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‘New Yorkism’

The latest edition of the City Journal presents a wonderful vision for Hell’s Kitchen, the Manhattan neighborhood which has been slated for a massive redevelopment. The Journal commissioned a number of the world’s leading classicists in the field of architecture to design skyscrapers that fit into the City Planning Commission’s recommendations for the new ‘Hudson Boulevard’ which is planned for the ‘Far West Side’ (the newest catchy rebranding for Hell’s Kitchen since ‘Clinton’ failed to take off).


Though designed by noted (neo-neo-)classicists, these buildings are not strict classical expressions, though one of them bears a resemblance to Adolf Loos’ ironic massive column entry to the Chicago Tribune competition. Instead, as the New York Sun‘s James Gardner points out, this new take on the redevelopment

“is less interested in classicism than in what another architect who has worked prolifically in this vein, Frank Williams, calls ‘New Yorkism’. By this he means the alchemical conjunction of classicism and mass and hard-nosed practicality that went into making the prewar Manhattan skyline, most visibly in the Financial District, with all its granite façades and zigguratted setbacks.”

I couldn’t agree more. These designs are imbibed in the architectural spirit of New York. Most buildings the monotony monitors thrust upon the public are not all that awful, but for the most part uninspiring, and could be site anywhere. The two most effective elements of the AOL TimeWarner Center are it’s massing, which is pure ‘New Yorkist’ and it’s relationship with Columbus Circle. But it’s adornment in bland glass-plating leaves much to be desired. The only good thing about the glass extravaganza is the view from inside the atrium to Columbus Circle, the Park, and Central Park South.

Peter Pennoyer envisions a classical pile with a large plaza accompanying. (Elevation above, plan below).

I love the way this triumphal collonade would frame the square. It would be a monumental place, and Manhattan really doesn’t have another square like it. There are shades of this in the northern part of Union Square, but not on the same scale.

Richard Sammons’s neo-deco skyscraper on the left, and Thomas Gordon Smith’s somewhat charmingly clunky construct on the right.

Franck Lohsen McCrery’s towering duo (right) would feature titans sculpted by the celebrated Alexander Stoddart (left).

Beautiful stuff. How sad it is that none of these buildings will likely every be constructed. Beauty is considered passé by the aesthetic demons which plague Manhattan these days. But we can still dream…

Published at 1:37 pm on Monday 15 November 2004. Categories: Architecture New York.
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