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Posts Tagged ‘MTA’

Rare & Vintage: Subway Ad for “The One The Only Coney Island!”

Posted in Artifacts, Photography, tagged Bruce Handy, Coney Island, MTA, NYC Transit, poster, Subway Sun, vintage ad, vintage bus on December 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“FABULOUS! FAMOUS! THRILLING!…THE ONE THE ONLY Coney Island!” This vintage Subway Sun ad featuring a couple of happy Parachute Jump riders advised subway riders to take the BMT or IND “D” to Coney Island. The poster has made a comeback in one of the vintage buses that the MTA is running for the holidays. Coney Island photographer Bruce Handy spotted it and other retro ads in 1950s-and 1960s-era buses running the M42 crosstown route through today, December 23rd.

The Subway Sun series was the work of cartoonist Amelia Opdyke Jones aka “Oppy” and dates from the 1940s through the 1960s. Check out Bruce’s flickr slide show to see the vintage buses and ads for NATO, Clark Bars (“You’ll like it a whale of a lot!”), Maidenform Bras, Rockaways’ Playland and “Special Fireworks Shows” in Coney Island on September 9 and 16th! The mid-September dates coincided with the Mardi Gras parades produced by the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce from 1903 through 1954.

Last Vacant Store for Rent in Coney’s Stillwell Terminal

Posted in Real Estate, tagged Coney Island, MTA, RFP, Stillwell Terminal, Store for Rent on November 27, 2011| 5 Comments »

Last Store for Rent in Stillwell Terminal. November 14, 2011. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

Coney Island’s Stillwell Terminal, which was reconstructed from 2001 to 2005, is about to be fully leased. The last chance to rent the last vacant store in one of the world’s largest above-ground subway terminals is coming up on Friday. Proposals should be submitted to the MTA by 3pm on December 2nd. For a copy of the RFP, contact the MTA Real Estate Department.

The suggested use for the approximately 625 square foot space is retail or food. The suggested annual rent is $45,000 with a 3% – 5% annual increase over the term of the ten-year lease. That works out to be $72 per square foot, but the potential tenant may offer more or less. The tenant is responsible for building the entire interior, installing utilities and other improvements according to strict specifications set by the MTA.

Not permitted: “Video games and arcades are not allowed. Stores selling t-shirts, beach-related accessories or Asian-themed dry goods are not allowed. Any selling of ice cream, donuts, submarine sandwiches, or grocery-type items is not allowed. ATMs or typical newsstand- type items are not allowed. Store is required to be open year-round (not just in summer months).”

Arcade games are apparently banned by the MTA and the restricted items are already sold by current tenants.Stillwell Terminal shops are occupied by Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins, Subway, Bank of America and a newsstand. Lola Star Boutique, Coney Island Beach Shop and Coney Island Gift Shop have the T-shirt and beach gear market covered. Gourmet Food, which sells imported chocolate, cookies and nuts, as well grocery items, opened this month.

The RFP also contains an interesting statistic: The annual average weekday station customer count –paid entry at station only, not exiting– is 12,240. Summer passenger count increases significantly. For Saturdays in June, July and August in 2009, average paid entry was 22,411.

Newly Opened Gourmet Food Shop, Stillwell Terminal. November 14, 2011. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

Photo Album: Coney Island Reliefs by Deborah Masters

Posted in art, Photo Album, Photography, tagged Arts for Transit, Bruce Handy, Coney Island, Deborah Masters, MTA, Ocean Parkway, relief sculpture on April 29, 2011| 1 Comment »

Deborah Masters' Coney Island Reliefs on Ocean Parkway Viaduct. October 2, 2009. Photo © Bruce Handy/Pablo 57 via flickr

See Queen Mermaid, sideshow performers, sunbathers and Cyclone riders in cast concrete on the gateway to Coney Island! On Saturday, April 30th, MTA Arts for Transit is hosting an event from 2 to 5 pm to celebrate the completion of Deborah Masters’ Coney Island Reliefs at Ocean Parkway Viaduct. The station is on the Q line at Ocean Parkway and Brighton Beach Avenue. Masters was awarded the commission in 1992 and the piece was completed in 1994, but the viaduct needed repair before the concrete panels could be hung on its facade. The reliefs were in storage for 15 years!

Coney Island photographer Bruce Handy’s series of photos of the Ocean Parkway sculptures were taken when the installation began in 2009. “They look much nicer now with painted borders and the screw holes filled in,” says Bruce who plans to take a new series of photos this weekend.

UPDATE April 30…Here’s a link to Bruce Handy’s flickr slide show of the finished installation. Just beautiful!

Deborah Masters' Coney Island Reliefs on Ocean Parkway Viaduct. September 25, 2009. Photo © Bruce Handy/Pablo 57 via flickr

According to the MTA’s Arts for Transit page on the work…

Sculptor Deborah Masters created the Coney Island Reliefs in cast concrete. The 1260 sq. ft. of relief panels fit within existing recesses in the viaduct. Tinted a terracotta color to harmonize with the sandstone color of the Ocean Parkway viaduct, a massive structure that carries the subway across six lanes of traffic and an Olmstead parkway, the reliefs portray scenes from the history and legends of Coney Island, including Neptune, a mermaid, beach, boardwalk, and amusement park scenes. The designs are based upon photographs, drawings, and interviews by the artist with local residents and visitors to the famed amusement park.

The original commission was for the inside of the subway station, but when the artist looked at the Viaduct surface, she noticed indentations she felt sure were intended for reliefs. She felt that the Olmsted Parkway, the widest old road to the beach, and the Art Deco Viaduct decorated with red, green, blue, yellow, and orange deco tiles from 1915 was intended by Frederick Law Olmsted, the founder of landscape architecture, to be the “Gateway to Coney Island”. She proposed adding 1650 sq. ft. of reliefs about Coney Island to the viaduct.