4 New York Plaza

[lofter1]

Consider if you will 4 New York Plaza (http://www.nyc-architecture.com/LM/LM021-4NEWYORKPLAZA.htm) (Carson, Lundin & Shaw; 1969) at the corner of Broad & Water Street (Operations Center for Manufacturer Hanovers Trust) ...

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/Financial%20District/4NYPlaza_01a15.jpg

It is a Brutalist hunk of brown bricks which looks all the better for being located amidst some of NYC's ugliest hunks of metal, concrete and glass ...

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/Financial%20District/4NYPlaza_01a2.jpg

The facade along Broad Street is very strong ...

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/Financial%20District/4NYPlaza_01a16.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/Financial%20District/4NYPlaza_01a18.jpg

But I'm not so crazy how it comes at you as you move southwest along Water Street ...

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/Financial%20District/4NYPlaza_01a1.jpg

And the treatment along street level there is particularly harsh ...

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/Financial%20District/4NYPlaza_01a11.jpg

Viewed from the south across the open space of 1 NY Plaza, number 4 is clearly the winner in this group ...

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/Financial%20District/4NYPlaza_01a24.jpg

[antinimby]

I wonder what historic buildings were torned down for this piece of garbage.

The 50's and 60's were not kind to this city.

[Derek2k3]

I like it, fits right in. Wouldn't want to work there though. Nice shots lofter.

[kz1000ps]

Viewed from the south across the open space of 1 NY Plaza, number 4 is clearly the winner in this group ...

I like 2 NYP, and definitely better than 4.

I look at 4 and clearly see a musical rhythm written out in those windows, and although the rhythm is alright from a playing-music standpoint, visually played out it's awkward. By that I mean the way how there's a 3-per-bay breakdown in the window pattern, and for me the two places where the 3 pattern is used (the "thigh" area in a syncopated fashion, and up top where it's repeated ad-infinitum) ends up being the areas that destroy any saving features this building might have had.

Traditionally the lower sections should be vertically solid to show strength (it's usually the stone/brick/metal piers playing this role, but with this building it's the windows),and with the so-called thigh area the one spot (out of three) where there isn't a window is where there should definitely be one, and this suspension is where the term "syncopation" comes into play. As a rhythm it would be a hip thing to play once or twice as a flourish, but it doesn't work as the rhythmic foundation, and visually here it still has over half the building to support!

And then there's the upper section of the building. The thigh area doesn't provide any visual relief, so you probably look up, where you have a comparatively boring spanse that doesn't provide any rest because (literally) on top of that you have, well, the top, with that too-busy window pattern. It uses the old standard of having more, smaller windows as the building rises to give the appearance of dissolving into weightlesness, but here it ends up looking like a gigantic ventilation/mechanical area, and needless to say a heavy mechanical area.

It's a totally wrong way to finish off this building, especially in these colors. And to bring it back to musical examples for a second - the way how the top windows break out into threes is unrelenting, devoid of any relief ("accents" in music-speak), and reminds me of those overkill-ish electronic hand claps you used to hear on any given '80s pop song.. as pleasant to absorb as a machine gun's bullets.

4 NYP.. is not great, but I think it works as a singular, insular object. It has a strong, bold New York quality to it, yet I feel it'd be right at home in futuristic Shanghai, too. Plus, it's forever sketched in my head since they used it in Sim City.

[Tectonic]

I can't breathe its stifling.

[Fabrizio]

I see the medieval fortress, and allusions to Renaissance palazzi.

IMHO, like it or not, it’s real architecture done with good material (beautiful color) and workmanship. You can see the thought, the design considerations that went into this. It is intellectual.

The window treatment is perfect. The relation to the street is what could be expected with much of late 60’s office architecture.

I can look and look and look at this, I get lost in it. It is a beautiful object. You wouldnt want a city full of these Brutalist beasts, but a few like this and the Whitney, add a nice touch.


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[MikeW]

Ah, yes, the giant bring computer punch card (this is what the window are designed to evoke). I worked in that monstrosity for a year.

If they wired it up with dynamite, I'd push the plunger with a song in my heart.

[BrooklynRider]

If they wired it up with dynamite, I'd push the plunger with a song in my heart.

Why Mike, you are getting a little poetic here.

I like the building (this brutalism is preferrable to, say, FIT), but I wouldn't want to work in it.

[LeCom]

Would probably be one of the better places in the city to be in during a nuclear strike.

The building is imposing indeed, but it is not oppressive or dark. The brick on it is real high quality and shimmers in the sun.