Rediscover the UWS's Main Street! |
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"West Seventy Today" introduces you to your small business neighbors along West 72nd Street, from Central Park to Riverside Park in weekly installments.
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Meet your neighbors, NEW:
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Zen Medica Offers Relief via Advice and Nutritional Medications |
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by Claudie Benjamin
In the first hour after Zen Medica opened for the day one Sunday, customers- maintaining distance- entered just as the previous ones left. They were regulars, comfortable and eager about the visit. Coming into the big, clean shop, they briefly scanned the rows of bottles and boxes on the shelves. It was clear what they wanted most was to consult with Zen Medica Owner Chow Mok about what ointment, liquid or pill would best address their health needs.
Chow is friendly, warm, reassuring and informed. Working as a consultant in the health and nutrition business for more than 20 years, she conveys the sense that she cares about treating the customers’ concerns as much as they do themselves.
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One man walked in. ‘Jubilant’ would be the best way to describe his mood. “It worked,” he announced. Apparently, he has recurrent heartburn-like symptoms from an ongoing indulgence in a food that doesn’t agree with him, but that he doesn’t want to give up. The customer had agreed to report back to Chow on how he felt after taking the medication she advised. She had suggested it would take about 30 minutes to work. But, when the man came into the store, he said “it took only 15!”
Chow came to the US from Hong Kong at the age of three. She graduated from NYU with majors in nutrition and clinical nutrition. After briefly working at a hospital, she went on to spend 15 years at a pharmacy with a leaning towards alternative, herbal, and homeopathic medicine. KEEP READING
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by Tom Miller
On June 26, 1885 architects Thom & Wilson filed plans for five “four-story brick (stone front) dwellings.” Designed for developer Robert Irwin, each was projected to cost $25,000—or a little more than $635,000 today.
Architects working on the new Upper West Side at the time freely dipped into a grab bag of historic styles, creating sometimes picturesque, sometimes quirky, and often, romantic architectural concoctions. Thom & Wilson’s five houses on West 72nd Street joined the trend; and two of them would especially stand out.
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A year later, on August 7, 1886, The Record and Guide remarked on the flurry of construction taking place on the Upper West Side. It specifically pointed out the block of West 72nd Street, between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues and mentioned “Robert Irwin has almost finished five handsome brown stone dwellings, two of which are in the Maresque style of architecture.”
The Record and Guide was referring to the mirror-imaged neighbors of 137 and 139 West 72nd Street; but its description of “Maresque” to define the style was simplistic at best. Indeed, there were pierced Moorish decorations high above the sidewalk level; but they coexisted with Gothic pointed arches, Chateauesque towers with conical caps, and medieval-style carvings. KEEP READING
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72 Crosstown highlights the architectural and social histories of 1/3 of the buildings along West 72nd Street. If you have a building you'd like us to prioritize, or a business you think we should feature, let us know!
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See you on West 72nd Street again, next FRIDAY! |
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LANDMARK WEST!
45 West 67th Street NY NY 10023
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