Curbed: Saying goodbye to the old Essex Street Market

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Curbed New York, June 14, 2018

by Nathan Kensinger

One of the best ways to savor the final days of the old Essex Street Market is on the weekly walking tour offered by Turnstile Tours, which will be held until mid-September. During one of these recent walks, the diverse culinary offerings of the market were on full display, with participants sampling rare cheeses from Saxelby Cheesemongers and Formaggio Essex, hot bagels from Davidovich Bakery, fresh croissants from Pain D’Avignon, and savory quiche from Nordic Preserves, Fish & Wildlife Company. It was all washed down with a cup of coffee from the Porto Rico Importing Company, whose NYC roots go back to 1907.

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Curbed: Exploring Brooklyn’s last remaining dry docks

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Curbed New York, May 3, 2018

by Nathan Kensinger

It’s a strange feeling to be standing in the mud 40 feet below the East River without getting wet. Even stranger is having a 119-foot-tall ship above your head, its 12,000 tons balanced out on a few concrete blocks around you. So it goes every day in the dry docks of the GMD Shipyard, Brooklyn’s last ship repair facility. …

The carpentry shop, surrounded by wooden shims, which used to help support ships resting on the dry dock blocks. During World War II, the Brooklyn Navy Yard was “the world’s busiest shipyard,” according to Turnstile Tours, the yard’s official tour company, and 70,000 workers were employed here “building battleships and aircraft carriers, repairing over 5,000 ships.”

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Curbed New York: Revamped Brooklyn Navy Yard Begins Its Slow Unfurling

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Curbed New York, May 12, 2016

Camera Obscura – Nathan Kensinger

For many years, the Brooklyn Navy Yard has been a forbidding presence along the East River waterfront, hidden from the surrounding neighborhood behind walls and fences, with warning signs along its perimeter blaring out antiquated threats: This Installation Patrolled by Military Working Dogs! It Is Unlawful To Enter Without Permission Of The Commanding Officer! Security checkpoints block every entrance to the yard, while inside, patrol cars circle constantly and a security booth is set up at the MTA bus stop to check the identification of anyone disembarking. This month, however, several new projects are cracking open these barriers and granting the public access to parts of the Navy Yard that have been unseen for decades.

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Curbed: Developers Compete to Shape the Future of Brooklyn’s Sunset Park

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Curbed New York, February 25, 2016

by Nathan Kensinger

The next blow to Sunset Park’s industrial waterfront came fifteen years later, as shipping technology evolved away from long piers and tall warehouses. “The introduction of the shipping container in the late 1950s really dramatically transformed the industry,” said Andrew Gustafson, who leads historical tours of the Brooklyn Army Terminal for his company, Turnstile Tours. “Basically, these enormous facilities like the Bush Terminal and the Brooklyn Army Terminal became totally obsolete for their original use. … And then you also have the decline of manufacturing spaces,” said Gustafson.

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Curbed New York: At 95, The Repurposed Army Terminal Still Impresses

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Curbed New York, November 18, 2014

by Evan Bindelglass

Four million square feet of indoor space. Thirty-two elevators. Ninety-five years old. Sunset Park’s Brooklyn Army Terminal is massive, unusual, and wholly unexpected. Originally built in 1919 to transfer copious quantities of manpower and supplies from land to sea and back again, these days parts of the complex have been converted into office space. But its architecture—with arches everywhere and one awesome atrium, designed by Cass Gilbert of Woolworth Building fame—remains a marvel.

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