This post is focused around the heart of Midtown Manhattan New York – that is the area around 5th Ave, Madison Ave and side streets. These images are what a lot of people associate with New York and although vibrant, bustling and exciting, I didn’t feel as much of a connection with this area as the others I have discussed, simply because it’s quite generic. There are a lot of cities around the world with office towers and high end international brand shopping, and there’s nothing that really differentiates this part of New York from any other similar area in other cities around the world. Still great, don’t get me wrong, but not particularly unique.
Grand Central Terminal is a truly amazing train terminal. Completed in 1871, it is the largest station in the world by number of platforms. The terminal really fell into decline over the years and, by the 1980s, was covered in grime and billboards. In 1998, a 12 year restoration programme was completed and today it looks as amazing and beautiful as it did when it first opened.
About a minute after I took this photo, just up the road a homeless lady started strongly verbally abusing me because she thought I was taking a photo of her. I was walking and my camera was off. She definitely had mental issues.
The New York Public Library
The Rockefeller Centre is a complex of 19 commercial buildings built between 1930 and 1939. The biggest building is the GE Building. The whole centre was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987.
If you think this is familiar, it is. This is turned into an ice skating rink during the winter and it’s always in movies.
Saks 5th Avenue. Beautiful old interiors and fit-out and a huge range of things to buy – overpriced though, as would be expected. If you’re shopping here, you’re not looking at the price tags.
Radio City Music Hall was the largest theatre in the world when it opened in 1932. It still hosts a variety of events all year round.
I was amazed that they managed to squeeze a building in between these two.
Steve Jobs memorial outside the Apple Store on 5th Ave.
Columbus Circle
The Foster designed Hearst Tower (the building with the triangles) was completed in 2006. It was New York City’s first “green” tower, and won the international skyscraper of the year award in 2006.
The original 6 storey Heart building at the base was actually completed in 1928, but the tower that was supposed to go on top of it was postponed because of the Great Depression. I took them a little while to actually finish the job!
In the 1950s and 1960s, 17 blocks of ethnic tenements were bulldozed to make way for a complex of buildings which together are known as the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
