Archinect - News

Long Island City before Amazon

2019-01-18T14:35:00-05:00

All eyes have been on Long Island City since its partial triumph in Amazon’s urban beauty pageant. [...] Queens native Kris Graves has kept his eye on Long Island City continuously since moving there ten years ago. Photographing what presents itself outside his door in Hunters Point South and as he walks around the neighborhood, Graves never intended to create a record of a vanishing scene (RIP 5Pointz notwithstanding). Instead, his photos, accumulating over time, represent an additive process.

Also check out Kris Graves's other fascinating photographic explorations of New York City we've featured on Archinect:

Civic beacon or bunker? Photographer Kris Graves documents all of New York City’s 77 police precincts.

2018-03-13T15:06:00-04:00

What’s the difference between a school, a library, and a police precinct? They’re all civic institutions designed to communicate their contribution to a well-functioning society. [...] Kris Graves photographed every one of New York City’s 77 precinct station houses for Urban Omnibus. The blue and white car, the badge, and the uniform all communicate “police” on city streets, but the building, the police’s permanent home in the neighborhood, conveys a particular message. What does it say?

If you enjoyed photographer Kris Graves documenting the grid-disrupting topography of the Bronx for Urban Omnibus a while ago, you'll love his latest piece: Beacon / Bunker, a series of photographs of every one of New York City’s 77 police precinct station houses across the five boroughs. "Whether the precinct is a reassuring beacon of safety or a bunker of malfeasance may depend more on individual or collective associations than on the architecture."

40th Precinct, Bronx. © Kris Graves.

23rd Precinct, Manhattan. © Kris Graves.

105th Precinct, Queens. © Kris Graves.

Find the complete set of all 77 NYC precincts over at Urban Omnibus.

How the Bronx breaks New York's grid

2015-06-04T14:42:00-04:00

Walking in New York can at times feel a little too smooth: the rationality of the grid and subtle grade changes conspire to hide the natural terrain beneath all that asphalt and concrete. That’s not the case in the Bronx, the city’s mainland toehold, where topography is at play like nowhere else in this archipelago metropolis. [...] It was with this conspicuous role of the Bronx’s topography in mind that we approached Kris Graves, a New York-based photographer [...].