New York Needs a Wrecking Ball
New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff argues that some buildings make the city worse, and lists of some that need to be demolished. Included in his list are Penn Station, Madison Square Garden and Astor Place.
"Instead of crying over what can’t be built, why not refocus our energies on knocking down the structures that not only fail to bring us joy, but actually bring us down?"
"Ugliness, of course, should not be the only criterion. There are countless dreadful buildings in New York; only a few (thankfully) have a traumatic effect on the city."
"So the list will not include affronts that are merely aesthetic. To be included, buildings must either exhibit a total disregard for their surrounding context or destroy a beloved vista. Removing them would make room for the spirit to breathe again and open up new imaginative possibilities."
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Two More To Demolish
I am amazed to read an Ouroussoff column that I like. I would add two more to the list of buildings to be demolished:
1- The Federal Building on Foley Square. In addition to being out of scale with the older classical buildings on Foley Square and clashing with them stylistically, this building was set back behind a plaza that ruins the definition of the square. I think that, if they had filled its whole site rather than setting it back, they could have gotten the same square footage into a building whose height would have fit in with the other buildings around the square.
For a picture of the Federal Building, see http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/contentView.do?contentType=GSA_BASIC&co...
and for pictures of other buildings around Foley Square, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foley_Square.
2-2 Broadway on Bowling Green. Another sterile modernist intruder in what could be a great classical cityscape focused on the Custom House building.
For a picture of 2 Broadway, see http://www.nyc-architecture.com/LM/LM017-2BROADWAY.htm
For the classical office buildings around Bowling Green (with a sliver of 2 Broadway visible on the right), see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Green_(New_York_City)/
For the custom house, see
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/LM/LM012-ALEXANDERHAMILTONCUSTOMHOUSE.ht...
Charles Siegel