Tuesday, July 25, 2006
The Dakota Building
One of my favorite films ever made is Rosemary's Baby. Rosemary's Baby (released in 1967) stars Mia Farrow and John Cassavettes as a young couple that moves into a spooky apartment on the Upper West Side called the Black Branford. I won't spoil the plot, but the Black Branford is very much a character in the film, and the architectural actor is the Dakota Building, built between 1880 and 1884, and so named because at the time, New Yorkers joked it was so far away from the hub of New York it might as well be in the Dakota Territory (North Dakota and South Dakota didn't become states until 1889). John Lennon lived here too. He was a Dakota resident from 1973 until his death right outside the building in 1980.
The other day as we emerged from Central Park I took these photos:
Here is the guarded entrance. Yoko Ono still keeps an apartment here:
Maybe the Dakota has gotten a bad rap, but the architectural details are chilling. Everywhere you look there's a torch burning, or a menacing gargoyle, or a somber face:
Across from the Dakota is Strawberry Fields, a memorial to John. As I was passing back into the park I heard two other guys walk by me looking at the Dakota building. One said to the other, "Hey, that's the Dakota. Did you ever see Rosemary's Baby?"
The other day as we emerged from Central Park I took these photos:
Here is the guarded entrance. Yoko Ono still keeps an apartment here:
Maybe the Dakota has gotten a bad rap, but the architectural details are chilling. Everywhere you look there's a torch burning, or a menacing gargoyle, or a somber face:
Across from the Dakota is Strawberry Fields, a memorial to John. As I was passing back into the park I heard two other guys walk by me looking at the Dakota building. One said to the other, "Hey, that's the Dakota. Did you ever see Rosemary's Baby?"
# posted by Giustino : 7:35 PM
