It's been reputed, and many times repeated, that Guy de Maupassant would have lunch at the Eiffel Tower because it was the one place in Paris where he wouldn't have to look at it. Frankly, I'll take the Eiffel Tower over the New York Palace any day.
But some of our uglier buildings offer some of our better views. I recently spent some time in a corner suite on the 53rd and 54th floors...
And can now take you on a bird's eye tour of midtown.
Here's St. Patrick's, the largest Catholic cathedral in the U.S. (but not the largest church in NYC), begun in 1851, abandoned during the Civil War, and then resumed and completed in 1879. (Well, not the towers--they were finished nine years later.)
Just past the towers you can make out the gardens on top of the International Building at Rockefeller Center. This is the building where Lee Lawrie's statue, Atlas, holds up the world in the front courtyard. This building is also where Ian Fleming worked as a spy during World War II and was one of the locations where he set his first James Bond book--Casino Royale. From the International Building, James Bond shoots someone in the RCA Building (now GE) and earns his license to kill, his double-o.
The gardens are often used in the television show 30 Rock and the garden on the left is where Spiderman swings Mary Jane after rescuing her from the Green Goblin in Times Square in the first of the Spiderman movies. My favorite byte of trivia is that NBC uses this garden to record many of the performers during the lighting of the Christmas tree festivities. The poor people who crowd in the streets surrounding the tree never actually see the singers they've come to stalk.
This is the garden on top of the British Empire Building. You can also see the ice skating rink, Paul Manship's gold statue, Prometheus, and this year's 72' tall Christmas tree. (You can blow up any of these pictures by clicking on them.)
Right out the window is the New York Magazine Building whose sign gives a great welcome to those waking up in the suite, a reminder of where they are in case they're on a multi-city tour or business trip.
New York Magazine and the Empire State Building.
The Empire State Building and what was the billion-dollar headquarters for Bear Stearns, the financial giant that stumbled and crashed this past spring.
The Chrysler Building, Bear Stearns, and the Empire State Building.
The amazing and beloved Chrysler Building, which was the first building to be taller than the Eiffel Tower. The first skyscraper to rise above the Chrysler was the Empire State Building. It makes a nice historical and architectural sandwich--the Eiffel Tower on one side and the Empire State on the other.
The black building in the middle there belongs to my favorite publisher (the one that published Robert Westfield's Suspension): HarperCollins. Two wonderful buildings can be seen flanking HC. On the left, you can make out St. Thomas and on the right is one of my favorite new buildings, the Austrian Cultural Forum on 52nd.
A closer look at the Austrian Cultural Forum. Architect: Raimund Abraham.
Thank you. As I read through these I can hear your voice.
Posted by: Jamie Baker | December 16, 2008 at 11:28 AM