2019
Open House New York Weekend
All these words we’ll never say, all these bills we’ll never pay, all these dreams that got away, but not from me, not today
This is not the first time that the Ford Foundation (designed by Roche Dinkeloo) has been open for Open House New York, but each time there always seems to be a focus on a different part of the building. This year we went through the atrium and then down into the basement to see their theater and lecture hall, and just like the rest of the building, it seemed lost in 1967 (or thereabouts), a welcome oasis from a time not otherwise represented so well in the city.
My real first priority this year (despite visiting it second due to logistics) was Toshiko Mori’s brand new building at 277 Mott Street. It was a small commercial spec building with some really fun details (especially at the stairs), just as you might suspect.
You would think that I’d be all about a museum called the Skyscraper Museum, after all I generally like museums and almost always love skyscrapers. But I’ve never really been impressed with New York’s Skyscraper Museum, it’s just too damn small and really out of the way. But, on Open House New York when there’s free admission, suddenly I find myself all about the Skyscraper Museum. I guess I am a cheap bastard after all.
As for the pictures, the first one features a skyscraper that never was, but one that would have easily been one of the most interesting in the city if built (note that I’m saying most interesting and not necessarily best). This is the top of Daniel Libeskind’s Freedom Tower for the World Trade Center, a building that we’ll never know if we liked or not because it was always too interesting note that I’m saying most interesting and not necessarily good) to be built by any New York real estate developer.
Open House New York is kind of like a treasure hunt, and following the treasure map to sites you never even heard of is part of the fun. One of these sites is the Claus Porto shop, which is really over designed (note that I am saying over designed and not necessarily good).
New York Marble Cemetery has been on my Open House New York shortlist for some time now, but it took this long to actually get there. What I found was a surprisingly nice space, a hidden oasis in of dead people in the middle of the chaos of the city.
The last site that I visited this year was one of the best. Paul Rudolph’s terrific Modulightor Building feels as vertiginous and unsafe as you could hope for in a Paul Rudolph building, and its return to the Open House New York lineup definitely warranted another visit. That’s it for Open House New York this year, see you in 2020.
Keep going back in time. Open House New York 2018 is next.
