{"id":2414,"date":"2008-09-08T21:46:41","date_gmt":"2008-09-09T01:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=2414"},"modified":"2008-09-08T21:46:41","modified_gmt":"2008-09-09T01:46:41","slug":"city-of-glass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/city-of-glass","title":{"rendered":"City of Glass"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week’s ish of New York Magazine<\/em> has a neat article by Justin Davidson<\/a>; it consists of a meditation on NYC’s architecture boom and how it fits in the city’s history, complemented by 50 before-and-afters of recent buildings. I’m conflicted about some of his points, especially on the relationship of new buildings with their neighborhoods, and the “walking travelogue” aspect gets a bit precious, but I think it’s an awfully worthwhile article, with some good conversation about the nature of the city. Mr. Davidson cops to a certain sadness to all the buildings that are lost, but, also understands that freezing any one moment in time is impossible:<\/p>\n

Intelligent preservation is precious, but nostalgia is cheap, and every era nurtures its own variety. Those late-nineteenth-century Upper West Siders who still thought of Broadway as the bucolic, elm-lined Bloomingdale Road of their youths resented the incursion of brownstones in the 1880s. Their children must have been horrified in turn when those same houses were wiped away by the now-classic apartment buildings that line West End Avenue. Bitterness springs eternal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I suppose I’ll always have Ben Katchor<\/a>‘s Julius Knipl comics to fall back on, for That New York that I’ve lost.<\/p>\n

As a plus, the article also turned me on to Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Oh, and the “history of Columbus Circle” sidebar sent me spiraling back to 1982 or thereabouts, when my dad took me to a gift trade show at the New York Coliseum for work. I hadn’t thought of that day in decades, and thinking about it now makes me a little sad, because of all the other memories locked away in time’s vanishing city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week’s ish of New York Magazine has a neat article by Justin Davidson; it consists of a meditation on NYC’s architecture boom and how it fits in the city’s history, complemented by 50 before-and-afters of recent buildings. I’m conflicted about some of his points, especially on the relationship of new buildings with their neighborhoods, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “City of Glass”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25,19],"tags":[251,309],"class_list":["post-2414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-urban-issues","tag-ben-katchor","tag-justin-davidson"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-CW","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":946,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/more-posts-about-buildings-and-food","url_meta":{"origin":2414,"position":0},"title":"More posts about buildings and food","author":"Gil","date":"May 9, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I came across BLDG BLOG yesterday, thanks to a link in the NY Observer. The most recent post, on the shortcomings of architectural criticism, is awfully read-worthy. It explores how an art form (and again, I'm using architecture as a stand-in for other art forms) can become too esoteric for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3214,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/writing-on-buildings","url_meta":{"origin":2414,"position":1},"title":"Writing on Buildings","author":"Gil","date":"January 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Just because the NYTimes' architecture critic lives on another planet (lemme tell you, Nicolai: the problem with starchitecture is not that it failed to focus on public housing), that doesn't mean there isn't good writing about architecture in other newspapers. Dwell's blog offers up a bunch of them!","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":937,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/grand","url_meta":{"origin":2414,"position":2},"title":"Grand","author":"Gil","date":"May 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I laughed yesterday when my new issue of City Journal arrived in the mail next to a copy of the Hampshire College Reports, but I've got a wacky sense of humor. I haven't opened the piece from my alma mater, but the City Journal includes a history\/appreciation of the Plaza\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Urban issues"","block_context":{"text":"Urban issues","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/urban-issues"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8609,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-110-thru-these-architects-eyes","url_meta":{"origin":2414,"position":3},"title":"Episode 110 – Thru’ These Architects’ Eyes","author":"Gil","date":"March 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show: Witold Rybczynski - Thru' These Architect's Eyes \"An architect doesn't build something just because he wants to build it. But as a writer, you can say, 'I have an idea for a book.'\" Witold Rybczynski joins the show to talk about architecture! The renowned writer, scholar, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"how-architecture-works","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/how-architecture-works.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4050,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/city-of-glass-shards","url_meta":{"origin":2414,"position":4},"title":"City of Glass Shards","author":"Gil","date":"June 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"In our last Unrequired Reading, I noted that Frank \"curved metal surfaces\" Gehry had been bounced as the architect of the Atlantic Yards (AY) arena project for the Nets, in favor of a design that will shave $150-$200 million from construction costs. At the time, I laughed over the depiction\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1969,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-33108","url_meta":{"origin":2414,"position":5},"title":"What It Is: 3\/31\/08","author":"Gil","date":"March 31, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: Desolation Road by Ian McDonald What I'm listening to: Odd Couple, Gnarls Barkley What I'm watching: NCAA hoops What I'm drinking: nothing, after reaching double-digits in Hendrick's & tonics last week in Philadelphia Where I'm going: no traveling this week! What I'm happy about: Amy & Rufus\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Gin"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Gin","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-gin"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0553270575","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2414"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2416,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2414\/revisions\/2416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}