Over on the West Side Highway, between Clarkson and Leroy Streets, there is--and was--a block of low-rise buildings, a wonderfully crummy vestige of pre-glitz New York City. There was a car wash, a company that specialized in structural steel fasteners, an autobody shop, and a former old-school adult entertainment joint.
In between stands a chrome and lime-green Kullman diner that dates back to the 1940s or '50s. It was the Terminal Diner, the Lunchbox Diner, and a few other places before it shuttered in 2006.
This past weekend, a green wall of plywood was erected around the block-long site, readying it all for demolition and the construction of 357 West Street, an undulating luxury condo tower from Ian Schrager.
While the coming of the condo development has made news, no one seems to have mentioned the little Kullman diner--and its apparently impending demise.
Behind the new plywood is a wall of older plywood that concealed the diner a year or so ago. Maybe people just forgot it was there. But it remains.
2013
I took some photos of it in 2013. It was forlorn, covered in graffiti, its interior ruined, but still lovely in its unique green, black, and chrome stripes.
Someone had created a guerrilla art installation, propping wig heads on metal rods and sticking them through the diner's side windows.
2013
At that time, the corner spot was still Westworld and West Side. I visited one night to find a oasis of sleaze. Inside a tiny theater, rows of folding chairs faced a small stage. Male dancers stripped and gyrated, their skin smelling of baby powder, shimmering with oil and glitter.
2013
Westworld had started out as Westway, opened in 1978. An advertisement in the Village Voice read: "Come cruise along the West Side Highway... among the trucks and gay bars..."
By 1980 it was Westworld--and the ads shouted, "FANTASTY ROOM! PEEP ROOM! HOLES!"
It became a reincarnated Westway in 2011, this time as a nightclub featuring the Westgay party. It closed this summer when Schrager took over the property.
The car wash has already been totally demolished. The autobody shop has moved to Brooklyn.
2013
There's also an old brick building with a ghost sign across the front of it, up near the cornice. The only word clearly legible is "Engineers."
today
But a quick search turned up a 1912 advertisement in International Marine Engineering for Katzenstein's Metallic Packings. "General Machinists' and Engineers' Supplies," is what the ghost sign says, from back in the day when the waterfront was a working waterfront, for shipbuilders and seamen.
So much history in this little block, and all remnants of it will be wiped away in one fell swoop. Still, it's the loss of the little Kullman diner that we'll sorely regret. Can't anyone save it before it's too late? Ian Schrager? Be the good guy who moves this diner someplace safe. What a beauty it was--and could be again.
via NYC architecture
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