Spring comes to the Big Apple.

The Union Square arch seen from Fifth Avenue behind a blossoming tree.

Lever House

390 Park Avenue

Designed in 1952 by Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill in the International Style, Lever House embodies the metal and glass curtain exterior walls by Mies van der Rohe, and stands off the ground on "pilotis" reminiscent of Le Corbusier.

Checker Cab

From 1956-82 the ubiquitous and iconic taxi of New York City was the Checker.  It was produced by the Checker Motors Company of Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Flatiron Building

at 23rd Street between 5th and Broadway

The Flatiron Building was designed by Daniel H. Burnham and Co. and built in 1902.  At the time it was one of the tallest buildings in New York.  It is a steel-frame structure of the Chicago School in the style of a Renaissance palazzo. 

The streaked lights of passing traffic in this night time photo are the result of a 3 second exposure on a Leica M9 and 35mm lens.

Because it sat out in an open space when it was first built, a wind tunnel effect with strong downdrafts was created around it. This led to the phrase "23 skidoo", which is what policemen said to chase away the men who waited there for the strong winds to lift the dresses of passing women.

The blurred snowflakes in this photo were caused by using the pop-up camera flash to light up the closest flakes.  They were so close that they appear only as blurs.

This view is a vertical panoramic made up of six horizontal images taken with a Leica M9.  Such a combo renders the resulting image extremely high in resolution.

The Flatiron Building is located just south of Madison Square Park.  The building in the background is the Metropolitan Life Insurance building.

The building is covered in limestone on the bottom and glazed terra-cotta tiles above.

Extreme telephoto lenses compress space.  The photo above and below taken with a 400mm lens are examples of this.

Chrysler Building

405 Lexington Avenue (between 42nd & 43rd Streets)

Designed by William Van Alen in the Arat Deco Style.  When it was built in 1930 it was the tallest building in the world until superceeded by the Empire State Building the following year.

Looking down 42nd Street on the day of "Manhattanhenge" when the sunset lines up with the grid of the city streets.  The spire of the Chrysler building rises above the other buildings on the right.

DeVinne Press Building- 1885

corner of 4th Street and Lafayette

Designed by Babb, Cooke, & Willard. Thomas DeVinne (1828-1914) was a printer who produced Scribner’s Monthly, the Century Monthly, and Century Dictionary.  The building is noted as a superb example of brick laying.

Bayard-Condict Building - 1879-1899

65 Bleeker Street (between Broadway & Lafayette)

One of my favorite buildings in New York and the only one designed by Louis Sullivan (in conjunction with Lyndon P. Smith), the designer of the Chicago School and mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, the Bayard-Condict Building was considered a radical design in its time as one of the first steel frame structures in the city.

The cornice is ornately designed frieze of white terra cotta angels with wings and arms outspread.

 

The exterior is covered in white terra cotta decoration over masonry.  The building became a National Historic Landmark in 1976. 

Fifth Avenue Clock

Built in 1909 this beautiful street clock was restored to its original beauty by Tiffany Co. in 1981.  It stands on the West side of Fifth Avenue just above 23rd Street where it frames a view of the Flatiron Building.

Engine 14

This Italian Renaissance style firehouse, designed by Napoleon Lebrun around 1890, is on 18th Street between Broadway and 5th Avenues.  I find this amazing and one of the reasons I began this blog.  This firehouse is in my neighborhood -- a place where I had walked many times, but had never really stopped to look up to see the beauty around me.