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.
Architecture
New York architecture explained through the engineering, design, history, and hidden systems of the city's most significant buildings.
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.
How Tammany Hall Became a Petco Under a Turtle Shell
The old Tammany Hall building at Union Square preserves the facade of New York's most famous political machine, then crowns it with a glass dome inspired by Lenape imagery.
The Skyscraper That Used a Plaza to Save Lower Manhattan
One Chase Manhattan Plaza used an old zoning rule to rise as a clean slab, then turned its leftover ground into one of Lower Manhattan's great modern plazas.
Why This Windowless Tower Looms Over the Brooklyn Bridge
375 Pearl Street was built as a telephone switching fortress. Its blank walls made it notorious, then made it valuable again as a data center.
Why 2 World Trade Center Took So Long To Finish
2 World Trade Center became the last missing tower because its design kept changing with Lower Manhattan's economy, from banking floors to media offices to American Express.
How One Vanderbilt Bought Height by Fixing Grand Central
One Vanderbilt became a 1,401-foot office tower because New York tied private height to public transit improvements at Grand Central.
The Empire State Building's Airship Dock That Never Worked
The Empire State Building's spire was promoted as a mooring mast for transatlantic airships. The idea was glamorous, dangerous, and almost immediately obsolete.