The Twisting Towers That Turned Views Into Value
One High Line's two towers twist away from each other to create more separation, better light, and more Hudson River views.
Jared Ebersole
The Building That Helped Break Cooper Union's Free-Tuition Promise
41 Cooper Square was designed as a bold, green, world-class academic building. It also became tangled in the financial story that ended Cooper Union's century-and-a-half tuition-free tradition.
America's Tall Ship Was Built by Nazi Germany
USCGC Eagle trains future Coast Guard officers under sail, but the ship began life as Horst Wessel, a German naval training vessel taken after World War II.
Google's Manhattan Groundscraper Built on a Freight Terminal
St. John's Terminal gave Google something rare in Manhattan: enormous horizontal floors where a headquarters could grow out instead of up.
New York Cancer Hospital: The Castle at 455 Central Park West
The New York Cancer Hospital looked like a French chateau because treating cancer in the 1880s required medicine, money, architecture, and persuasion.
Why Times Square Buildings Are Required to Wear Billboards
Times Square's lights are not just advertising chaos. New York zoning requires major buildings in the district to carry large illuminated signs.
Air Conditioning Was Invented to Save a Brooklyn Print Job
Willis Carrier's first modern air-conditioning system was not built for human comfort. It was built to stop humid Brooklyn air from ruining magazine printing.
The Nuclear-Missile Submarine You Can Walk Through in Manhattan
USS Growler was built to hide nuclear cruise missiles at sea. Now the diesel-electric Cold War submarine sits in plain view beside the Intrepid Museum.
How San Antonio Turned a Deadly Flood Channel Into the River Walk
The San Antonio River Walk began as a flood-control problem, survived a proposal to pave it over, and became one of Texas's most valuable urban places.
The Alamo Is Fighting to Recover the Battlefield Around It
The Alamo's famous church survived, but much of the battlefield disappeared under downtown San Antonio. The current restoration is trying to tell the full site again.
The Manhattan Apartments Built Directly Over I-95
The Bridge Apartments turned air rights above the Trans-Manhattan Expressway into housing, then left residents living over one of New York's dirtiest traffic funnels.
The Useless Lighthouse That Children Saved From Scrap
The Little Red Lighthouse lost its job when the George Washington Bridge opened above it, but a children's book gave it a second life.