What building/style is this?

elysium · #1 Posted **Jul 21, 2008, 8:40 PM**

Does anyone know what building this is that's in front of the Hearst Tower? I can't find any information on it. I think it's rather beautiful. It looks Art Deco to me, but I could be wrong. It seems like it could be in one of those dystopian sci-fi movies like Brazil or Metropolis (at least in other images it does). I appreciate any info.

ethereal_reality · #2 Posted **Jul 21, 2008, 9:03 PM**

If you mean the shorter one on the left, it's 2 Columbus Circle
designed by Edward Durell Stone (1964)
It was originally the Huntington Hartford Gallery of Modern Art

It looked like this until recently.

If you want to see more images google 'Lollipop Building'

Of course, you might be talking about one of the other buildings.
If so, just ignore by post.

elysium · #3 Posted **Jul 21, 2008, 9:42 PM**

Yeah, I'm actually referring to the tall one, although that one is interesting as well.

Patrick · #4 Posted **Jul 21, 2008, 10:41 PM**

I think your talking about the Central Park Place. Completed in 1988, the tower rises 56 stories with 301 condo units. It is one of the few aluminum-clad skyscrapers in NYC. It has a postmodern design?

All pictures from Wired New York.

elysium · #5 Posted **Jul 21, 2008, 11:02 PM**

Thanks a lot! It looks a lot different up-close. It still seems like it has an art deco inspiration, though.

Alliance · #6 Posted **Jul 21, 2008, 11:29 PM**

No, not really at all. Its blatant post-modernism.

elysium · #7 Posted **Jul 22, 2008, 12:22 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alliance

No, not really at all. Its blatant post-modernism.

I didn't say it wasn't in that style, but it has art deco elements. There's nothing that prevents a postmodern building from being inspired from something else. The Washington Mutual Tower in Seattle and the NBC Tower in Chicago are both postmodern interpretations of art deco, for example. Apparently there were quite a few postmodern art deco buildings, a lot of which were constructed around the same time (late 80s). From the wiki article on the postmodern style: "Another return was that of the “wit, ornament and reference” seen in older buildings in terra cotta decorative façades and bronze or stainless steel embellishments of the Beaux-Arts and Art Deco periods. In post-modern structures this was often achieved by placing contradictory quotes of previous building styles alongside each other..." So, I respectfully disagree.

muppet · #8 Posted **Jul 22, 2008, 2:51 AM**

alot of 80s POMO has art deco references

Tom Servo · #9 Posted **Jul 22, 2008, 4:54 AM**

this is the counterpart to all those trapezoid buildings of the late 80s. this is one of those buildings built during the pomo era of making buildings interesting and funky shapes and such... one of those confused pomo towers that lacks any real reference and relies on its decidedly non-box massing and quasi-confused shape as its rejection of modernism; almost as if it can't willingly commit to the post-modern aesthetic. the aluminum makes this building generally harmless and hard not to like as a skyscraper.