Site Report 1
Between the busy streets of 45th Avenue and 47th Avenue, bounded by 12th Avenue and Brooklyn Avenue lies a single block, but that single block tells us a story. It’s a quiet story that one must really listen closely and pay attention in order to hear. Looking at this block, one’s eyes will drift towards the focal point, a towering building, whose shadow can cover the entire block. This is hotel Decca. It has an incredible infrastructure and a parking lot that covers up over half of the block. The block is also unleveled, as in Brooklyn Avenue is higher than 12th Avenue creating a slight hill. At the top of the hill lies hotel Decca and if were to travel down the hill, one would encounter a Qudoba and a Washington Mutual bank. Now heading towards 47th Avenue while on 12th Avenue, one can see an oldish looking building that stands firm. This brick building is the Cross Church and clearly looks as if it has been there for a long time. This Church lies at the other end of the block and owns its own parking lot that also takes up a huge amount of space on this block. Walking just across the alley from the Church towards Brooklyn Avenue we arrive at a gas station with a convenience store located at the back. Next to the gas station is what seems to be an apartment building made up of brick. The building itself seems old but that could also be from the rain. The streets surrounding this blocks are quite beautiful when the sun is up due to the trees planted around the block. Something I would not have noticed without mention is the size of the parking lots. The majority of this block is open space basically. Every building on the block owns a clear parking lot. It seems silly for each building to have its own parking lot, why I wonder do they not share a parking lot and fluctuate the hours according so. One observation of the parking plots is that these buildings are constantly used. One can deduce that these buildings have been here for a long time and will be here for a long time as well. Another question one might ask is why place a hotel on this block? I will pursue this answer as best as I can in the future. And lastly, I would like to know how long the brick buildings have been there for. I wonder this since they look like they have been there for a long time serving their purposes.