Hof
July 13th, 2007, 11:59 AM
--The shuttle from JFK carried me across the Triborough Bridge and into Manhattan.As we crossed,I noticed a new building in North Manhattan,a 50-floor glass 'scraper that stepped back about every 20 floors until it was a slender spire standing almost alone on the low-rise Harlem (?) skyscape.
QUESTION--This building is beautiful,and obviously new.What the hell is it??Where is it?? Who designed it??Why do I know nothing about it??It sure wasn't there 18 months ago.Or,do I know some things but I'm just experiencing architectural disconnect??
Help me out here...
--I also drove past the doomed Shea Stadium (and the replacement,looking about half-finished) all festooned with decorative construction cranes,so I bid a final goodby to it,and I'm very aware that this is the sad,final season for the venerable Yankee Stadium and it's team,whatstheirname...
Question--Why(and how)did all the forces of Nature converge at this particular time,giving NYC TWO brand-new MLB sports venues? No other city anywhere gets to build two major sports stadiums at once.Is sports so ultra-popular in NY that a billion needs to be spent to satisfy the jock jones?
What about the proposed West Side Stadium???
Doesn't New York deserve to have THREE big stadiums going up at once??It would put NY into the Guiness Book.Somebody get Bloomburg on this,or Trump...
--Just North of the 72 St Subway,where Broadway and Amsterdam go their seperate ways,sits the Apple Bank building,described in AIA's "Guide to NYC" as "one of the area's noblest and most imposing edifices".
Last time I was up here (late '05) the building was shrouded in Stella Artois banners and a black,burqua-like fabric,and that and those horrible plank-and-pipe walkways prevented me from getting a good look at the details.
Now,I noticed that the edifice had been cleaned up and the building is going condo.The bank is now in a small room with a great ceiling and is called "ATM".
A noble,imposing apartment house will emerge,marketed to millionaires as "close to Subways,banking and Grey's Papaya".
I also noted,as I was crawling around the Financial District,that quite a few of Wall Street's ex-office buildings (ie:60 Wall and the Solomon Brothers) are about to become someone's home.
Question--How many former retail/office structures (with significant architectural pedigree)have gone residential in Manhattan,and does anyone pay attention to things like that,and if so,where can I find that information??What else is being turned?
Where did all the workers that used to fill those buildings go??
And who will pay four million to live in a bank??
These are riddles that only a New Yorker can unravel for me.Help me out here...
QUESTION--This building is beautiful,and obviously new.What the hell is it??Where is it?? Who designed it??Why do I know nothing about it??It sure wasn't there 18 months ago.Or,do I know some things but I'm just experiencing architectural disconnect??
Help me out here...
--I also drove past the doomed Shea Stadium (and the replacement,looking about half-finished) all festooned with decorative construction cranes,so I bid a final goodby to it,and I'm very aware that this is the sad,final season for the venerable Yankee Stadium and it's team,whatstheirname...
Question--Why(and how)did all the forces of Nature converge at this particular time,giving NYC TWO brand-new MLB sports venues? No other city anywhere gets to build two major sports stadiums at once.Is sports so ultra-popular in NY that a billion needs to be spent to satisfy the jock jones?
What about the proposed West Side Stadium???
Doesn't New York deserve to have THREE big stadiums going up at once??It would put NY into the Guiness Book.Somebody get Bloomburg on this,or Trump...
--Just North of the 72 St Subway,where Broadway and Amsterdam go their seperate ways,sits the Apple Bank building,described in AIA's "Guide to NYC" as "one of the area's noblest and most imposing edifices".
Last time I was up here (late '05) the building was shrouded in Stella Artois banners and a black,burqua-like fabric,and that and those horrible plank-and-pipe walkways prevented me from getting a good look at the details.
Now,I noticed that the edifice had been cleaned up and the building is going condo.The bank is now in a small room with a great ceiling and is called "ATM".
A noble,imposing apartment house will emerge,marketed to millionaires as "close to Subways,banking and Grey's Papaya".
I also noted,as I was crawling around the Financial District,that quite a few of Wall Street's ex-office buildings (ie:60 Wall and the Solomon Brothers) are about to become someone's home.
Question--How many former retail/office structures (with significant architectural pedigree)have gone residential in Manhattan,and does anyone pay attention to things like that,and if so,where can I find that information??What else is being turned?
Where did all the workers that used to fill those buildings go??
And who will pay four million to live in a bank??
These are riddles that only a New Yorker can unravel for me.Help me out here...