Veal & Pumping
After being closed for the past several years, the former home of Premier Veal, also known as the Gansevoort Pumping Station, is being demolished to make room for the new Whitney Museum in the Meatpacking District. What's been lost is not just another meat warehouse.
my flickr: November 2010
my flickr: today
The building was originally intended to be a market house built circa 1906-1908. It was soon converted into a high-pressure fire service pumping station by the city. This Gansevoort station was used to fight the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.
from Industrial Progress, 1909
interior, The Edison Monthly, 1913
According to the 1914 World Almanac and Book of Facts, the pumping station was outfitted with "six electrically driven centrifugal pumps that are connected to the Croton Supply" and could "deliver 3,000 gallons a minute against a head of 300 pounds at the station."
At the time, firefighters believed that these high-pressure stations would "doom" fire engines.
my flickr: 2007
Oddly, as you can see in these before-and-after photos, the demolition crew has torn off the signs for the pumping station. Maybe they're being saved for posterity?
my flickr: today
Founded in 1972, Premier Veal moved into the building in 1984. In 2004, the city forced them out by requiring $1 million of extensive renovations without letting them buy the building. The city also increased the rent from $12,000 to $20,000.
Clearly, Premier Veal was no longer wanted in the new MePa. The Bloombergian developers had other plans.
my flickr: 2007
Reported the Villager at the time of Premier Veal's eviction: "The distinctive cow murals on the Premier building are by Chico, the Lower East Side graffiti artist. [Premier's president] Hirschorn, also an art collector, commissioned him to paint the building in 1996... some animal activists had shot paintballs at the murals."
But paintballs didn't doom these Chico cows to the dust heap of MePa--the rising of "progess" did. The High Line must be fed.
my flickr: 2007--with Standard Hotel rising
my flickr: November 2010
my flickr: today
The building was originally intended to be a market house built circa 1906-1908. It was soon converted into a high-pressure fire service pumping station by the city. This Gansevoort station was used to fight the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.
from Industrial Progress, 1909
interior, The Edison Monthly, 1913
According to the 1914 World Almanac and Book of Facts, the pumping station was outfitted with "six electrically driven centrifugal pumps that are connected to the Croton Supply" and could "deliver 3,000 gallons a minute against a head of 300 pounds at the station."
At the time, firefighters believed that these high-pressure stations would "doom" fire engines.
my flickr: 2007
Oddly, as you can see in these before-and-after photos, the demolition crew has torn off the signs for the pumping station. Maybe they're being saved for posterity?
my flickr: today
Founded in 1972, Premier Veal moved into the building in 1984. In 2004, the city forced them out by requiring $1 million of extensive renovations without letting them buy the building. The city also increased the rent from $12,000 to $20,000.
Clearly, Premier Veal was no longer wanted in the new MePa. The Bloombergian developers had other plans.
my flickr: 2007
Reported the Villager at the time of Premier Veal's eviction: "The distinctive cow murals on the Premier building are by Chico, the Lower East Side graffiti artist. [Premier's president] Hirschorn, also an art collector, commissioned him to paint the building in 1996... some animal activists had shot paintballs at the murals."
But paintballs didn't doom these Chico cows to the dust heap of MePa--the rising of "progess" did. The High Line must be fed.
my flickr: 2007--with Standard Hotel rising
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