Future New York


I know, I know, I'm supposed to be Mr. Post Apocalyptic New York but I'll have an odd day where I get excited about the possible non-wasteland New York of the future. I had read about Herzog & de Meuron's new apartment building a few years back and got really excited about it. A lot of people have been talking about how without Yamasaki's twin towers, New York's downtown skyline is both unrecognizable and unremarkable (I guess the Woolworth building doesn't count). This would be a great step forward for the city–issues with it being an aerie for the mega-rich aside. I would place it in the company of 30 St. Mary Axe in London in terms of excitingness. Sure it will kind of stick out for a while, interrupting the kind of hill/valley/hill skyline between Wall Street and midtown but I always think about a 3 second shot of the Manhattan of the future in the movie the Fifth Element and how the city is destined to grow higher and higher and how ridiculous it is that our tallest building was completed in 1931. Really long and convoluted story short, I'm really excited about this:


PS. I can't wait to see what the first acid-etched graffiti piece is going to be on that sculpture...

PPS. Whomever just anonymously sent me this NYTimes article, thank you very much.

"What a ruin it will make!”
—H.G. Wells upon seeing the New York skyline for the first time


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