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The glossy architecture and advertisements of Time & Life Building.
The Time & Life Building was opened in 1959… It topped out at 587 feet and was adorned, on Nov. 24, 1958, with a 35-foot Christmas tree on top. A 9-year-old Freeport, N.Y., boy named David Drivvers, the son of the project’s foreman, hollered, “O.K., Dad, take her away!” as he threw the switch to light the tree, according to The New York Times.
Via the NYT :Men Men City; Time & Life Building
Like this:
designboom reports on the upcoming event ‘I have seen the future‘, taking place friday, february 17th, 2012 at the MACRO contemporary art museum in rome. Architecture laboratory and magazine cityvision is to announce the opening of a call for proposals that explore the future of new york city in the ’new york cityvision competition‘.
the ‘coney island’ project, designed for the municipal arts society, shows an imaginative future concept of coney island amusement park in brooklyn, part of a community attempt to counter developer proposals to turn the area into a condominium park.
Like this:
“Congestion and aesthetic blandness define Penn Station.” Amen to the fine soul (of Michael Kimmelman) who wrote this piece proposing a new Penn Station which every New Yorker has scattered amongst the chaos, dirtiness and clutter. He asks,
What is the value of architecture? It can be measured, culturally, humanely and historically, in the gulf between these two places.
Then proposes:
But the only way to fix Penn properly is to move Madison Square Garden.
This map (see below) allows you to reconsider the West Side:
Move Madison Square Garden to the current site of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, which Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo imagines moving to Queens, and create a new light-filled Penn Station.
Even more of a pity when you realize the original jewel, the glory of the original Pennsylvania Station, demolished 1963 (see below).
Like this:
Whoa; midtown and uptown storefronts signs, ye’ neon and font signs of old. This site is a little archival gem.
BRING IT!
Very cool blueprints have emerged for the Low Line; Under Delancey Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side lurks 60,000 square feet of vaulted ceilings and cobbled streets, sitting unappreciated in the dark. The Williamsburg Bridge railway terminal was abandoned in 1948, and has now become the focus of a group of entrepreneurs with an ambitious plan: to pipe natural light underground and create a subterranean park. (source: Sustainable Cities)
Mighty tall amount (via @animal new york)
Post No Bills: Finally, New York Views + Gita Lenz is on our map.
The long neglected work of Gina Lenz black and white photography surfaces with an amazing use of light (some of the photos are quite Hitchcockian with birdseye views, add a touch of Orson Wells mastery of light and sharp angles). Lenz covers the Mad Men of the City (long before the show was chic) and the various opulent window displays of uptown along with those quintessential, unmistakable New York hot summer moments of kids in swim suits, the working class and tenements lingering in the background. (The slideshow is imperative viewing).
Writer Gordon Stettinius laments: Later I learned that Gita had lived in the same apartment in Greenwich Village, at the corner of Carmine Street and 7th Avenue, since 1940. When living alone in a fifth floor walkup became impractical, our mutual friend Timothy Bartling— a chef in New York City fifty years her junior — helped her to move into an assisted-living facility and called to ask my advice about what do with her artwork and her photography equipment.
(Thanks to Josh Wallaert at Places for putting this on my radar)
Friends: Photographer David Leventi gets it. It’s the quiet New York, a bit clean, but still neon and coloured. From dusk til dawn; the city that never sleeps. I like to think of each of his shots as a story; I have about a dozen for both Odeon; maybe six for Schillers and the Empire State Building holds its own….
This is great ; via Carto Graphic and the idea to post this came from none other than This Isn’t Happiness. The illustrator, London based Anna Simmons also rocks out other cities. Check check.
If you haven’t had time to check in with From Your Desks lately, I recently talked to James and Karla Murray about their vanishing store fronts, graffiti and their pit bull, Tabasco. We also see their workspace and what is up and coming.
Hey, I know blogs stack up like magazines; so many, so little time. But the creative minds involved is too good to miss.
Therefore, I implore you…
Another sleek glass tower rendering, this one, 15 Penn Plaza blocking the clear city view of the Empire State Building. The New York Times article, Christine C. Quinn, the Council speaker, said the project was about jobs and signaled that “New York City is moving forward and moving out of this recession.”
“This project and this zoning vote today are going to help make sure New York City has a new and important 21st-century office tower in Midtown Manhattan,” she said.
Yes, I understand moving into the future, the next phase of Manhattan and the pricey world of real estate. Still yet, it cheapens the New York minute a bit more…for me.
New York Times reports the PamAm Worldport looks to be demolished for Delta’s new plans. ”Delta has long lamented the state of the Worldport, which it uses for many of its international flights, describing the space as unpleasant and unfit for its role as a gateway to the United States for international travelers. An earlier deal to exit the terminal was derailed by the 9/11 attacks; a renewed effort in 2005 failed to gain momentum.” This and perhaps I.M. Pei’s Worldport could be next. Curbed reports that Port Authority wants to wreck the other one; which remains to be seen. Preservationists will undoubtedly put up their fight. Still, where will Don Draper nab his drink? Oh right, we’re in 2010.
