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Would the city be prettier if it were all of a style, planned, and coordinated?
We have a jumble, buildings of all types cohabiting in every space. Long, tall, short, pointy-topped, balconied or not.
What facade would we impose over a conformed city? How would such an entity progress?
Would it be more beautiful to behold? Or just frozen in time and materials?
This little tour is by no means a definitive study of architectural history.
1 There’s a generic quality, I was thinking, to some of these big apartment buildings. The one on this near corner is a case in point. It resembles others in the general neighborhood, like one designed by Robert A.M. Stern on East End and 80th. That one looks a lot like a Stern property just west of Central Park near Columbus Circle.
Of course, dwellings can be considered generic in the sense that they are, for the most part, boxy and rectangular.
2, 3, 4 A row of houses that have been remodeled in a way that makes them look stylized and a touch cartoonish. One set of dormers are elongated. The columns are extra long on one facade. All the fronts are crisper than the original would be. The effects of modernization are attractive if a touch odd.
5 This corner of Lexington Avenue is where to find an old-time soda fountain. The spot has been around long enough to make history.
6, 7 Looking up at tall and new buildings on our immediate horizon
Two “spas” in adjacent basement spaces have met with different fortunes. LuLu has closed while Spring Spa is still in business.
Something is being built: Cranes in the sky give an air of prosperity.
Atop an antic 4-storey building, the added floor seems precarious. The facade is painted a jaunty yellow with white trim around the irregular windows.
Before you protest my description, let me assure you that buildings definitely have personalities. Some appear to be arrogant; others are humble.
My own abode has a lot of history, but it peers gently and wistfully out over the waters.
It’s appropriate, I would say, that the building that Comic Strip Live occupies has a sense of humor.
There is a hint of a Middle Eastern effect in these archways and columns.
Romanesque? We see lots of mixed freestyle decorations on facades around town.
Easy influences and singular details elevate lots of buildings to the level of eye candy.
This flashy automobile created a tableau vivants by parking in front of this colorful little garden.
This rustic machine, though sufficiently muscular, hardly seems up to the task of taking in change and cash transactions.
A bay window is designed for peering out onto the bay, aka a body of water.
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