Rockefeller Center in 1936, just after it was completed. The International Building (where my childhood dentist’s office was) is slightly right of center, facing Fifth Avenue, with the low-rise British Empire Building and La Maison Francaise to the south (in front). 30 Rockefeller Plaza – also known at various times as the GE and RCA Building …
I’ve attacked the concept of “structural honesty” in architecture here more than once, but every so often I hear someone use the phrase and feel like maybe I should give it another chance. I found an actual example – in a building that was unfortunately demolished in the 1950s, but was well-documented when it stood …
Yesterday’s post about the Parachute Jump got me looking for more oddball towers. Most of the search turned up old stone forts, which are interesting in their own right, but not what I was looking for. Then I found the photo above, a circa 1910 view of a “New concrete observatory tower, Vicksburg, Miss” built …
Above, a nice if somewhat generic view of lower Manhattan in October 1937, with the Hudson River and Jersey City in the background. But if you zoom in a bit… The big building is 90 Broad Street, the current home of Old Structures Engineering. Here’s a March 1936 view looking the other way, with the …
That bizarre steel umbrella is the Parachute Jump at Coney Island, a ride constructed for the 1939-1940 World’s Fair (where it was the second tallest structure, behind the Trylon) and moved from Flushing Meadows Park to Coney Island after the fair closed. The ride itself has been closed since 1968, but it is visually as …
