2011
Open House New York Weekend
Have a flask inside my pocket we can share it on the train and if you promise to stay conscious I will try and do the same
It’s another Open House New York Weekend and the possibilities (as always) seem endless. This is my ninth annual weekend doing this and even though I’ve already seen a lot of the sites, there are always new ones to explore. Like this one. This is 505 Fifth Avenue where all that was open was the lobby, but luckily it was a pretty kick ass lobby. Designed by one of my favorite living artists (James Turrell), it felt more like an art installation than a lobby, which I guess was the point here all along.
Next up is the Hotel Americano designed by Enrique Norton, an unassuming screen covered building with great views from the rooftop and terrific coffee in the lobby. This is one of those nice new buildings made possible by the adjacent High Line, which is changing the industrial character of the neighborhood in dramatic fashion.
Why just talk about that great rooftop view of the High Line from the Hotel Americano when I can show you a picture of that great rooftop view of the High Line from the Hotel Americano.
This year saw two residential buildings near (or sometimes near-ish) the Javits Center, starting with this one at 505 West 37th Street. Here you can pay big bucks to get a view of the Lincoln Tunnel and the Port Authority Bus Terminal ramps, which is probably great if you like to look at stopped cars and listen to honking.
The other residential building is another Enrique Norton building farther uptown across from Dewitt Clinton Park. This is Mercedes House, and it looks great in this model or if you are hovering over this part of Manhattan in a helicopter or dirigible, but looks less interesting from street level. The tour included a few apartments, some of which had decent views, although none of those views were quite as good as this one of the model and that awesome S (or, I guess upside down Z) form.
Since we were near the Javits Center anyway and my friend had passes to New York Comic Con, I agreed for a quick stopover, although wee were out of there in about five minutes. My problem wasn’t with comics in general or the people there, as much as it was with people who were dressed up as characters. A lot of them were in impressive, complicated costumes, and my voyeuristic instinct was to take pictures, but whenever someone in a costume saw my camera, they stopped an posed, taking most of the fun out of it and encouraging me to not take pictures. What was interesting to me were the people dressed up in those impressive, complicated costumes just interacting normally with other people, not posing for photos. Plus it was too damn crowded anyway.
Another residential project and another building designed by Enrique Norton, who is (so far) all over this Open House New York Weekend. This is Cassa NY, a hotel and residences in Midtown. Nice, but if I’m being honest, it was the third best of the three Enrique Norton projects (so far) in this slideshow.
Open again for Open House New York is Jazz at Lincoln Center, with its theater overlooking Columbus Circle. I have been here before but still haven’t seen a performance there, although if I did ever go, it would probably be more for the view than for the performance. Sometimes it’s best to just be honest with yourself from the start.
I signed up for a night tour called Giant Screens and Lights of Times Square, which was risky since I sometimes get tired that late on these weekends (I walk a lot) and it’s impossible to hear a tour in Times Square. Making things even worse was an Occupy Wall Street protest, which made listening to the tour damn near impossible.
First thing in the morning, when the early October light makes the 42nd Street side of the Ford Foundation glow, I took this photo of the almost scaleless facade, unaware that the actual entrance is on the 43rd Street side.
I was in the Ford Foundation atrium only once before, back just before my first year in architecture school when I bought a New York City architecture guidebook and tried to see everything I could, or at least everything the guidebook told me I should. Now through Open House New York I’m back in the atrium, and after all these years it hasn’t changed a bit.
A quick stopover in Brooklyn takes us to the brand new Nitehawk Theater, a place to see movies that’s also a table service restaurant without the tables. I’m not sure I ever really saw a movie and thought to myself that I wanted to eat an expensive, high quality burger in the dark at the same time, but maybe that’s the future.
I have flown out of Terminal 6 at JFK Airport before, but don’t expect I’ll do it again as the building is being demolished as we speak. This was the Sundrome, the one with the really nice glass walls designed by IM Pei that wasn’t super exciting but still kind of nice. This also wasn’t an Open House New York site this year, but it was right next to one.
I love this building.
We’re finishing out the 2011 Open House New York Weekend at Eero Saarinen’s TWA Flight Center, possibly the single nicest building in the city and one that is always fantastic to see in person. The building did not disappoint as I furiously ran about the building attempting to get just the right picture, not knowing exactly when I’d ever be back again.
Keep going back in time. Open House New York 2010 is next.
