Wednesday, February 13, 2013

51 Astor Place — all glassed up and...



Just because it has been nearly an entire month since mentioning 51 Astor Place...



...glassed up except for the very tippy-top, which will house the hypermatter reactor ... you can notice the tippy-top (descriptive!) on the Third Avenue side...



OK, OK — here.



Anyway. Getting used to seeing it now here?

15 comments:

  1. I just got used to not looking at it. I take the subway from and to Astor Place every day and wasn't even aware the thing was covered with glass now, until I saw your post.

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  2. Holy Christ, it's even more hideous in reality than it was in the renderings.

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  3. Office park chic. Where are the five acres of parking?

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  4. That's not a very space-saving design is it. When you literally cut corners of a building like that, isn't a lot of valuable space lost? Isn't that why buildings are typically designed in a rectangular shape? Fuck this place and every other building that is trying to be a monument to some architect/developer's insipid overblown ego.

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  5. Getting used to it.
    Only problem is, that when I am walking west on the south side of St.Marks, and I look ahead at Astor Place, I see that Astor Place is now a tiny narrow little alleyway between Cooper Union and The D.S. building. It scares me. It's narrow and enclosed and forbidding. I have to turn around and run back the other way. (sigh)

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  6. THE NOTORIOUS L.I.B.E.R.A.T.I.O.N.February 13, 2013 at 11:22 AM

    Oh, yeah, the Bumpit at the top makes ALL the difference.

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  7. The sunless north side reminds me of the far recesses of a freezer...the place where frozen peas go to mummify and be forgotten by time and space. I feel bad for the people on 9th Street who have this menacing thing obstructing their view of the sky.

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  8. This building is a shiny example of how one building impacts those around it - Cooper Union, once a grand pillar of this square, because of old 51 Astor's setback, is now much less of a notable building... lost in the Dark Star's shadow.

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  9. She's as cold as ice
    Willing to sacrifice our love
    You never take advice
    Someday you'll pay the price, I know....

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  10. @10:21 and @11:09
    The shape is partly dictated by the developer's requirement to restore the site lines between Astor Place and Stuyvesant St. Once the scaffolding comes down, there's supposed to be a public plaza there that will open things up a bit. A little polish for this turd.

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  11. I waiting for the July sun to hit it and blind every car driver on 9th St.

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  12. No, the reflections are blinding so very hard to ignore. Once it was so bright, before it even had all the glass, I couldn't see my book while I was on the bus. My eyes hurt remembering that sad, sour moment.

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  13. What is that diagonal shape from the top to bottom on the third Avenue side?

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