Adam Friedberg, 20-22 East 2nd, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 3 St Mark’s Place, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 120 3rd Ave, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 223 Avenue A, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 229 Avenue B, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 526 East 13th, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 540 East 13th, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 548 East 13th, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 646 East 12th, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 206 East 11th, 2018
Adam Friedberg, 408 East 11th, 2018
Adam Friedberg, 788 Broadway, 2018
Adam Friedberg, 71 4th Ave, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 57 4th Ave, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 338 East 9th, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 746 East 9th, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 25 3rd Ave, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 131 1st Ave, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 30 East 7th, 2018
Adam Friedberg, 7 Ludlow, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 55 Pitt, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 138 Delancey, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 39 Kenmare, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 140 Essex, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 29-37 Kenmare, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 118-120 Rivington, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 121 Stanton, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 135 Ludlow, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 59 Spring, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 62 Prince, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 28 Prince, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 27 East 4th, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 25 Avenue B, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 46 2nd Ave, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 52 Avenue A, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 55 Avenue D, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 53 Great Jones, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 66 East 1st, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 40 East 4th, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 56 Great Jones, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 179 Chrystie, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 181 Orchard, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 182 Allen, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 188 Allen, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 188 East 2nd, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 200 Allen, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 67 Chrystie, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 79 Avenue C, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 79 East 4th, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 85 East 2nd, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 95 Crosby, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 95 Stanton, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 97 Stanton, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 104 1st Ave, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 107 East 7th, 2018
Adam Friedberg, 107 Norfolk, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 115 Stanton, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 116 Delancey, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 178 Delancey, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 177 Rivington, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 267-9 Elizabeth, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 281 Lafayette, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 296 Broome, 2018
Adam Friedberg, 298 East 2nd, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 301 Broome, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 317 East Houston, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 323 East 6th, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 338-346 Lafayette, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 147-153 Attorney, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 147 Ridge, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 150 Bowery, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 152 Attorney, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 156 Delancey, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 161 Suffolk, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 162 Attorney, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 166 East 4th, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 168 Delancey, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 168 Orchard, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 173 East 2nd, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 174 Orchard, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 356 Broome, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 415 Broome, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 454 Broadway, 2019
Adam Friedberg, 617 East 6th, 2018
Adam Friedberg, 619 East 6th, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 640 East 6th, 2018
Adam Friedberg, 724 Broadway, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 737 East 6th, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 79 1st Avenue, 2015
Adam Friedberg, 205 East Houston, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 212 Centre, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 213 Canal, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 219 East 3rd, 2018
Adam Friedberg, 238 Lafayette, 2018
Adam Friedberg, 244 East 3rd, 2017
Adam Friedberg, 247 Canal, 2016
Adam Friedberg, 255-7 Elizabeth, 2016
In 2015, photographer Adam Friedberg began documenting each remaining single-story building on the Lower East Side and East Village, having noticed how rapidly these structures were disappearing from the landscape. As a longtime resident of the area, and as an architectural and environmental photographer, Friedberg was compelled to document these vanishing structures, offering both an alternative geography and historical document through the logic of negative space. In recent history, the area has been subject to swift, large-scale real estate development and subsequent gentrification, yet it remains the vibrant home of innumerable galleries, cultural stalwarts, and local economies now caught in a perpetual cycle of transformation and erasure.
Friedberg’s project configures the photographer’s own response to these changes, formulating a direct method of research and documentation. Friedberg captured each building using an analog, large-format camera (which he has used since becoming a photographer) from a street-level view, unobstructed by vehicles or foot traffic, by visiting very early in the morning light. During the process, he met many of the residents, owners, and workers in these buildings, learning about their history and impending fate, each located in a transitional moment between steadfast existence and disappearance from this once working-class community.
Single Story is bound by Broadway to the west, Avenue D-Houston Street-Pitt Street to the east, 14th Street to the north, and Canal Street-Essex Street-Delancey Street to the south. Also included in this presentation are sites that the photographer revisited, as well as those that disappeared before he could shoot them. In Friedberg’s words: “These low-riders now stand as outliers—oddballs even. They no longer ‘fit’ their surroundings. Of particular interest to me, and in many ways this project’s point of germination, is the negative space these single-story buildings create. They open the street to the sky, providing a vista that can be enjoyed by all of us. With air rights, sunshine, and city views so valuable, and with the polarization of wealth having a direct impact on the area’s demographics, how much longer can these squat buildings stand?”
Friedberg’s work has appeared in Vogue, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Magazine, The Architect's Newspaper, W Magazine, Wallpaper, and Conde Nast Traveler, among many others.
For further inquiries, please contact Katrin or James at info@jamesfuentes.com.
A note on architect attributions:
Information on these buildings was collected by the Center for Architecture for the exhibition Single Story Project (https://www.centerforarchitecture.org/exhibitions/single-story-project/) on view at the CFA November 2019–February 2020. Record keeping for vernacular architecture of the sort featured in this exhibition is sparse and inconsistent. Where known, we have indicated the original architect or architect(s) of notable renovations. If you have information regarding the architect for any of the buildings featured, please reach out to exhibitions@centerforarchitecture.org.