Air Conditioned Vision

Yes, air conditioning pushes hot air outside for the rest of us to share, and a billion people in India and China are ready to buy their first unit.  But it's hard to think about how we're melting the planet -- or to appreciate the way buildings with window units can look like an organism or a boulder-strewn or industrial landscape -- when your brain is left unconditioned, stewing in its own juices.

On top and below left, at 340 57th St., one of the more impressive AC arrays I've seen.  Below right, on W 27th St. off Broadway.



Above l-r: (1) snow on Park Ave, South, (2) a brutal arrangement at Lexington & 23rd St., (3) a more pleasing sight on the opposite (SE) corner.  Below, a sideways industrial landscape on 47th St. between 5th & 6th Aves.

20 Exchange Place

59 floors, built in 1931.  Above and at the bottom, from the south on S. William St.


Above l-r: (1 & 2) from S. William St., (3) from the north on William St.  Below left, doors at William St. & Exchange Pl., below right, from Hanover St. near Wall St.

Empire State Extra

The needle-like Empire State Building still marks the landscape.  It will be a major crime if the proposed 1,216 foot 15 Penn Plaza plastic mirror is built a few blocks away.

Above, from the Pulaski Bridge in Greenpoint, the Empire State pierces clouds.  Just below l-r: (1) from Greenpoint again, beneath an approaching plane, (2) from the West Side Highway & Gansevoort St., (3) from 1st Ave. & 18th St.



Just above l-r (1) from 6th Ave. & 30th St., (2) from Union Square, (3 & 4) from an east side avenue.


Above l-r: (1) you can just see its needle from 39th Pl. in Sunnyside, Queens, (2) looming above Lexington Ave., (3) in the middle of construction, from the Brooklyn end of the Williamsburg Bridge.  Below left, from the bridge again, in between Domino Sugar buildings.  Below right, sticking up in the middle of a Greenpoint biofuels plant.

Magnificent Midtown

(A much more attractive title than the previous "Miscellaneous Midtown"...)  Above, the southwest corner of 5th Ave. & 40th St.  Below l-r: (1) the northeast corner of 5th & 40th, (2) Madison Ave. & 43rd St., (3) 21 W 46th St., (4) looking south over the Transit Authority Bus Terminal from 43rd St.



Above l-r: (1 & 2) the Halloween-convict striped 29-31 W 47th St., (3) the NY Trust Co. Bldg. at 5th Ave. & 57th St., (4) canines guard the entrance to 242 W 30th St.


Above l-r: (1) the odd top of 242 W 30th, (2) a common column set (for its time) atop 1385 Broadway, (3) backside of the Royalton Hotel at 44 W 43rd St., (4) the Madison Belmont Building at 181 Madison Ave.  And finally, below, the Century Association at 7 W 43rd St.

On the Water

Above and below left, the Downtown Manhattan Heliport from 55 Water St.; isn't the boat behind it a little overcrowded?  Below center and right, navigating Newtown Creek.  And at the bottom, a swank edifice on the Hudson behind the Bloomfield Street Sanitation Depot; not sure if it dispatches tugs or trucks.

Fog

Above, the CitiBank Queens tower from the Pulaski Bridge.  Below l-r: (1) 47th St. east of 6th Ave., (2) the Helmsley Building from Vanderbilt Ave., (3) the Verizon tower next to the Brooklyn Bridge.