Empire State Building

view of Empire State Building from 19th St.

I remember sophomore year in architecture school after taking classes about form, function, space and light I took a studio with a professor who said, it's not really about any of those things.

It's about an Idea, he said.

The Empire State Building was the tallest building in the world for forty-one years until it was eclipsed by the World Trade Center. But that doesn't matter because I feel everyone still believes it is the tallest. Everyone knows the building King Kong climbed, or in the movie An Affair to Remember where Deborah Kerr was supposed to meet Cary Grant.

The Empire State Building was probably the first building I photographed when I moved to New York City. Taking the train into the city from Brooklyn every morning for work, it was also the first building in Manhattan I would see before entering the city. When I looked at it I would remind myself, now that I'm here I'm going to work as hard as I can to make it happen. I see so many people working hard to make a living here...vendors on the street, cab drivers, artists, they probably thought the same thing.

I don't take photos of the Empire State Building anymore I know it's still here. But when I saw it fading into the clouds a couple days ago I took this shot. It reminds me that I'm still here.

Summer in the City

I rarely see an open parking spot on my street but in the summer when everyone in my neighborhood heads out to the Hamptons I might see up to five spots – on those days I wish I had a car just so that I could park.

Central Park - Sheep's Meadow
For people who don’t go to the beach in the summer, Central Park is the next best thing. I’m not a beach person so I think it’s better - you don’t have to clean off the sand and salt you get on yourself from swimming in the ocean. Sitting on the grass in Sheep’s Meadow I hear three different conversations around me, an airplane overhead, and leaves rustling in the wind. I’m surprised by how quiet it feels here compared to the rest of the city, there are no cars - only joggers’ shoes slapping the pavement and bicycle wheels whizzing by.

Next to the pond there’s a shirtless man with a guitar singing James Taylor hits. I thought those songs are really worn out by now, but maybe a hundred people are sitting under the trees listening to him. I sit down and let myself enjoy it too, sitting in the park on perfect summer day feels like sleeping with your eyes open. I know the guitarist wants to play his own music but the crowd doesn’t let him.

view from above and below

130 W. 30th St.

Is the view different from the top?

It almost seems like another city at this altitude, looking over a landscape dotted with old and squat watertowers perched on their launching pads and rectangular mechanical units sitting over asphalt roofs. And it feels like the last hundred years is still standing here motionless.

I prefer the view from below. 10th Ave. at 35th St.

There are only a few places you can get a wide angle view of the city, such as from the west side near 10th Ave. where the freeway cuts a swath through the city. It's a side that's worn and industrial looking but also shows the changing skyline as new buildings go up.

Looking out from the street it's always interesting - you see people jostling through the crowds and checking each other out and with all the commotion in the city there's always something to catch your eye and then something else to distract you. Walking up to the skyscrapers you think it's so much taller than you imagined, for me it's still hard not to stop and stare into the sky.

Even though the views from up high are breath-taking when I look down sometimes I feel afraid that I might fall. I'll take the view from the ground level because I would rather be looking up.