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.
Architecture
New York architecture explained through the engineering, design, history, and hidden systems of the city's most significant buildings.
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 Skyscraper That Hangs Over an Art School
Central Park Tower's most revealing detail is not just its height. It is the cantilever that lets the tower hang over the landmarked Art Students League to protect park views.
New York's First Concrete Building Became a Tiny Landmark Beside Whole Foods
The Coignet Stone Building was built as a concrete advertisement in 1873. More than 150 years later, it still sits apart from the city around it.
The Stepped Manhattan Building Designed to Keep Its Shadow Off the Park
Mercedes House looks like a staircase because a straight tower beside DeWitt Clinton Park would have created a much harder approval fight.
The Brooklyn Towers That Twisted Open a View
Eagle + West looks playful from the waterfront, but its strange rotated forms came from a serious urban problem: how to build tall without walling Greenpoint off from the river again.
Why Brooklyn's First Supertall Looks Like a Villain's Lair
The Brooklyn Tower borrowed its shape from the landmarked Dime Savings Bank, then turned that geometry into the borough's darkest skyline object.
Why 325 Kent Avenue Has a Hole Through the Middle
325 Kent Avenue's dramatic opening was a way to build housing at Domino without turning the Williamsburg waterfront into a wall.
Why Las Vegas Put the Eiffel Tower Inside a Casino
Paris Las Vegas wanted a full-size Eiffel Tower, but the Strip, the airport, and the casino floor forced the replica into a stranger form.
The Glass Office Tower Hidden Inside the Domino Sugar Refinery
Brooklyn's Domino Sugar Refinery could not be treated like an ordinary development site, so its new office building was slipped inside the landmarked shell.
Why the Las Vegas Sphere Only Works From Far Away
Sphere's famous exterior is not a seamless screen up close. It is a huge optical trick made from millions of tiny light points.
The Courtscraper With a Tiny Central Park Inside
VIA 57 West fused a European courtyard block with a Manhattan tower, creating Bjarke Ingels's first major New York building and a new hybrid type.