City College: Revisited

After my first visit to City College in Hamilton Heights, I vowed to return once I got a better camera. The campus is lousy with grotesques and gargoyles, but most are above eye-level and I wasn't able to photograph as many as I would have liked to with my little point-and-shoot. When I found out that Francesca was obsessed with gargoyles, but had never been to City College, we made plans (along with Jim) to go on a self-guided tour of the beautiful campus.

My first visit was in February of last year, so there was snow on the ground and the campus was virtually deserted. It was nice to see City College in a different season, but since school hasn't started yet we still basically had the place to ourselves. It was also fun to be able to play tour guide—even though I've only been there once the campus is very small so it's not hard to see all of it in a short time.

I love the variety of poses, facial expressions and accessories—this time I was drawn to the acrobats, but my favorite was not a grotesque at all, but an incredible skull that Francesca pointed out, perched high atop one of the halls.

The gargoyles + grotesques have recently undergone a restoration so for the most part they're sparkling clean. I'm not used to seeing building ornaments like these so new-looking, but every rain-streaked, black gargoyle in the world started out clean and brand new. As much as I love patina and decay, it was a welcome change to see everything looking so fresh.

City College is a really beautiful, peaceful place to spend an afternoon forgetting that you're still in Manhattan. The stone buildings are gorgeous in their own right, but when you top them with dogs, lions, owls, griffins and all sorts of winged creatures holding scrolls, books and other scholarly materials the whole place couldn't be more COLLEGE.