We noticed a few things this week.
A few theaters, some roasteries, that cute florist you didn’t know existed, and more cozy spots from the cities we live in.
- The Long Way Home
Chicago Pedway Loop Underground Walkway System and City Hall Subsurface Route
A 5-mile network of climate-controlled tunnels and passages beneath Chicago's Loop offers a subsurface alternative to winter streets—utilitarian, fluorescent-lit, and surprisingly warm.
- The Long Way Home
Fort Washington Park Hudson River Greenway Little Red Lighthouse Loop
A two-mile riverside loop beneath the George Washington Bridge's eastern tower, where a 1921 lighthouse sits dwarfed by steel and the rhythm of the walk is set by infrastructure overhead.
- The Odd Edit
Hand-Bound Miniature Book Bindery in Park Slope
A brownstone studio where traditional bookbinding meets dollhouse scale—miniature volumes under three inches tall, sewn in signatures, gilt-edged, and bound in Italian glove leather using techniques adapted to tiny dimensions.
- The Odd Edit
Forgotten Elevator Operator Panel Collection in Flatiron Building
A basement archive in the Flatiron Building preserves original brass elevator operator panels, hand-engraved controls, and mahogany cab interiors from the 1902 Otis installation—sixty years of mechanical history stored rather than scrapped.
- The Odd Edit
Vintage Film Projector Repair Workshop in Sunnyside
Beneath a Sunnyside rowhouse, a veteran projectionist repairs 16mm and 35mm film projectors for microcinemas and collectors, using salvaged parts from shuttered New York theaters and hand-fitting Geneva movement pins in a basement workshop scented with machine oil and ozone.
- The Odd Edit
Hand-Carved Rubber Stamp Studio in Logan Square
A Logan Square apartment studio where a printmaker hand-carves custom rubber stamps using linoleum cutters and vulcanized rubber for letterpress shops, textile artists, and wedding invitation designers.
- The Odd Edit
Hand-Painted Anatomical Illustration Studio in Ditmas Park: A Fresh Field Note
A medical illustrator in a Ditmas Park Victorian preserves 19th-century gouache and ink techniques, creating anatomical drawings for surgeons, collectors, and tattoo artists from a studio filled with vintage surgical texts and articulated bones.
- The Odd Edit
Vintage Radio Vacuum Tube Testing Station in Midwood
A retired Navy engineer operates a Saturday-morning garage workshop in Midwood, testing and matching vacuum tubes for audiophiles, guitar amp builders, and vintage radio restorers using 1950s equipment and deep technical expertise.
- The Odd Edit
Hand-Tooled Leather Book Cover Bindery in Forest Hills
A Forest Hills apartment studio where a leather worker creates hand-tooled book covers using Victorian stamps, bone folders, and vegetable-tanned hides for collectors and private libraries.
- The Odd Edit
Mechanical Fortune-Telling Automaton Repair Shop in Chinatown
Beneath a Mott Street herbalist, a basement workshop restores vintage Zoltar machines and penny arcade fortune tellers using salvaged brass gears, solenoid voice boxes, and carefully cataloged glass eyes from shuttered Coney Island arcades.
