June 2012 | Eyesore

Architectural Abortions from the USA and Around the World (And Sometimes Other Miscellany Infecting the Landscape)

Welcome to Cough Triangle, Brooklyn, NY – yes that is its real name – tucked neatly between the reeking Gowanus Canal and the Gowanus Expressway. Evidently, the prankish moniker was cooked up by former NYC Parks Commissioner Henry Stern using letters from several proximate streets: Court, Garnett, and Hamilton. It's the context rather than the teeny-weeny park itself that rates EOTM status – every artifact surrounding it evinces horror and rot, not least the elevated expressway now on its last legs.

Increasingly strapped municipal governments will be hard-pressed to maintain these monuments of the cheap energy age.

Thanks to Richard Guerin for bringing this to my attention.