Austere Helvetica Font As Metaphor For Roosevelt Island's Drab, Brutalist Main Street - Will RIOC Seek Master Leaseholder To Take Over
Blogger Evan Coyne Maloney grew up on Roosevelt Island and compares the Helvetica font with Main Street store signage, neither of which he likes.
... one of the more odd aspects of Roosevelt Island still remains: the storefront occupants on Main Street seemed to compete over whose sign would display the most generic and lifeless name:Hopefully, the reign of Roosevelt Island's Bolshevic store design may soon be over. The future of Roosevelt Island's Main Steet retail corridor as well as store signage typeface will be addressed on Friday during a meeting of the Roosevelt Island Board of Directors Real Estate Development Advisory Committee. Perhaps a private sector Master Leaseholder will finally be sought for Main Street and RIOC will remove itself from the business of retail landlord. According to RIOC:The drab brutalist architecture of Main Street, Roosevelt Island and the austerity of Helvetica always made me wonder if that’s what NYC would have “evolved” into had the Bolsheviks taken over here and not in Russia.
- THE THRIFT STORE
- HARDWARE AND VIDEO STORE
- FLOWER SHOP
- NAIL SALON
- ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
- ...and my personal favorite: THE CHILD SCHOOL
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that a meeting of the Real Estate Development Advisory Committee of the RIOC Board of Directors will be held on Friday, November 20, 2009 at 5:30 p.m. at the RIOC administrative office, 591 Main Street, Roosevelt Island, New York. The Committee will meet to discuss:More on the Roosevelt Island Main Street Retail Report can be read here.
1. the Main Street master lease appraisal;
2. the Main Street consultant recommendations;
3. the Main Street master lease and RFP; and
4. the Liberty of Roosevelt Island Corporation’s hardship application for a lease modification.
A live webcast of the meeting will be available from RIOC here and archived for approximately a month afterward.
15 comments :
Well, in all fairness the name of the school is 'The Child School'. Unlike the others this is not a generic name for the signage.
I suggest redoing all the signage in Papyrus or Comic Sans. That should spice things up a bit.
It has often been said that Main Street resembles The Village in The Prisoner. We should keep the font and start calling Steve Shane Number 2.
I hear that RIOC is working with a consultant on signage.
When do you think there will be a sign at the tram and at the subway directing visitors to the shops on Main Street?
The stores here are struggling because they need revenue from visitors.
If only the visitors knew there was shopping 8 minutes away!
What kind of shopping is 8 minutes away? Let's see. We have a thrift store, a liquor store, a deli, a "gift" store, a dry cleaner, a Chinese hole in the wall restaurant, a diner, a hair salon, a nail salon, and a Gristedes. Which of these establishments are interesting for tourists? Maybe the diner, I guess.
There is no shopping to be had here, let's not kid ourselves.
The best thing to do at this point is focus on the types of retail that residents need - namely better places to buy food *cough* end the non-compete lease with gristedes *cough* Other than that, I don't think there would be much of a market for any other type of store - the population is too diverse for a clothing or other type retail store to thrive.
It would be nice to get a bakery/donut/ice cream shop into the neighborhood. I would really not mind a Dunkin Donuts-Baskin Robbins kind of arrangement.
I agree with needing a Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins. We could also use a Kentucky Fried Chicken/Taco Bell and a Payless Shoe Store. Last, but not least, a Spanish Restaurant or Take-out spot. Those would strive in this neighborhood.
I thought maybe we can get Hot&Crusty. It is a chain, but better than Dunkin Donuts in my opinion.
To whomever posted the really snarky, snotty comment about RI, my home of over 25 years, back in the day before the Million dollar ugly as sin buildings and snot ass brats that live there except for MSK and Cornell that a Dunkin/Donuts-Basking Robbins we need and the digusting reference to a Taco Bell,KFC and Spanish Restaurant- get the Hell out.
We did fine for years without alot of stores, we had a Bakery on Main Street, a GOOD Pizza place that didn't cater to only the newbies in RiverRich Rat Ville.
This Island for years was made fun of by the UES and UWS folks, etc., until it became "cheaper" to live here.
I suggest RIOC ruin where you live and then lets see you make fun of any resident on this Island that is fighting to keep their Homes here, including all races, income levels.
We never had any problems before the New buildings with this BS Class distinctions before.
GO BACK TO WHATEVER NABE OR STATE YOU CAME FROM AND TAKE YOUR SNOTASS ATTITUDE WITH YOU.
GO SHOP IN THE CITY OR QUEENS LIKE WE ALL DO, BUT WAIT UNTIL THE TRAM IS OUT- YOU WON'T BE GOING VERY FAR.
WE ARE SICK OF THE DAMN CRITICISM AND ATTITUDE!!!!
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