New York City | The Greatest Architectural Losses

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by SkyscrapersOfNewYork

hey its GM another godly building!

[HomrQT]

Someone with an insanely large bank account needs to rebuild all these buildings back into New York. If not NYC, Chicago will gladly have them. What were they thinking tearing all these beauties down!?!? I know Chicago is no angel when it came to preservation, but damn this is just disgusting to see all these prize pieces are gone.

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

sorry buddy but i fall head over heels for buildings like One Liberty Plaza,GM,Seagram,One Chase Manhattan Plaza etc.

all hail the boxes!

though the older structures are just gorgeous as well,i just wish we could keep both...

[vandelay]

I think we found the one possible fan of the Verizon building on 375 Pearl. The boxes raped New York.

[MolsonExport]

The skyline depicted in the first picture is 100,000 times more interesting than that in the second picture. Not to understate things, mind you.

[Rico Rommheim]

So many masterpieces gone, and yet there are so many more still standing today! place any of those buildings in any city of the world and they would be the city's landmark. and yet even before the 20th century New York had dozens!

I also like the GM building, but could it not have been built elsewhere? the needless destruction of that beautiful building is obscene and seems quite arbitrary .

[wrab]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

The skyline depicted in the first picture is 100,000 times more interesting than that in the second picture. Not to understate things, mind you.

There you go, overstating your case again. The first picture is no more than 90,000 times more interesting than the second.

[StoOgE]

Originally Posted by SkyscrapersOfNewYork

hey its GM another godly building!

I was worried about you after the first one.. now that I know you are joking I feel better.

It's a depressing thread. NYC is an amazing city and my favorite in the world.. but it's hard knowing how much better it could be if just a few of these had been saved.

I fly into Newark and come into the city at Penn Station on the NJT trains... I can tell you.. stepping foot into old Penn Station would have been a much better introduction to the city than what it is now.

[wrab]

^ The new Penn Station is maybe the most depressing train station on the planet. The old Penn rivaled the grandest of the European stations.

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

Originally Posted by StoOgE

I was worried about you after the first one.. now that I know you are joking I feel better.

It's a depressing thread. NYC is an amazing city and my favorite in the world.. but it's hard knowing how much better it could be if just a few of these had been saved.

I fly into Newark and come into the city at Penn Station on the NJT trains... I can tell you.. stepping foot into old Penn Station would have been a much better introduction to the city than what it is now.

those 60's boxes captured a moment in NYC's history and at the time were beautiful and even asd i look at them as they stand today i can appreciate them for what thy were and are. for one i never did like the Singer bldg though it is sad to see some old structures go,on the bright side at least it shows that NY is healthy and moving forward.
on Penn station everything with time, Penn station will transform into Moynihan station and will be just as grand as the old Penn station so just be patient.

[photoLith]

If it werent for Penn Station being destroyed, many many more structures in NYC and around the country would have been torn down. Penn Station started the historic preservation movement in NYC, so a massive loss is what needs to happen to get peoples attentions.

[wrab]

Too bad that we haven't learned that lesson yet here in Chicago, even with the tragic losses.

[brickell]

I don't imagine there was much "architectural" loss but it's certainly a scar across the face of Manhattan. Does anyone have pictures of what was there before they built Stuyvesant Town and the rest of the housing on the LES?

I can only find this description from Wikipedia

Before the construction of Stuyvesant Town, the neighborhood contained eighteen city blocks, with public schools, churches, factories, private homes, apartments, small businesses, and even relatively new modern-style apartment buildings. In all, 600 buildings, containing 3,100 families, 500 stores and small factories, three churches, three schools, and two theaters, were razed. As would be repeated in later urban renewal projects, some 11,000 persons were forced to move from the neighborhood. In 1945, The New York Times called the move from the site "the greatest and most significant mass movement of families in New York's history."[4] The last residents of the Gas House district, the Delman family, moved out in May 1946, allowing demolition to be completed shortly thereafter.[5]

[Nowhereman1280]

Originally Posted by SkyscrapersOfNewYork

all hail the boxes!

Couldn't agree more! But...

Originally Posted by vandelay

I think we found the one possible fan of the Verizon building on 375 Pearl. The boxes raped New York.

... The old NYC skyline was actually interesting. Even though I'm a huge fan of massive boxes and huge buildings, the ones in New York are just too many in one spot and block out or replace all the old deco beauties.

Originally Posted by wrabbit

Too bad that we haven't learned that lesson yet here in Chicago, even with the tragic losses.

Not entirely true. Chicago has preemptively landmarked many of its most important modern buildings, it just doesn't go far enough sometimes. Heck the fact that they are saving any of the Reese buildings is a miracle. 50 years ago they would have been leveled overnight (probably by bulldozing X's into them in the middle of the night) with no prior warning.

Also, modern highrises tend to age very well because they are made of nearly indestructible materials. I'm not worried about anyone replacing the facade on the JHC or Sears (year right, they aren't painting it silver) or mutilating 860-880 by paving the green space. These buildings were just built to be so functional that its really hard to get an economic argument going that justifies making major modifications. The skyboxes on Sears are about as drastic as you're gonna get. Chicago has shown no real desire to reclad like they have in NYC.

I'm far more worried about losing all the funky lowrise modernist buildings in the neighborhoods like those found out along Peterson and Touhy or around Midway. There are some truly excellent buildings in those areas that are extremely unique and will become cherished in coming years. There is a good stretch of Peterson that I think needs to be made a landmark district because its almost entirely radical, funky, modernist storefronts for like 1/2 of a mile. Its nearly a museum, very little modifications have occurred.

[koolkid]

Originally Posted by brickell

I don't imagine there was much "architectural" loss but it's certainly a scar across the face of Manhattan. Does anyone have pictures of what was there before they built Stuyvesant Town and the rest of the housing on the LES?

Here's a brief video of the Gas House District before demolition. You've probably already seen it but for those who haven't, here it is. It's not much but it's something...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32912172@N00/3623985103/

[NYC4Life]

The Old Penn Station and the Singer Building, IMO the two greatest architectural loss the city has seen, at least in comparison to what they were replaced with.

[Dac150]

I can live with the loss of Singer; as beautiful of a building as it was, I’m a big fan of One Liberty Plaza. I think the Savoy Hotel with the Plaza right across the street made for a grand sight; however I don’t mind the GM Building. Penn Station I think is the biggest loss of them all, though may have been necessary in starting a movement which has preserved many of the older structures we admire today.

Structures come and go, and that’s the nature of the city.

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

yep were on the same page

[Jonboy1983]

Ok, I must say, when they tore down New York's Penn Station to erect Madison Square Garden, they committed architectural BLASPHEMY!



That station looked like as absolute GEM! Like Philadelphia's 30th Street Station but much bigger and more grand. To have Penn Station relegated to just platforms and a below-grade concourse level is a real slap in the face to New York City. That city should really have something spectacular to serve a an entrance to anyone traveling there by train, something that says "welcome to New York," instead of "eh, here you are..."

I guess that goes along with the overall attitude of New Yorkers tho, no sense of pride in place what so ever...

Am I wrong here?

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

Originally Posted by Jonboy1983

Ok, I must say, when they tore down New York's Penn Station to erect Madison Square Garden, they committed architectural BLASPHEMY!



That station looked like as absolute GEM! Like Philadelphia's 30th Street Station but much bigger and more grand. To have Penn Station relegated to just platforms and a below-grade concourse level is a real slap in the face to New York City. That city should really have something spectacular to serve a an entrance to anyone traveling there by train, something that says "welcome to New York," instead of "eh, here you are..."

I guess that goes along with the overall attitude of New Yorkers tho, no sense of pride in place what so ever...

Am I wrong here?

in part...we do take pride in many structures(ESB,Chrysler,Seagram,GE,St.Patricks,NYSE etc.) though we cant protect each and every pretty old building. the attitude of New York is one of innovation and progress toward an evolving and ever shaping future,nothing more and nothing less.