX IF-ED 105/2,8 (the next sharpest lens I´ve ever tried!!)
AF-Nikkor Fisheye 10,5 mm/4 (for the D300)
AF-teleconverters Nikkor TC-14B II and TC 17 B II and TC-20 B II
2 Flashes Nikon SB-900 and a Project-A-Flash tele flash fresnel-lens kit.
Field glasses Nikon 8x42 and Nikon 10x25

Tripods and such:
Carbon fibre 6X tripods from Gitzo (GK 5541 for the heavy lenses and GK 3580 for hikes and lighter jobs), with leveling units and extra big feet for snow and sand)
Ball heads and panning heads from Gitzo and Kirk.
Arca Swiss style quick releases and swivel heads from Wimberley.
Macaroni- and or rice or bean-bags. Organically grown of course J
Apple Mac Book Pro 17” Laptop
Epson 8000 external hard disk.
San Disk Extreme IV CF-cards 8-16 Gb
Rechargable Nikon Li-ion battery packs, kits of Lithium AA batteries for really cold weather.
Camera bags and -backpacks from Tamrac.
Waterproof bags and boxes from Pelican and Ortlieb.

Other equipment:
Tent Hilleberg "Staika". Stands anything, can be put up anywhere.
Tent Hilleberg "Kieron" 4-man. Stands anything, but rooms more people.
Sleeping bag North Face "Goose Down" for ordinary trips.
Sleeping bag North Face "Deep Sleep" for the really cold ones.
Thermarest sleeping mattresses.
Backpack Norröna "Beito". Brings it all.
Arcteryx jacket and pants. All round. All year.
Heavy Duty down parka "SnowGoose Expedition" from Canada Goose. For minus 30 and below.
All underware in Swedish "Wool power". Best I´ve tried. Doesnt even smell when used!
"SOREL Extreme" - Canadian Army Arctic winter mukluk boots. For minus 20 and below.
Hiking boots Le Chameau (long), Gore-Tex.
Nokian felt lined rubber boots. For sleet, wet snow and slush.
Rubber boots "Wildmark". Summer use.
Lundhags felt-lined leather ski boots.
Inuit-kamikks of seal skin and caribou fur, for minus 25 and under.
Pocket flask, type "Jerry Can" with french Cognac, preferably Rémy Martin or Grönstedts Extra.