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Originally Posted by NYC GUY
Most of those non landmarks aren't that great looking. Would you rather New York be a city of the future or an art deco museum.
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It's not either or. There are tons of shorter, ugly, squarish buildings from the 60s and 70s in midtown that would make better victims than these oldies.
I'm not saying we should keep every building that was built before 1940, but it would be nice if we tried to avoid tearing a lot of them down. Even though a lot of these buildings aren't treasures, their combined effect on the street wall throughout Manhattan is fantastic.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NYguy
I'd be sad to see Midtown die because of some misguided preservation attempt. Let us not forget that even the older buildings weren't always there, and had preservation held sway even a hundred years ago, there would be no Midtown as we know it. This site in particular, next to one of the busiest transportation hubs, needs to be utilized to the fullest. It currently is not. New York is an actual functioning city, not a living postcard for us to look at and remember the good old days. So, the issue of keeping the core commercial district open for the needs of today's (as well as the future's) business must be addressed.
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As I said above, it's not either or. Plenty of other cities go to much further lengths to preserve older buildings. We're talking about a handful of buildings, meanwhile there are tons of short ugly boxes in the area. I don't need a lecture on the cost of demolishing the bland boxes vs the older buildings, or why the older buildings are targeted more. I like that you can walk through most areas of midtown, and on nearly every block there's at least one pre-war building, and I'd like to keep as much of that as is reasonable.
We've had this argument before. The last time you posted a picture of Hells Kitchen on the border of Midtown (but not actually within the CBD) along with a smarmy comment. Preserving half of the buildings (or at least their facades) listed on that map will not turn Midtown in to a museum. You and I both know that.