Times Square Frenzy

Walking in and around Times Square I cannot avoid but wonder about the new skyscrapers that have been erected since the new millennium started. When I came to New York in 1998 Times Square looked almost like a shanty-town, compared to how it looks like today. I remember the cross section of 7th Avenue and 42nd street, where there was a building of two a three stores, covered by a brown metal facade that gave it a gloomy look, a sort of relic from times gone by, a souvenir from a not yet distant 1970’s and 60’s when Times Square used to be a sort of night street scene from “Taxi Driver”, covered with prostitutes, pimps and drug dealers. Few months after my arrival, the short structure on the 42nd at 7th Avenue North-West corner was tore down and in it is place was erected the Reuter building. The Reuter building has a high from base to flag of 659 feet or 201 m. –2 blocks tall, and it was designed by Fox and Fowle. This was only the beginning of the construction frenzy that I witnessed around 42nd street during the last decade.The North side of 42nd street, from Broadway to 6th Avenue, was covered by small, two or three storied, old buildings colored in red or brown, with signs and billboards from small business that used to offer souvenirs for tourists, photographic cameras, t-shirts and all kind of NYC memorabilia; there were also a martial arts store on the south side of the street and sex toys shops populated around the block. The last memory I keep from those places, besides people shopping around to the small businesses, was a performance by two women artists in the window of one of those stores. Shortly after that performance what was left of the block was tore down to give way to the Bank of America building, at 6th Avenue from 42nd to 43 streets. The Bank of America structure, second tallest building in NYC after the Empire State building and four tallest in the country, is 945 feet or 247 meters tall, have 52 floors and was co-developed by BOA and the Durst Organization at a cost of around 1 billion dollars, designed by Cook+Fox Architects and Gensler. In the same block there is the Conde Nast building, whose construction started in 1996 and was completed in 1999. The Conde Nast stands at 866 feet or 264 meters to the top of the spire, it has 48 floors also designed by Fox and Fowle and is also owned by the Durst Organization. Across the street from the BOA building lays the so-called Verizon building whose renovation from a class B+ to a class A building started in 2006. 192 m tall and with 40 floors, its façade was replaced and covered by glass that reflects not only the surroundings but also the nearby lights at night. Around the same time during the late 90’s was erected a building to hold the AMC theaters in the south side of 42nd between 8th and 7th Avenues; with 25 screens and 11 floors. On the other side of the same street and across the AMC stands the building that holds the Lowell theaters. The Westin Hotel opened in 2002, with 45 stories prisms split by a curving beam of light, have 868 rooms. Height 532 ft (162 m), 45 stories and was designed by Arquitectonica. The Orion residential building was started in 2004, at 42nd street and 9th Avenue. Featuring 58 stories covered by a blue glass facade. The New York Times Building opened on November 19 of 2007. Rises 748 feet or 228 meters from the street to its roof, with the exterior curtain wall extending 92 feet or 28 meters to 840 feet or 256 meters. Above there is a mast, adding to a total of 1,046 feet or 319 meters. This building is the third tallest building in New York and the seventh tallest in the United States.If you ever have arrived in New York at night, by airplane, you can see from miles in the distance the lights of the city reflected in the sky. Once on the ground, and walking though its streets, it would be impossible to look at the nightly sky and see the stars. So much light reflected in the atmosphere impedes the viewer to see the celestial constellations and planets. Living in NYC “we spend more and more time under roofs and surrounded by walls, whether in cars or buildings, and less and less time in night’s true darkness, unmitigated by artificial light. The light pollution generated by cities makes it hard to see more than a few of the brightest stars in many places, and smog taints the colors of the sky by day (and gives Los Angeles its blood-red sunsets)” (Solnit 147-48). The building frenzy in Times Square is not over yet. In fact, a new structure is about to be inaugurated at 42nd and 8th Avenue, right across the New York Times building. Another one just started at the Lincoln tunnel exit, in the south side of 42nd between 9th and 10th Avenues. Looking at this concentration of skyscrapers I wonder about the effects of overcrowding; on water, air, electricity, gasoline consumption, noise and light pollution on the island of Manhattan and its surroundings. A second part for this paper would have to deal with research on changes in concentration of pollutants in the air, water and soil in the last 10 years.

Bibliography:
Rebecca Solnit. Storming the Gates of Paradise. Landscape for Politics. University of California.
http://wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers
http://timessquare.nyctourist.com
http://local.yahoo.com/info-11150802-amc-theatres-empire-25-new-york
http://cinematreasures.org/theater
www.cityrealty.com/nyc/manhattan/the-orion-350-west-42nd-street
http:wirednewyork.com/hotels/westin_times_square_hotel
http://wirednewyork.com/hotels/westin_times_square_hotel/
http://newyorktimesbuilding.com

The police was here tonight

The police was here tonight. Somebody was killed two weeks ago. A jewelry store owner. He used to sell diamonds and pearls on Madison Avenue, a block from where my studio is. A witness produced a spoken portrait of an ethnic man-–probably black or Hispanic-- wearing a winter hat and sunglasses, and a partial mask, a god damned stereotype. The sketch was put in the lobby of my building and when I saw it looked so much like anybody black or Hispanic, with a hat and sunglasses, that I thought people would inevitably mistake me as the killer.

So the first thing to do was not go up and down Madison Avenue for a couple of weeks. But I had to go to the bank and the nearest Citibank branch is also a few blocks away. So I went. Maybe somebody called the police. Maybe the cops are just questioning everybody in the neighborhood. In any case they knocked at my door; and I opened it.

When I saw the first cop I thought it was the architect that came twice before to do an appraisal of my studio, he was white, the second officer was black; I guess it is very difficult not to think in stereotypes. I told them to come inside. They asked me what I was doing the day of the crime. “I don’t remember, when was it?” –“Last Wednesday, at noon”—“I was in classes”. Then I tried to produce a copy of my class schedule. “It is not necessary”, one of them said. Then, they left.

I went walking around the block after. Most of the posters showing a picture of the murderer and reward for information conducing to his capture had been either torn or taken away altogether. I suppose people who feel they could be erroneously classified as potential criminals are as scared and suspicious as I‘m.