Written in Stone: The Former Banks of the Five Boroughs
Project Statement
Reading architecture is communicating with the past. All the left-behind traces: the layers of paint on a wall, a forgotten doorway, a jumbled mix of signs, the flow of human history and migrations that lead to what a place has become.
Sometimes the first use of a building is so different it is striking. It stops time, forcing the viewer to wonder about the past. This work is a photographic peeling back of the architectural forms to investigate economic and social forces that have shaped this city since the Dutch purchased the island of Mannahatta.
Traditional bank architecture made of granite with beautiful marble floors and chiseled columns is so ingrained in our culture that emojis use it as a symbol for banks. Over the years, these stable structures are transformed as their neighborhoods shift around them. Currently, some former banks are 99-cent stores, but are others have morphed into high-end spaces. These are not just the stories of banks but of neighborhoods that show the complex ebb and flow of the contemporary landscape.