Not too long ago the skyline was a jumble of
tower-in-a-box high-rises thrown up by anonymous
developers. These days there’s a “starchitect” around
every corner and great design in every borough
NEW YORK, NEW YORK:
IT’S AN ARCHITECTS’ TOWN
BY DEBORAH BALDWIN
ILLUS TRATION BY FELIX SOCK WELL
When New Yorkers celebrated the 75th
anniversary of the Chrysler Building in 2005,
more than a few tears were shed, recalling
an era that gave New York idiosyncratic
landmarks like a jaunty steel icon with a
hood-ornamented crown.
“The postwar towers, by contrast, projected a kind of sleek anonymity,” symbolizing that era’s “impersonal capitalism,” art
historian Michael J. Lewis observed in an
anniversary essay for The New York Times.
But that was then.
Within just a few years, personal
capitalism has come roaring back with
such throbbing intensity that once-dreary
pockets of the city (would you believe the
Bowery?) are now architectural destinations. World-renowned architects like Jean
Nouvel are clamoring to build here, buyers
