STATEMENT

Places are inextricably tied to the historical and cultural currents surrounding them. For some, the shifting tides of time cause places to shed their original purpose; others react by absorbing; others seal themselves off to maintain buoyancy; and still others struggle to stay afloat at all.

In working with the Lower East Side Community Preservation Project and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, we have selected four places that describe the ways in which places have moved within the currents of the Lower East Side. As a "neighborhood," the Lower East Side is an area of complex histories, communities, and landscapes that have been much discussed, romanticized, and even marketed. From a typical street corner to New York City's second oldest church building, we have selected places that are both mundane and iconic. The thread between the different places is not what they were, nor what they are today, but how they have, each in their own way, shifted over time.

FEATURED PLACES

Same Routine, Different Street Corner: DAY LABORERS ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE

Re-inventing Spaces: PUBLIC HOUSING IN THE LOWER EAST SIDE

Ordering Food and Ordering the Neighborhood: A "NEW" RESTAURANT

Different Hymns, Same Walls: THE FIRST CHINESE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH