Where Central Park’s Horses Go Home
Behind the carriage rides is a less familiar New York: upstairs stables, working commutes and a historic industry facing an uncertain future.
Infrastructure
The tunnels, bridges, utilities, public works, and structural systems that keep New York and other cities operating.
How Manhattan's Trash Leaves by Barge at East 91st Street
Inside the East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station, sealed containers and barges move Manhattan refuse without sending long-haul trucks across the city.
The Hidden Flaws Inside New York's East River Bridges
The Brooklyn, Williamsburg, and Manhattan Bridges still carry the city. Each one also carries a construction shortcut, a failed protection scheme, or a design error that later cost hundreds of millions to contain.
The Concrete Crystal That Keeps Lower Manhattan Moving
New York’s Spring Street Salt Shed turns a 5,000-ton winter reserve into a striking piece of civic infrastructure on the Hudson River waterfront.
The Concrete Arch That Paved Manhattan
At Asphalt Green on the Upper East Side, a 1944 municipal asphalt plant shows how a practical freight problem produced one of New York’s most distinctive industrial landmarks.
The Last Fire Watchtower in New York City
The cast-iron tower above Marcus Garvey Park once turned smoke sightings into coded bell alarms. It survived obsolescence, decay, and dismantling.
How The Standard Learned to Step Over the High Line
The Standard, High Line turns an awkward Manhattan constraint into its defining feature, carrying an 18-story glass hotel across a historic railway on monumental concrete supports.
How 8 Spruce Street Made a Skyscraper Ripple
After Frank Gehry’s vast Atlantic Yards plan was abandoned, another Bruce Ratner project gave the architect a very different New York challenge: turning the rigid skin of a residential tower into something that appears to move.
Why a Rainstorm Can Make the Hudson Risky for Swimmers
New York’s combined sewers explain why Hudson River water quality can deteriorate after rain. A filtered pool on the East River offers one possible route back into the water, but its pilot remains unfinished.
Hudson Landing Would Build 1,127 Homes Above Manhattan’s Coal-Tar Legacy
A parking lot opposite the Intrepid Museum could become a two-tower housing complex. First, its buried history as part of a manufactured-gas plant must be addressed.
520 Fifth Avenue: The Supertall Wearing a Terracotta Disguise
At 520 Fifth Avenue, an aluminum curtain wall borrows the texture and glow of fired clay, allowing a 1,000-foot tower to speak in the architectural language of old Midtown.
The English Ruins Beneath Manhattan’s East Side
A stretch of the FDR Drive rests on an unlikely foundation: rubble carried across the Atlantic from bombed-out Bristol as wartime ship ballast.