Let’s play a game called ‘Better, Worse, Same’. In this game you choose a building. Then you research and locate the building that was on the site prior to the current building. You compare the buildings and then state whether the current building is BETTER (an improvement), WORSE (a mistake), or SAME (no change, both buildings are equal). If for example a parking lot was the prior site, then 99.9 percent of the time the current building is BETTER. If a prewar trophy was torn down for a crappy box, then the current building is WORSE. Finding buildings in the SAME category should be a doozy, for many.
I’m not picking any sides, or abhorring, but if we can, let’s try to stay in NYC as much as possible.
To get things started I’ll start it off.
Current: Empire State Building
Prior: Waldorf Astoria
BETTER
Current: Brooklyn Bridge Ramp
Prior: Park Row Buildings (NY World Building and Tribune Building)
WORSE
Current: Bank of NY Mellon Building (Irving Trust Building)
Prior: Number One Wall Street
SAME