Herman Yung 9/19/16 Herman Yung 9/19/16

190 Bowery all cleaned up

How do you like that, huh? 190 Bowery, haven of graffiti for years, has been cleaned up! The only remnant of the old days on Bowery is the giant NEKST tribute on the Bowery side of the building.

Herman Yung 7/9/16 Herman Yung 7/9/16

Cleaning 190 Bowery

Not sure if you've all seen, but if not, here are quite possibly the last photos of 190 Bowery covered in graffiti. The odd rumor that I heard -- which seems to be confirmed by the photo below -- is that the only piece of graffiti the building owners are leaving is the NEKST tribute on street level on the Bowery side. Not sure if there's a deeper connection there or if the owners just "like the way it looks" as is usually the reason for this sort of stuff. If that's the case, I have no idea why they would clean everything else.

Herman Yung 2/21/16 Herman Yung 2/21/16

Scaffold comes down at 190 Bowery

The former residence of photographer Jay Maisel at 190 Bowery has finally taken down the scaffolding. Amazingly, the exterior of the building is more or less intact. All the graffiti pre-scaffold is still there and with the exception of new windows, the outside looks mostly the same! I asked some of the guys working if there were plans to clean the facade of the building but they said there weren't any. I guess it's up to the first-floor tenant (whoever moves in) to make that decision.

Jay Maisel sold the property for $55 million in 2014. The building's official name is the Germania Bank Building.

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