Armchair architects, which buildings need a facelift?
The Verizon Building, a mistake from the 1970s, is going to be reclad -- at last. Photo via BILLBINNS on Flickr.
The Verizon building is to architecture what the burlap sack is to fashion, and what’s worse is it rises in lower Manhattan across from the Brooklyn Bridge, damaging one of the city’s most beautiful views.
Sure New York has plenty of buildings that are an offense to beauty, but few are so grotesque and so misplaced as the Verizon building. Thankfully, the tower at 375 Pearl St. is about to get a makeover that might make it a little less intrusive on the skyline as seen from the Brooklyn Promenade.
When Taconic Investment Partners announced a deal to buy the majority of the building from Verizon they also announced a major renovation. In reporting the renovation project, the New York Times called it “The Tower That Has No Friends,” seemingly to reflect that no one will miss the Verizon eyesore.
Now, the question is will the Verizon logo still flicker atop the 32-story building? Let’s hope not.
Now, you don’t have to be an architecture expert to know what you like. So, amNewYork is asking readers this question: Which other city buildings need a facelift? Let us know in the comments, and we'll publish the results in the paper and here.
* Click here to see photos of endangered buildings we think need to be saved
* Click here to see 2007's version of the list of endangered buildings to be saved
* Click here for more of our coverage about endangered New York buildings and institutions
-- Garett Sloane
Comments (7)
I can think of quite a few buildings at the perimeter of Mahattan island that deserve to be bulldozed or renovated before the verizon building. I for one kind of like it. it is an unpretentious and rudimentary form that renders its function audible. Maybe if they just took down that Vegas-esque logo off the side...
Oh yeah, and isn't it funny that Architecture is one of those trades that every layperson feels qualified to criticise and legislate with utmost confidence? Makes you wonder why people hire us at all....
The black obelisk that rises from the Mt. Sinai Hospital complex and looms over a nice section of Central Park around 100th St. is butt ugly.
There is a building across from where the M101, M102 and M103 buses stop on 2nd Ave. near where the crane collapsed a month or two ago. It looks like they just poured cement into moldings and that was it. There are vertical lines that seem like they were raked into the setting concrete by a giant fork. There are no windows at all on two sides of the building and, to be modern some of the top floors have rounded (not square) balconies. (tres chic!) The architect must have been on pain killers at the time.
the blue condo off delancey street on norfolk is not only an abomination to the lower east side, it is an abomination to the field of architecture.
I think that green citi building in long island city needs a major makeover
Ugly tower
+ Uglier bunker-like base
+ Tendency to shed massive chunks of concrete
+ Chronic leaks due to use of substandard building materials
+ Persistent mold and asbestos problems
+ Harebrained recladding plan to fix leaks with extra layer of glass
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= Marshak Science Building at City College of New York
This is the most jury-rigged structure in the city. If not owned by a public institution, it would have been shut down long ago.