Friday, December 12, 2008

New York City Buildings That Need to Go

I heard something on the radio a while back about how Washington DC was designed to salute Italian architecture, with all its columns and grand boulevards. New York did not have that option, confined to an island, and grew in various eras. And some of the buildings that have appeared have long ago worn out their welcome. Here's an article from the New York Times (that I first saw on kottke, of course)

I'm from New York (well the suburbs) and I've been to most of these buildings and I wouldn't miss any one of them in the slightest. Discuss.
  • Madison Square Garden and Pennsylvania Station - despite the fact that my beloved Rangers play there, the Garden is a pit. And the rabbit warrens of Penn Station underneath it are even worse. Build me something new, please.
  • Trump Place - this relatively new residential complex, which is only slightly larger than The Donald's ego, is a nice place, but I don't want to live there, which is part of the problem - people are heading elsewhere. Remember - less is more, OK, Donny?
  • The Javits Convention Center - It took me a while to make my first visit here, partially because it's on the Hudson River and very hard to get to. And it's ugly. And cavernous. Big Jack should have a more fitting building named for him.
  • Annenberg Building, Mount Sinai Medical Center - it's the ugly brown cube in the middle of this picture.
  • 375 Pearl Street - home to the Verizon empire, hey can I help take this one apart?
  • Astor Place - this patchwork building bears the stain of several architects and sits atop a lobby filled with ATMs.
  • 2 Columbus Circle - designed by Edward Durrell Stone, who also designed this place where I went to school - he's got a thing for the big ugly concrete things, doesn't he?

3 comments:

Lana Gramlich said...

Ironically, I dreamed that I was sneaking through Trump Tower (& Donald's own office, even,) last night. I was in North Manhattan & had to get down to the Southern end of the island. It was all quite strange, of course.

Anonymous said...

You misread the article, at least the part about 2 Columbus Circle. Ououssoff calls Edward Durrell Stone's original design a "key historical landmark." What he is criticizing is the new building done by the Museum of Arts and Design.

Brave Astronaut said...

Lana - with the dreams that you have, Charles must have to sleep elsewhere - it's very crowded in there.

Anon - My point is still that while I have seen a number of Stone's buildings, none of them are very attractive.