Tag Archives: New York City

Landmarking the NYPL

Posted on August 8, 2017 by

The New York Landmarks Preservation Commission has spoken. May we strive to decipher its garbled voice? Who can deny the good sense of protecting the glorious interiors of the New York Public Library – from the likes of its own … Continue reading →

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Save twin B’way cast-irons

Posted on August 2, 2017 by

In its length and breadth, Manhattan is a free art museum for all of those who will open their eyes, whether they are Knickerbocker heirs or hoboes from Hoboken. To walk down the street is to encounter museum-worthy works of … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Whoa! Driving in N.Y., 1928

Posted on January 26, 2017 by

This video is a riot, even though I’m sure “Driving Around NYC – 1928” was mostly if not all staged. Still wild and crazy stuff, including Harold Lloyd taking Babe Ruth to Yankee Stadium. Anybody know who, just before that, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Humor, Photography, Uncategorized, Video | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Best skyscrapers 2016: Yawn

Posted on December 18, 2016 by

No surprise here, but Dezeen has published a list of the ten best skyscrapers of 2016. I’ve chosen to spotlight the pyramidal monstrosity in New York City by Bjarke Ingels, the Danish architect and founder of the firm BIG. The … Continue reading →

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Stairway to nowhere in N.Y.

Posted on October 11, 2016 by

Above is “The Vessel,” so-called. Jim Kunstler has selected it for October’s Eyesore of the Month, on his website. “The Vessel” is designed by Thomas Heatherwick, the British architect who specializes in the ridiculous. It is apparently an attempt to mimic … Continue reading →

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Gaudi’s Manhattan tower

Posted on July 3, 2016 by

That Gaudi had considered erecting a New York skyscraper is not widely known. William O’Connor writes of it in “Gaudi’s Lost Manhattan Tower” for the Daily Beast. O’Connor prates absurdly of Gaudi’s modernism – more than any other major architect, … Continue reading →

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Techno-narcissist Kunstler’d

Posted on April 17, 2016 by

James Howard Kunstler’s latest Eyesore of the Month, which I reprint from his blog Clusterfuck Nation, had to be the winner of this year’s ridiculous eVolo Magazine architecture contest. And so it was. Only the ugliest and the stupidest entries … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Development, Humor, Landscape Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Gird Penn Station’s rebuild

Posted on March 17, 2016 by

Connecticut architect Duo Dickinson, who writes regularly on architecture, often critical of modernism, has just written “Sprinting to the Past” in Common/Edge. He rails against Brooklyn architect Richard Cameron’s proposal to rebuild Penn Station as Charles Follen McKim designed it in … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Froma Harrop: Don’t bury our cities in megatowers

Posted on March 2, 2016 by

An excellent rattling of sabres at megatowers was published in Sunday’s Providence Journal by Froma Harrop, my former colleague on the paper’s editorial board. Froma writes a twice-weekly syndicated column for Creators Syndicate on the full panoply of issues in … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Preservation, Providence Journal, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Calatrava’s dinosaur

Posted on February 24, 2016 by

Next week, starchitect Santiago Calatrava’s dinosaur of a transportation hub will open at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan. The cost, mostly in federal dollars, was $4 billion for the station and its Oculus, a sculptural – or, really, sepulchral – … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Art and design, Development, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments