Moving a piano in New York city

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/06/arts/music/ny-piano-moving.html

by danso • 6 years ago

49 46 6 years ago

rozab• 6 years ago

While I admire the vision of that webpage, it was really a pain on mobile (Firefox android).

I wish the NYT would cut it out with this super interactive article format. It might make sense for some (very limited) set of things, but a photo album is not one of them

gist2• 6 years ago

The photos aren't really even that good perspective wise or documentation wise.

They could have had little go pros tacked up all over the hallway and pulled video and frames that would have put together a better account. (Not that it would help them sell more ads etc but the presentation to your point isn't that good given what it could be).

imglorp• 6 years ago

This would have been much better as an NYT video. Their video team does a bangup job. It would have been interesting to watch how the movers handled that corner in realtime.

_bxg1• 6 years ago

The vertical swiping to scroll horizontally on mobile was particularly confusing. Needs a visual indicator at least

bootlooped• 6 years ago

The majority of the ones I've seen are great, some of them make me amazed with how far the web has come. I agree though this one is just like, why?

clSTophEjUdRanu• 6 years ago

This is why I prefer their print newspaper. No ads, no clickbait, no interactive bs.

throwsprtsdy• 6 years ago

The New York Times doesn't have ads in its printed edition anymore?

reaperducer3• 6 years ago

I wish the NYT would cut it out with this super interactive article format. It might make sense for some (very limited) set of things, but a photo album is not one of them

It's probably tailored for the NYT app.

The Times is one of the few real journalism sources willing to try new things. When they do, the HN crowd says The Times crap. When they don't, the HN crowd says The Times a relic and should die.

I'm a subscriber, and happy that it's at least trying. Some of the visualizations and AR stories are remarkable.

jessriedel• 6 years ago

I've seen the NYT praised in the HN top-level comment for neat digital article features multiple times. This might just not be one of those times.

com2kid• 6 years ago

It works really well on desktop! Seriously it was a cool experience, held the down arrow on my keyboard and virtually walked down flights of stairs.

I'm not sure how well it'd worked on a portrait display!

rnotaro• 6 years ago

Personally, it gave me motion sickness and a headache.

kick• 6 years ago

It degrades gracefully, just turn JavaScript off.

NikolaeVarius2• 6 years ago

Hm, I had it turned on for NYT since it would break a bit ago, but it seems to degrade properly here.

I'll poke around and see if NYT is now usable with JS disabled.

rgovostes• 6 years ago

The scrolling is like going down stairs. Get it?

lainga• 6 years ago

I think my forehead caught every step along the way.

azinman23• 6 years ago

Hmmm that’s cute now that you mention it, but didn’t add value IMHO. The piece was cool, despite the UX.

joncp• 6 years ago

That site is a hot mess on mobile

gist2• 6 years ago

Articles says that moves are 'rarely less than $350'. The question is really what did this 5 man move cost? What, if any, were the other bids? Realize NYT is not a business angle but would be nice to know.

jdavis703• 6 years ago

The article contains the number of moves they do per day. It includes the number of movers needed. It includes the typical wage of these movers. From some back of the napkin calculations wages were probably at least $400. The moving company is also going to charge for the truck, gas and “overhead.” Then there are fees for stairs. Then you have to tip the 6 men. And lastly don’t forget the moving company needs to make some profit. I could imagine this is easily $1000.

iso947• 6 years ago

Did they take off all the handles? And the thing that holds the candles?

https://youtu.be/Ge_4SlJWfl0

spectramax2• 6 years ago

To all designers: Present your website as if its a piece of paper on your desk. It is rectangular, it has a specific size and it can be manipulated by the standard means that the browser provides (scroll). You can have different sized papers for different screens.

What if every book you buy is one of those origami popup castles that explode upon opening a book? That would get pretty frustrating to read and understand the book. What if some pages move and shuffle unpreditably? What if it autoplays music without user invoking anything? That's essentially what you're doing with websites.

What are they teaching in Design universities these days?

azinman23• 6 years ago

As mentioned above, it’s supposed to mimic stairs.

spectramax2• 6 years ago

Why?

itsangaris• 6 years ago

Great, now I feel nauseous.

ehsankia2• 6 years ago

How much of this is really specific to NYC? Not sure if it's just the NYT an their NY centric view, but most of the stuff shown and talked about seem to be about moving pianos in general, and not about NYC.

azinman23• 6 years ago

Most other places will have a mix of high rise and low rise, tight spaces and plenty of space. NYC tends to be mostly tight and high.

reaperducer3• 6 years ago

It's a New York-based publication with most of its circulation and staff in New York, founded in New York by New Yorkers, headquartered in the NEW YORK Times building, and has "New York" in its title, and you complain about it having a New York-centric view?

It's a feature, not a bug.

tambre• 6 years ago

He's rather asking what's specific about this to New York city.

ehsankia2• 6 years ago

The HN headline seems to have been modified, away from the actual headline: "The Miracle of Moving a Piano in New York City".

If I wrote an article with the headline "The Miracle of building a chair in Hawaii", and then described the normal process of building a chair which is location agnostic, wouldn't you bewildered as to why I included "Hawaii" in the headline?

I understand that they are based in NYC, I just don't understand why that's relevant enough to be in the headline. "The miracle of moving a piano" would've done just fine.

mlazos• 6 years ago

Was the reason this article was posted because of the horrible ux? I found that way more interesting than the article tbh.

nprz• 6 years ago

How is this going over so many peoples heads? It's intentionally clunky and confusing, much like moving a grand piano up several flights of stairs would be.

jariel• 6 years ago

The flow of the article moves like going down 'stairs' i.e. awkwardly moving something.

For once, their rubbish UI is justified.

programd• 6 years ago

Compare and contrast the NYT article to the sublime beauty of a classic in the genre:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s4nVg_W_6Y

adrianmonk2• 6 years ago

Since we're on piano moving war stories, there is a messy ongoing case in Dallas.

http://dallas.culturemap.com/news/city-life/11-26-19-preston...

Decades ago, a man had a large grand piano moved into his condo. It had to ride on top of the elevator. Recently, he moved out of that unit and found that the city building codes no longer allow this.

Then a bunch of complicated drama happened with the former condo owner, the condo management, and a piano moving company, and it all turned into a lawsuit.

quickthrowman• 6 years ago

It’s even worse than that, there’s a freight elevator in the building, but the other moving companies were either not told about it or not allowed to use it. The company that ended up moving the piano used the freight elevator. All of this could’ve been solved long before by just using the freight elevator, perhaps there’s more to this story?

mkhpalm2• 6 years ago

perhaps there’s more to this story

I think so. Consider that Marcus was one of the owners of the building for many years. Why didn't he tell them about a freight elevator if that was an option?

adrianmonk2• 6 years ago

Yeah, there has to be some info missing. What I don't understand is why they didn't use the freight elevator years ago.

mkhpalm2• 6 years ago

I think its good to read this story knowing up front the HOA managed to find somebody to move the piano within a couple days.

reaperducer3• 6 years ago

Decades ago, a man had a large grand piano moved into his condo. It had to ride on top of the elevator. Recently, he moved out of that unit and found that the city building codes no longer allow this.

In Chicago, this was still done as recently as six years ago. When I moved into a tall residential building, my move had to be scheduled with an hour window in the middle so someone could move a piano up to a high floor. They wouldn't allow the piano to ride on top of the elevator and my stuff inside the elevator at the same time.

Waterluvian• 6 years ago

At what point does a grand piano become a fixture rather than a chattel?

I unboxed a foam king mattress at my new house once it was in the bedroom. It is literally impossible to get it out of that room without destroying it or I guess putting a hole in the outer wall.

Yetanfou• 6 years ago

A large bag and a vacuum cleaner might help in getting it back to a more manageable size, especially if you roll it up before applying the vacuum.

jedberg• 6 years ago

"The movers are here to protect the piano, not the hallway.”

I don't know about you, but I like it when my movers protect my stuff and the walls.

Moving a piano in New York city

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