NYC Facades

My college dorm building

I lived there for 4 years.

View to the northwest

See a post on my personal blog for more on this (and why I care about it).

View to the southwest

View from Water Street of Coenties slip.

The building's least attractive side, from the south

The steel cross-bracing is common, although occasionally missing. Why is that?

Edit: An anonymous source gave the following answer to the “why” above.

Regarding the cross-beams at the back of the Park Row building, and your question as to why some buildings don’t have them: its all a question of bulk and engineering. Obviously the cross-beams create a “box” while still allowing an air shaft for more windows: this serves both the engineering and commercial needs.

All buildings must handle the horizontal load generated by a maximum value of wind stress, which becomes much greater as the height increases. Pre-war buildings used steel behind the brick or stone facade, but probably still relied on the sheer weight of the masonry component. My guess is that the tools used to calculate those stresses were not terribly sophisticated, so out of an excess of caution they added cross-beams. Take a look at the back side of the Woolworth building: it too has them.

By contrast, the Twin Towers were a marvel of engineering precisely because they defied the wind: two straight towers, 110 stories, with no setbacks and no visible bracing beams (either externally or internally). The trick was to closely space the exterior columns, so that they acted like tubes, to handle both vertical and horizontal loads. This solved the dual load problem for tall buildings in a very elegant fashion, because it allowed for lightweight floors with no internal columns except for the central core.

You might find it interesting to research the design philosophy of the architect (Minoro Yamasaki) and his earlier buildings–much like Roebling, he first tried out his signature concept out of town. Say what you may about why these design decisions contributed to the buildings’ collapse on 9/11; but at the time they were built, they represented a very dramatic and novel way to solve the problem. By contrast, the Hancock Tower in Chicago relies on giant exterior cross beams.

According to wikipedia, this was the tallest office building in the world for 9 years at the turn of the century. I also recommend the contemporary perspectives quoted on wikipedia; some of them are rather funny.

Pedestrian mall

This street is so quaint and book-ended by serious, meaningful buildings. It alludes to a much different era, preserved only as a place of recreation.

View to the south

In the canyons of the financial district it is surprising to have any open area such as this square, formed by Pearl, Wall and Beaver Streets.

Cancer Hospital, now Condos!

There’s lots on the web about this building. It was originally the New York Cancer Hospital (they seem to have a better angle on the building). See its latest development (no pun intended).

Over-door detail

This is quite a standout of a building; it reminds me of middle aged artist types who have tattoo sleeves (Sweet Pea from Project Runway, anyone?). I tried to get a close-up panorama of the decoration at the top, but it didn’t come out; note how the middle column and side columns have consistent decorations across.

Since this is on Central Park South, while I was taking pictures of the building, a woman came up  to take a picture of the carriage horse; she seemed to think it was just the funniest thing having the horse in front of a fancy building. (I didn’t agree.)

Front view

Window detail

Although I wasn’t on a photo mission (it was a biking mission), I found this building quite interesting. The crucifix motif around each window is quite unusual, and almost certainly references the Church of the Good Shepherd one block away.

Full frontal view

Dormer Windows

Western Union insignia

Lower floor detail

Although it has great features, the curb appeal of this building is only so-so; it is big, red, and imposing from street level. But when you stand back, it’s actually not such a menace. I didn’t notice so many details on it when I originally went past it, however looking at the pictures now I can see quite a few.

Look also at this condo redevelopment page for the “history” and some other “images”.