I’d like to start a series of articles about looking up. This is the first one.
Truly cool New Yorkers do not look up. I on the other hand, look up not much less than a tourist fresh off the bus. Unlike most tourists though, I own a really expensive long lens.
In the beginning of the skyscraper era, architects were confused about how to design the look of these super tall buildings. One of the decisions facing them was – what to put on the top. There were many choices. A very popular one was to use a little temple/colonnade on top, based on the ancient minaret that was later converted into a bell tower – the fabled Giralda Tower. Then you could use a giant torch or lantern, a mini ziggurat, statue, a spire or a combination of several of these. In following posts of this series I’ll give you examples of those buildings. But today my theme is crowns.
The Crown Building on 5th Ave.
You can’t really see that without magnification – the crown features what seem to be colored glass jewels.
New York Life Insurance Building.
They have an awesome series of ads featuring the building. My favorite one is where they do a time-lapse walk through, with changing eras, people and New York Skyline, ending in the future where a girl with a futuristic haircut steps out of the building, into a hovertaxy and zooms away. Please let me know if you find a video of that.
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower. “The Light That Never Fails”, the old symbol of the company (now it’s Snoopy) is set inside a crown-looking lantern top.
The American Radiator Building : A crown fit for the king of the Radiator Planet.
The Old RCA Victor Building has such an expensive and complicated top, that one might question it’s usefulness – it’s almost impossible to see any details from the ground.
Wireless Maiden, close up.
later, architects decided that it wasn’t worth it to decorate tops of the buildings – they are hard to see. The era of International Style did not allow for interesting skyscraper tops. You’d be lucky to see a neon sign. Fortunately the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill brough back the practice of decorated tops, as can be seen on the Bear Stearns Building. Another example of an SOM topper is the World Wide Plaza Building.
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Hi, gorgeous shots of these buildings! I am an artist and paint on porcelain. Your photos of the spires and tops of these landmarks really inspire me. Could I perhaps have your permission to use the photos as inspiration for my next few projects?
Do you have larger sizes of these images?
I sure do.
HOW COOL!
thank you!
my favorite thing about living in NYC was the buildings.
stupid cool people thinking you shouldn’t be looking up.
A fantastic and very worthwhile post – thank you!
I especially enjoyed the close-up photos of the amazing ziggurat at the top of 570 Lexington Avenue, which you correctly identified as the former RCA Building.
It might be more correct to say “former, former RCA Building” – it was indeed designed and built for RCA in the 1920′s, but as a result of an antitrust settlement, General Electric wound up with the structure upon its completion in 1929, and it was known as the “General Electric Building” until recently.
In the 80′s, GE bought RCA and the “former RCA building”, the 70-story centerpiece of Rockefeller Center, became the GE Building.
The “former, former RCA Building” a.k.a. General Electric Building is now owned by Columbia University and called “Tower 570.”
I worked for GE in this building from 1975 to 1983, and I consider it a privlige to have
known this art deco beauty so well.
Best regards,
SteveR