Photo: Special thanks to Carter B. Horsley of The City Review
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40 comments:
I'll get it started with the basics, are you in Mahattan?
The museum of timepieces.
Midtown office building lobby.
Gary: Yes!
Scott: Cold!
Debbie: Warm!
Let's see if we can narrow it down. Hotel lobby?
Cooler.
North of 42nd St?
Warmer!
Since I am shooting blindly, I have to take this methodical approach. Are you East of 5th Ave?
The Daily News building
Gary: Yes I am!
Debbie: No...but I was just thinking of that building today! Or maybe yesterday. Whatever. Recently.
Somewhere at the United Nations?
Good guess...but no.
And I should add: colder.
Christies? Though I'm pretty sure it's not.
You're right--it's not. Not sure which Christie's you mean, though!
Lazer Park?
is it a watch company's headquarters?
Lazer? Nay.
And forget about the timepieces.
The lobby of a performance space?
Nope. Been there, done that. (Not that I wouldn't be there and do that again. And again!)
Rock Center?
Nope, but between the Daily News Building and Rock Center, you're getting warm!
Are you in the General Electric Tower?
Sorry--you might want to explore a different avenue.
How about another pic. Please, sir.
Still blind but tyring to see some light; are you in a bank such as the Chase Bank Offices, which originally was the Union Carbide Building by Skidmore Owings & Merrill?
Ah, Debbie...I would love to be able to post another picture, but pictures of the sculpture are relatively hard to come by--even though it is in an area that is well-traversed by the general public. You might've noticed that I didn't include a photo credit with the picture, which is online--I'll give credit where it's due eventually, but to do so now would possibly make it too easy to figure out where I was.
Gary, technically speaking I wasn't exactly in a bank but I'd say you're getting much, much warmer!
Were you in a building that used to be a bank?
Is it on 6th avenue?
Gary, it's actually more of a bank today than it was in the past.
David, yer cold!
JP Morgan Chase, 270 Park Ave?
Debbie, that guess is just as warm as it was when Gary made it nearly a day ago (see above). Which is to say that it's considerably warm.
Okay, so I'm a little slow but now I've got it!! Double sticks here I come... it's the Richard Lippold Sculpture in the MetLife Building Lobby (formerly the Pan Am building) and I believe that's at 45th Street and Park Avenue. How's that for precision??
Very good--can you name the sculpture?
Deb, you are smoking!!!
Please contact me about the prizes.
Ooop, I'm the wrong David. Sorry.
It's called Flight, but Debbie still wins.
Debbie is flying high like a jet soaring through the sky, snagging her eleventh victory in Where Was I? by identifying my location as the Richard Lippold sculpture in the lobby of the MetLife Building, formerly known as the Pan Am Building. Kudos also to Gary for methodically narrowing down the location and to Dave for coming up with the name of the work: Flight.
Richard Lippold (1915-2002), creator of Flight, was an artist best known for wire sculptures. During a visit to Flight, one can read a small plaque accompanying the sculpture. It says:
THIS BUILDING WAS THE HEADQUARTERS OF PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS FROM 1962 TO 1991. THIS SCULPTURE, ENTITLED "FLIGHT", WAS CREATED BY RICHARD LIPPOLD IN HONOR OF AMERICA'S PIONEER AIRLINE AND ITS FOUND, JUAN TERRY TRIPPE.
Today Juan Trippe is probably best known as the character played by Alec Baldwin in The Aviator.
Taking a picture of Flight can be problematic because of a Tishman Speyer policy. Security guards were friendly but firm about discouraging photography in the building's lobby even though it is heavily trafficked. Intent on recognizing Flight at Blog About Town, I set my sights on a photo that was already posted online by Carter B. Horsley of The City Review, who graciously gave me permission to use it. (Another online rendition of Flight is here.)
At least the police didn't hassle me about the photography issue. Early this year the New York Civil Liberties Union and the New York University Law School Civil Rights Clinic filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Rakesh Sharma, a documentary filmmaker who says he "was treated like a criminal" after lawfully filming outside the MetLife Building, which he was told was "a sensitive building."
Maybe the MetLife Building is sensitive because it's been the target of some harsh criticism. Architecture critic Paul Goldberger called it a "precast concrete monster," "the epitome of irreponsible planning and design," and "an arrogant, oversize intruder." On the City Review page dedicated to the MetLife Building, you can read the following:
"Probably the public's most detested midtown skyscraper, this humongous tower has always been a popular building with tenants for its convenience and location over the former north shed of Grand Central Terminal.
"On the one hand, the building is a marvel of robust engineering and circulation in its interconnections with the terminal and is the finest example in the United States of the Brutalist School of architecture for its form is aggressive and sure and it is a paradigm of well-planned, impressive and very efficient public spaces.
"On the other hand, its immense bulk and height...completely dominates and overshadows the former New York Central Building immediately to the north, which had been designed by Warren & Wetmore as part of the 'Terminal City' complex of which the terminal was the centerpiece. The New York Central Building, now known as the Helmsley Building (see The City Review article) at 230 Park Avenue, straddled the avenue with remarkable grace and its distinguished pyramid, Chateau-inspired roof was the great centerpiece of Park Avenue. By shrouding such a masterpiece in its shadows, quite literally, the Pan Am Building desecrated a major icon of the city.
"The building, unfortunately but deservedly, will never recover from this contemptible slight on such a prominent site."
As far as I'm concerned there are many nice things about the MetLife Building...or at least its lobby. Friends held their wedding reception at Naples 45 (well-liked for its Napoli Salad and Iced Tea--free refills!). The restaurant Tropica has a gluten-free menu. The Lippold sculpture is pretty, too.
The roof of the MetLife Building, which was used as a helicopter platform, can be seen in the movie Coogan's Bluff. Coincidentally, today is the 29th anniversary of the fatal accident that brought the helicopter service to a halt.
Here is the Wikipedia entry on the MetLife Building.
I'm now very excited to visit the building. All these years and I've never gone inside. Thanks for the education and fun.
Furthermore, only last April 2005, Met Life sold the building for a record $1.72 billion! I'd pay that much to clear the avenue for bike traffic.
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