NEW YORK – Nightsky’s trip in August 2011

[Centropolis]

Wow, very detailed, thanks for the trip!

[Nightsky]

Thanks!

World Financial Center:

World Financial Center is a large office complex designed by Cesar Pelli, just next to the WTC. consist of 4 skyscrapers that were built on Battery Park City, land that were claimed from the sea with soil that was left over from the then new World Trade Center, built between 1985 and 1987. They stand just next to Ground Zero, where the old WTC stood, and were damaged during 9/11 but didn't have to be torn down. The most significant feature of these postmodern towers is that they all have brown granite facades and green copper roofs, in different shapes. Between the towers there are glass atriums. They are 152-225m tall.


World Financial Center. Here you can see 3 of the 4 towers, designed by Cesar Pelli. The tallest one is Three WFC from 1986 to the left with 51 floors and 225m height. The towers are connected with light glass atriums and skybridges.


WFC (left) and WTC (right).


Ground Zero and the solid concrete base of One WTC seen from a skybridge above West Street, looking to the North.


West Street, looking to the South towards Battery Park.


The entrance to World Financial Center.


Four WTC and Millenium Hilton seen from WFC.


The atrium in One WFC. All towers have their own atrium, this one features a lot of marble and has a dome on the top.


Winter Garden is the atrium of One Financial Center. The round glass roof, the high palms, the circular stairs and the mable floor are all special features of this place.


The marble floor may look shiny, but on 9/11 people jumped from the WTC towers, crashed through the glass roof of Winter Garden, and were killed when hitting the floor! A real tragedy...


Ground Zero, now the WTC construction site, seen from Three WFC. One WTC can be seen to the left.


One WTC u/c, seen from Three WFC:s glass atrium roof.


The exterior of Three WFC and the Winter Garden. One WFC resembles London's tallest building for years, One Canada Square.


The nice plaza outside WFC, looking towards Hudson River and Jersey City, New Jersey. It features open-air restaurants.


The atrium between Three and Four World Financial Center is slightly lighter and has a shopping arcade.


Looking up from Three WFC:s atrium.


Goldman Sachs new world HQ was completed in 2010, right next to WTC and WFC, on Battery Park City. It is 228m tall and was designed by Pei Cobb Freed who also designed a skyscraper that it reminds of a lot: Tour EDF in Paris.


Skyscrapers from the left: Goldman Sachs HQ, 7 WTC (with older bldg in front), 1 WTC, 1 WFC. This is were the Tribeca neighbourhood begins.


Federal Office Building from 1935 was damaged by a plane's landing gear on 9/11.

[Nightsky]

At the foot of WFC.


To the left is Barclay-Vesey Building, that was considered the first Art Deco skyscraper. It was built in 1926 and was badly damaged during 9/11, but has been repaired. To the right is One WTC.

[Nightsky]

And now something different on the shore west of Midtown Manhattan:

USS Intrepid is a historical aircraft carrier commissioned in 1943, one of 24 essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II. Since 1982 it houses the Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum, located in Pier 86 in Hudson River, on the west bank of Manhattan, near Hell's Kitchen and close to Midtown. It served USA during World War II and in the Vietnam war. She has visited historical places as Pearl Harbour in 1943, and Okinawa. It is one of the few aircraft carriers in the world that are open to public. Even the interior beneath deck has been converted into a museum, but I think it would be more interesting if they had kept more of the original interior. The captain's tower is comparatively authentic. The carrier is 266m long and can carry up to 100 aircrafts. Between 2006 and 2008 Intrepid was moved to Staten Island for reparations and renovation works. There are great views over Midtown Manhattan skyline and New Jersey from the upper decks of the museum.

We visited the musuem on a Friday, the day before the hurricane Irene was expected to hit New York, so it was a hectic day since we planned to take an early flight in the evening, to escape from the hurricane. It was also extremely hot and humid this day, and there were dark clouds on the sky.

USS Intrepid:


USS Intrepid was often called "The Fighting I" because of her prominent roles during battles. It participated in World War II and in Vietnam.




In 1986, Intrepid was designated a National Historical Landmark.




This Concorde, once operated by British Airways, stands just next to the carrier, as a part of the museum. Concorde was a supersonice airliner that entered service in 1976. It retired in 2003, 2 years after the fatal 2000 Paris accident. Before the accident it was known as the world's safest airliner. An interesting thing is that the first Concorde flight after the Paris accident was on September 11 2001, it landed just hours before the WTC attacks!

Midtown skyline seen from underneath the wings of the supersonice Concorde.


The Concordes used these kind of Rolls-Royce turbo engines.


Ugly highrises in commie block style on the New Jersey side, across Hudson River.




Concorde in direction towards Midtown skyline, here dominated by One Worldwide Plaza. To the right is its RR engine.


USS Growler is a cruise missile submarine. It was the 4th US Navy ship to be named from the growler, a large-mouth black bass! It was laid down in 1955 and participated in the battle of Pearl Harbour, Hawaii.

[Nightsky]

Upper deck: Aircrafts and skyline views:


Captain's tower and upper deck seen from one of the elevator towers.




Midtown Manhattan skyline.


Looking towards Empire State Building.




Skyscrapers around Times Square, tallest from the left: Marriott Marquis, One Astor Plaza, Bank of America Tower. In the near left you can see part of the Blackbird.


The black clouds above the skyline and airplanes, the day before the hurricane Irene was about to strike. We left earlier that day!


View towards mansions on hills at the New Jersey side, across Hudson River.







Blackbird, officially Lockhead A-12. It was part of the 1962 secret military program Project Oxcraft. This particular Blackbird served as a radar test example in Nevada.






The escape from New York. Cars leaving New York, escape from the hurricane Irene, along West Side Highway with Jersey City in the background. Or is it just normal rush hour?




Colourful aircrafts and tourists in front of a wealthy New Jersey suburb.


Captain's tower from upper deck.


Captain's view.


A school class, one of many that visited the museum.


Captain's sea cabin. The Spartan home of the captain.

[Nightsky]

Underneath the deck, inside the museum:


In one of the lower decks, you can find the indoor part of the museum, featuring objects of air -and spacecrafts.




A model of how USS Intrepid looked during WWII...


These kind of wagons give signals for aircrafts during takeoff and landing.


An aircraft in the indoor deck.


The skybridges connect the elevator glass tower with the aircraft carrier.

This is just a summary of my Intrepid pictures. The rest can be seen on this link:

http://www.worldtravelimages.net/New_York_Intrepid.html

[Surrealplaces]

Great shots! Love NYC!

[Nightsky]

Just outside:

[Nightsky]

Hell's Kitchen


Hell's Kitchen is a neighbourhood on Manhattan, located between Times Square and Hudson River. It is spanning from 34th to 59th streets, west of 8th Ave. It is partly a bit rundown with many workshops and warehouses, but there are also some streets that features many good restaurants and postmodern skyscrapers have been popping up in the hood. It is also known as Clinton or Midtown West. Hell's Kitchen is featured in Marvel Comics (Daredevil) and West Side Story. We only visited the hood once, on our way to Intrepid Sea air and Space Museum. It was just one day before the hurricane Irene was about to arrive, it was really hot then, like a hells kitchen...

On the way back from Intrepid we passed through Hell’s Kitchen:


Silver Towers are new 58-storey residential skyscrapers from 2009, part of the Hell's Kitchen vitalization.


One of the brand new Silver Towers.


St Clemen's Church and Theater.








Postmodern skyscrapers contrast to the gritty facades in Hell's Kitchen.


A large American car wash. In Hell's Kitchen there are many workshops and more dirty sides of the city.

[Nightsky]

Flatiron District

Flatiron District is the name for the district between Lower Manhattan and Midtown where the famous Flatiron Building is situated. Madison Square Park is situated there, where you can find some classic skyscrapers. So is Union Square, where Andy Warhol was active.



Broadway (right) and 5th Avenue (left) meets here. The famous Flatiron Building is in the middle.

Flatiron Building

This is a classic New York highrise in beaux-arts style that got the name that got the name from a flatiron because of its shape. It was built in 1902 and has 22 floors.
It is just 87 m tall, so it is not very tall, but when it was completed it was one of New York's tallest buildings. Many people think it once was world's tallest building, but that is not true. It is featured on many posters and famous movies such as the Spiderman (as the Daily Bugly Bldg). It is designated a National Historic Landmark


Flatiron Bldg seen from 5th Ave.

[Nightsky]

Madison Square Park

Madison Square Park is the beautiful square park that is surrounded by many classic skyscrapers and occupies most of Madison Square. It is situated at Madison and the intersection of 5th Ave and Broadway. Several classic skyscrapers, such as Flatiron Bldg, New York Life Bldg and Metropolitan Life Tower, once the world's tallest building, are situated around the square. Empire State Bldg is also visible from the square. It has fountains and many sculptures. The sports arena and concert hall Madison Square Garden were located at the square until it was moved in 1925.


Madison Square Park with Flatiron Bldg and the Echo sculpture.


Metropolitan Life Tower with its goldspire and famous clock. This classic skyscraper was built already in 1909. It has 50 floors and is 213m tall. Metropolitan Life was the world's tallest building between 1909 and 1913. It was modeled after the Campanile in Venice and designed by Pierre LeBrun.


One Madison Park is a very cool skyscraper since it is so thin, that is really rare to see. It was completed as late as in 2010, was drawn by Dan Kaplan and is 188m tall. It has 50 floors, all residential.


New York Life Building. A classic gothic skyscraper from 1928 that is featured on the insurance company New York Life's logo. It is 188m tall and has 40 floors.




The squirells are very social, almost tame!


Empire State Building from Madison Square Park.


Flatiron from Madison Square.

[Nightsky]

Union Square Park

This is where we begun our walk the first day after a short subway ride from Chelsea. It is one of New York's many square parks that is just what the name says; a mix between a square and a park. Union Square is the area where Andy Warhol performed for 3 years before his death in 1987. Union Square borders Chelsea, Greenwich Village, Gramercy and Flatiron District.


The equestrian stuate of George Washington. Union Square is a big subway hub, as well as home to a very rude homeless man!


The Greenmarket Farmers Market, held 4 days a week, on the 5th Ave side of Union Square.


Zeckendorf Towers with Met Life in the background.




Bank of Metropolis (left) with Decker Building where Andy Warhol had his "Factory" 1968-73 to the immediate right of it. In the Decker Bldg the attempted murder of Warhol took place in 1968. All in the west side of Union Square.




A chrome monument by Rob Pruitt dedicated to Andy Warhol. The Decker building is where he had his studio. He was active in the Union Square area.

[Nightsky]

Fifth Avenue near Madison Square Park:










New York Life Bldg with its golden spire. It was designed by Cass Gilbert.


The Gershwin Hotel. A designer hotel at 27th St.




B&W of NY classics.

[OhioGuy]

Lots of great photos!

[Nightsky]

Thanks! More will come here:

[Nightsky]

Bryant Park

Bryant Park is a small, but beautiful park in Midtown Manhattan, surrounded by skyscrapers. It is in my opinion one of New York's nicest, since there are tables and chairs that are available to borrow for lunch or breakfast. It also features a great lawn and poetry by W.C. Bryant can be read in the park. Bryant Park, a privately managed public park, is situated between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas and 40th to 42nd Streets. Times Square is only one block to the west of the park. Sometimes you can see people practice yoga and tai chi here, as well as office workers having lunch.


Some of the tables and chairs in café style that can be borrowed for free.


It is hard to believe today that in the 1970s the beautiful Bryant Park was filled with drugdealers. In 1982 the park was cleaned and security increased. Hedges were tored and the ground was lowered to nearly street level in 1987. I photographed one family here, something they were pleased with.


The building to the right is 500 Fifth Ave, a classic looking skyscraper from 1931 with some art deco elements. It has 58 floors and is 216m tall.

New York Public Library:

This is North America's largest public library. The building is called Stephen A. Schwarzman Building and was completed in 1911. We visited this classic library several times, because it has free internet and we needed to find information about the hurricane Irene. Because of that the mood was a bit similar to the ones in disaster movies, such as Day after tomorrow and Escape from New York, where this building has been featured. It has also been featured in The Adjustment Bureau, Ghostbusters, Planet of the Apes and many more movies.


Bryant Park seen from Fifth Avenue with New York Public Library. The skyscraper with the spire is Bank of America Tower.


This lion sculpture, now a famous NY symbol, stands in front of New York Public Library. It is one of 2 that guards the library on each side of the entrance.


The entrance to the Art Beaux style library contrasts with the gleaming skyscrapers that surround it.


NY Public Library's entrance hall resembles historical museum buildings in Europe with its large walls, sculptures and columns, all in with marble.


A LEGO version of the lion lies just at the main entrance. A guard looks inside your bag when you leave.




This is the magnificent 90.5m long Rose Main Reading Room where we used internet, mostly to find information about the threat from hurricane Irene unfortunately. It is also featured in some sci-fi and disaster movies, such as "The day after tomorrow" and "The adjustment bureau". It has large chandeliers and a huge painting on the roof.





Bank of America Tower:


Bank of America Tower, or One Bryant Park as it initially was called is one of New York's newest, and tallest skyscrapers. It was completed in 2009. It is currently (2011) the 2nd tallest building in New York, that reaches a height of 365m. It is also the 2nd tallest counting roof height (288m).


Only Empire State Bldg is taller, but when the new WTC is completed at least 2 of the new buildings will be taller. The architects were Cook+Fox and Adamson Associates. It is LEED certifiated, that means it is considered to be the world's greenest skyscraper! A wind turbine on top generates electricity. The glass facade is lightly green toned.




People relaxing on the backside of the beautiful Public Library in Bryant Park. The statue is of William Cullen Bryant, the journalist and romantic poet that the park is named after.


Fifth Avenue, looking South towards World Trade Center and World Financial Center (visible in the distance) in Lower Manhattan.


The sloping base of the white H.R. Grace Building.


American Radiator Building.


One of several living Statue of Liberties.


The Great Lawn where people love to sit or lie and relax. The classic beige building with green roof is MercantileBuilding from 1929.




American Radiator Building from 1924 has only 23 floors, but is one of New York's most beautiful skyscrapers. Once known as American Standard Bldg, today it houses the Bryant Park Hotel. It was the first Art Deco skyscraper ever, and the first NY building to gain landmark status.


American Radiator Building, now The Bryant Park Hotel.


Bank of America Tower to the right, 4 Times Square to the left.


W 42nd St seen from Times Square, towards HR Grace Bldg adn Chrysler Bldg with Bryant Park to the right.

[Surrealplaces]

Nice photo tour!

New York kicks ass.

[Nightsky]

Lexington Avenue, or just "Lex", is an avenue in Midtown Manhattan, between 3rd Ave and Park Ave. It goes from 21st St at Gramercy Park to the north of Central Park, but this page is about the Midtown part, where some famous skyscrapers, stores and other buildings are situated.

Citigroup Center (on Lexington) and Lipstick Bldg seen from 2nd Avenue.


Citigroup Center is one of New York's classic skyscrapers, and one of the 10 tallest. It has 59 floors and is 279m to the top. It was built in 1977. Citigroup Center (formerly Citicorp Center) is sometimes featured in the comic magazine Superman as Lex Luthor's headquarters.


The sunken green plaza under Citigroup Center.


Bloomberg Tower, was completed in 2004, 6 years after Alexander's department store was demolished on the site. It was designed by the famous architect César Pellli. Michael Bloomberg is the current mayor of New York (2011), but also was the president of Bloomberg L.P.


Bloomberg Tower is 246m tall to the roof and has 55 floors.



Bloomingdale's flagship store is huge. It has 10 floors and occupies the entire block, where it has been located since 1930.

Bloomingdale's is a bit more exclusive then Macy's.




Chrysler Building's Lexington Ave facade. For more about Chrysler Bldg, visit the E 42nd St section.


The Upper East Side part of Lexington. The 2011 Virginia earthquake was going on the hours around the occasion when I took this picture. We couldn't feel it though, but workers at the office towers did.

[Nightsky]

Columbus Circle:

Columbus Circle is the traffic circle at the southwest corner of Central Park, where Broadway ends in Northwest Midtown. The area around it is also called Columbus Circle. Dedicated to Christopher Columbus, it has changed a lot since my visit in 1998 with new beautiful skyscrapers. It has changed from a boring thoroughfare to an exciting Manhattan meetingplace. The circle was completed in 1905 and designed by the businessman William P. Eno.


Time Warner Center, a complex with 229m tall glass twin towers. Completed in 2004, it was u/c during my visit in 1998. The complex was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill features a shopping galleria, CNN TV studios, luxury apartments, Rose Hall (a theater complex that is part of Lincoln Center and features Jazz at Lincoln Center), l and one of New York's most luxorious hotels, Mandarin Oriental.




The Columbus monument in the middle of Columbus Circle was erected in 1892 and designed by Gaetano Russo. The bronze reliefs towering at the column represent Columbus 3 ships and and the angel at the podium holds a globe.




Time Warner Center with its angled twin towers seen from below. They were completed 3 years after the twin towers of WTC were detroyed.


The Shops at Columbus Circle is the 5-storey galleria inside Time Warner Center from 2004. It mostly contains upscale luxury stores such as Armani and Hugo Boss and expensive restaurants.


Columbus Circle seen from the huge glass window at Time Warner Center's shopping galleria.


Whole Foods Store, an exclusive supermarket in the ground floor of Time Warner Center.


People relaxing in the middle of Columbus Circle.


Trump International Hotel with its steel globe was originally the Gulf and Western Bldg from 1976, but was stripped to its skeleton in 1997 and recladded by a glass facade, designed by Philip Johnson and Alan Ritchie. Now it features both a luxury hotel and condos. It is 176 m tall and has 44 floors.


The steel globe in front of Trump resembles the world.


Traffic of Columbus Circle. Some of the newer yellow cabs are smaller Toyotas, that are not so charming.


The Merchant's Gate sculpture at the southwest entrance to Central Park, on 8th Avenue next to Columbus Circle.


Broadway towards Times Square is crowded with skyscrapers.


Columbus Statue, towards City Spire with a green top.


One Worldwide Plaza, a postmodern skycraper with a coppar pyramid on top.


Hearst Tower, designed by the famous architect Norman Foster, was completed in 2006 and has 42 floors. It is 182m tall. It features elements of art deco and structural elementism.


Hearst Tower was built on top of this existing postmodern building.


The atrium inside Hearst Tower is more futuristic with this sloping waterfall and escalator. Unfortunately you need a card to pass.


8th Avenue southwards towards Times Square.


Mirrorring exteriors of 8th Avenue!

[Nightsky]

Lincoln Center:

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a famous cultural complex on the south part of Upper West Side, at Lincoln Square near Midtown. The 2 main buildings were completed between 1962 and 1966. It is 6.6 ha large and was built by the initiative of John D. Rockefeller III and others. When we reached Lincoln Center it had turned dark. That is the time when this cultural complex looks the best with its illuminated facades.



The 3 buildings from the left are: 1. David H. Koch Theater, home of NYC opera and ballet. 2. Metropolitan Opera (The Met). 3.Avery Fisher Hall, the concert hall that is home of NY Philharmonic. There are also several other theaters in the complex, as well as cinemas, theater schools and restaurants.


I have a special relationship to Lincoln Center since it was the first famous building I saw whilte approaching the city by bus a dark evening on my first NY trip in 1998.


Close-up of The Met, that was completed in 1966.


Metropolitan Opera, often simiply called "The Met".






Alice Tully Hall is a modern annex to Lincoln Center, that features a striking design with glass and sharp angles. It lies on Broadway and is also called Irene Diamond Building. It is a signifigant 2009 renovation of a 1969 structure designed by Pietro Belluschi.