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Architecture

New York architecture explained through the engineering, design, history, and hidden systems of the city's most significant buildings.

The Times Square Tower Caught Between Bright Lights and a Greener Future

The Times Square Tower Caught Between Bright Lights and a Greener Future

One Five One helped introduce solar walls and fuel-cell power to the Manhattan skyline. Its aging green technology now reveals how quickly the definition of a sustainable skyscraper can change.

Lever House’s Clean Dream and the Corrosion Hiding Beneath It

Lever House’s Clean Dream and the Corrosion Hiding Beneath It

The Park Avenue landmark made the glass office tower look effortless. Its ingenious washing machine kept the surface gleaming, but the experimental wall beneath it proved far less durable.

270 Park Avenue: The Skyscraper Built Above Grand Central's Trains

270 Park Avenue: The Skyscraper Built Above Grand Central's Trains

At 270 Park Avenue, the visible tower is only half the story. Its fan-shaped columns channel a 1,388-foot skyscraper through scarce openings in Grand Central’s active rail infrastructure.

Why America's Largest Cathedral Is Still Unfinished

Why America's Largest Cathedral Is Still Unfinished

St. John the Divine began with a Romanesque-Byzantine plan, changed to Gothic after construction started, and remains unfinished more than a century later.

The Manhattan Tower That Beat a New Zoning Law by One Day

The Manhattan Tower That Beat a New Zoning Law by One Day

Morgan Court rose 32 stories from a lot only 33 feet wide because its foundation was completed one day before New York's sliver-building restrictions took effect.

The Municipal Building That Hid a Subway, a Street, and a Rooftop View

The Municipal Building That Hid a Subway, a Street, and a Rooftop View

The David N. Dinkins Municipal Building was designed as a civic machine, combining city offices, streets, subway access, and a newly opened public rooftop view.

Why So Many New York Towers Have Tiny Cranes on the Roof

Why So Many New York Towers Have Tiny Cranes on the Roof

The small crane-like machines on New York rooftops are building maintenance units, and they quietly shape how skyscrapers are designed, cleaned, and inspected.

The Skinny Tower That Helped Carnegie Hall Pay Its Bills

The Skinny Tower That Helped Carnegie Hall Pay Its Bills

Carnegie Hall Tower squeezed past the Russian Tea Room, rose 757 feet from a narrow site, and helped turn cultural air rights into a Midtown business model.

Steinway Tower: How 111 West 57th Became the World's Skinniest Skyscraper

Steinway Tower: How 111 West 57th Became the World's Skinniest Skyscraper

Steinway Tower is not just tall. It is a quarter-mile engineering compromise built around a landmark, a tiny footprint, luxury finance, and controlled motion.

Hearst Tower: The Skyscraper Built Inside a Landmark Shell

Hearst Tower: The Skyscraper Built Inside a Landmark Shell

Hearst Tower solved an old New York problem by preserving a 1928 landmark base while building a 46-story diagrid tower through it.

The Twisting Towers That Turned Views Into Value

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.

The Building That Helped Break Cooper Union's Free-Tuition Promise

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.