Silly Snow

Our historic blizzard turned into a nice little bit of snow. It is pretty snow, but perhaps not worth all the craziness or what Pat Kiernan of NY1 called placing "the entire city under house arrest"

Still, I was only moderately inconvenienced by the lockdown. I felt bad for people who get paid by the hour especially those who work in the evening.

One of the guys who lives at the shelter near my subway stop was hanging around yesterday while the storm was tapering off. He is a bit ravaged by drink or drugs, but he always smiles at me and says hello. He was watching the snow, his battered face lit with joy. He said, "isn't it beautiful? It's so clean, like a waterfall."

At 34th street, the city had totally vanquished the snow as it always does.

There were no cars, not even on 8th avenue leading into midtown.

Elm trees in Union Square park. 

Equinox: Missing the Point of the Sun Triangle

For years, I have wanted to visit the Sun Triangle sculpture on the equinox. It was designed by a geophysicist named Athelstan Spilhaus and it is supposed to line up with the sun at noon. The sculpture is an the Avenue of the Americas right across from Rockefeller Center. It is in front of one of those brutal skyscrapers that loom along the avenue. I have never managed to get there at noon, or the equinox was cloudy. This year everything fell into place.

Equinox light is usually pretty harsh and midday is blindingly bright. On Sunday, though, the light was actually quite pretty.

The stained glass panels at the Myrtle Avenue station were illuminated which is rare. Most of the time they are inky black as there is very little direct sun on the station.

I probably should have done a little google search before rushing off. I was not sure what would line up with the sun. I thought I would figure it out when I got there. But it was not obvious. I was misled by the oval maps of the northern and southern hemisphere near the sculpture. I figured that the triangular shadow would line up with the southern hemisphere in the fall and the norther hemisphere in the spring representing the sun passing the equator. 

I was wrong. In fact the longest side points to the sun at the spring and fall equinoxes, the steepest side points to the sun at the summer solstice and the shortest side points to the sun at the winter solstice. The maps are a red herring. I would not have been able to enjoy the moment in any case as the sunken plaza was closed off for Sunday.

I could go back at the solstice, but I am not sure I will. It is not as exciting as Manhattanhenge, unfortunately.

Midtown Getting Taller

Detail of the Roosevelt Hotel

On Sunday, the New York Times had an article about how Mayor Bloomberg wants to rezone the area around Grand Central Station. He wants taller buildings. It is hard to imagine an area less in need of more tall buildings. There are some pretty old ones in the area and I worried that these were in danger. So I plunged out in the afternoon gloom to see which buildings would fall under the rezoning footprint.

Luckily most of them were stodgy old brick buildings or bland glass blocks. I have a fondness for the old brick buildings and I would be sad to see them replaced. But at least none of the old beauties is in danger.

Well almost none, 345 Madison is one of the buildings that may be torn down. It is all black marble and bronze highlights. I sketched it once years ago, I would miss it.

While I was prowling around, I passed one of my favorite mid-century buildings diagonal to the Chrysler Building.

I love its streamlined arches and its pressed aluminum.

I cannot go into this part of town without passing the Chrysler building. It is too close to appreciate its spire, but it's good to appreciate the entrances too.

One main drawback to the rezoning is it could add 16,000 workers to the area. On a cold rainy Sunday, the streets were full of people, I can't imagine where all those new workers would fit.

Apple Store Has Not Ruined Grand Central

  
I had to go to midtown today and I am relieved to see how tasteful the new Apple store is.  Its logos are barely visible on the staircase landings and under the alcove.

I took a circuitous route to midtown, through Soho which had some lovely if monochromatic light.
 

I feel as if I am in a holding pattern. I am just wandering around taking pictures, waiting for inspiration.

The Seagram Building

When I was hunting down red subway stations the other day, I passed one of my favorite buildings in midtown; the Seagram Building.

Long ago when New York was wilder, I was a foot messenger.  I always admired this building. Although it was so similar to its neighbors, it was more elegant and pleasing to look at.  I did not realize until later that it was THE Seagram Building of Mies Van Der Rohe.  This was because my image of the building came from my art history book and looked like this:

At the ground level, the plaza is the most important element and the building's monolithic presence fades

I was particularly fond of the fountains with a calming presence that would soothe out the activity from Park Avenue.

I would sit on the low marble wall and (probably) roll a cigarette, watching the water touch the edges.

 It is sad that this building inspired so many mediocre copies.

Grand Central Station

When I am in midtown, I always try to swing through Grand Central. It is hushed and cool in there despite of the crowds.


In the bad old days, the ceiling was dark from cigarette smoke. I could never reconcile myself to the post renovation ceiling color. The old (dirty) ceiling looked very dark blue, like the night sky with the constellations showing through faintly. I have often wondered if the ceilings were supposed to be sea green. Maybe the restorers stripped away more than tobacco stains.

The small circles on the arched grill act like pinhole cameras. Between 2pm and 3pm on a cloudless day, it is possible to see an image of the sun projected onto a piece of paper. I really want to try this when I have an hour to kill in the middle of a sunny afternoon.

The chandeliers have bare bulbs because the station was in one of the first areas to be electrified and the designers were showing off the new technology.

Outside there is no way to avoid the Metlife building. It is just a huge mass of international style architecture right in the middle of all the Beaux Arts buildings. I think I liked it better when it had the Pan Am logo on top.

It is a little silly to fuss about overdevelopment in midtown. Even the post office has a modern office tower on top of it.

The light on the scaffolding made me want to walk around with color negative film again. It was particularly pretty light. The humidity filtered it as if through ground glass.

I love the tunnels under the New York Central Building. The viaduct around Grand Central marks separation between uptown and downtown. Heading up is the best, swerving past the station and through the tunnel which spills the cars out onto Park Avenue. I wish there were room for pedestrians.

Midtown

I don't usually go to Midtown, I have little reason to. However, the other day, I found myself there trying to get out of the Grand Central Station at the exit closest to where I wanted to be. It didn't work and then suddenly, I found myself in the belly of the Chanin Building.



This is the exit from the subway to the Chanin Building. By the way the building is a monument to Irwin Chanin a major real estate developer of the 1920's. The facade is terra cotta with a bas relief of fantastic flowery images. I had never seen this corridor and the it gave me an unexpected pleasure. I decided to come back and explore the next day.

I remembered quite soon why I don't spend more time taking pictures in Midtown. There are not so many places where one can take pictures. There are security guards in the lobbies, policemen in the places that have the slightest security risk. Still I found a few places that reminded me why I secretly love this part of town.



The French Building is another monument to a jazz age prince. It has a lot of stylized near east art with an art deco vibe. All the powerful men of the time built some kind of magnificent building. They all had a softness for the naked female embellishment as well.



Check out the decorative form on the awning of the Waldorf=Astoria



I love the Seagram Building. In my art history book it looked so mundane and it took me weeks of passing in front to realize that this elegant inviting space was THE SEAGRAMS BUILDING. The plaza in front is one of the finest spots in the city, with its fountains and dark green marble blocks that serve as benches. I did not photograph them because people were using them, some working, some resting, I didn't want to disturb. But this image gives the sense of the place.



And here



This building is right on Park Avenue with all the noise and traffic and yet it is peaceful.

Oh, and here is an arty picture of the fountain



I moved on to the General Electric Building whose brick was chosen to match the church across the street from the Seagram Building. Unfortunately, the GE Building was being renovated, so it was covered with scaffolding.



The beautiful top of the building with its tracery representing radio waves, the logo so many cool details were obscured. However here are some ground level radio waves



For those who believe that Art Deco is fascist art, I offer the base of the radio waves



That clenched fist is giving me a heavy international workers union feeling. Everybody liked Art Deco back then.

I wanted to offer a picture of the modern and wonderful Citicorp Center, but the policeman standing guard was forbidding. I love this spot with the three buildings from different eras, all fine examples within three blocks of one another.

Of course the most beautiful building of all is the Chrysler Building



Its silvery form floats on the horizon. Nothing can compare. If I could fly, I would go straight to its spire.