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Infrastructure

The tunnels, bridges, utilities, public works, and structural systems that keep New York and other cities operating.

IAC Building: The Manhattan Building That Bent Glass Into Sails

IAC Building: The Manhattan Building That Bent Glass Into Sails

After years of unrealized New York proposals, Frank Gehry found his opening on the Hudson, where he turned an ordinary office curtain wall into a white, windblown landmark.

Why Gateway Is Turning the Hudson Riverbed Into Stone

Why Gateway Is Turning the Hudson Riverbed Into Stone

Before tunnel-boring machines can carve a new rail link into Manhattan, engineers must transform the Hudson’s soft mud and reclaimed shoreline into ground strong enough to hold them.

The Hess Triangle: New York’s Tiny Monument to Property and Spite

The Hess Triangle: New York’s Tiny Monument to Property and Spite

A sidewalk mosaic in Greenwich Village preserves the memory of a parcel the city missed, along with a family’s refusal to surrender it.

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.

Concorde: The Airliner Built Backwards From Mach 2

Concorde: The Airliner Built Backwards From Mach 2

Its needle nose, delta wing and thunderous engines made supersonic travel possible, but physics, regulation and one catastrophic accident narrowed Concorde’s world.

The New York Clock Counting Down a Carbon Budget

The New York Clock Counting Down a Carbon Budget

Above Union Square, a familiar public artwork has become a deadline in lights and a measure of whether clean energy can move faster than the clock.

Denny Farrell Riverbank State Park: The Park Above a Sewage Plant

Denny Farrell Riverbank State Park: The Park Above a Sewage Plant

Riverbank State Park sits on a 28-acre platform above the North River wastewater plant, supported by thousands of caissons driven into Hudson River bedrock.

The New Jersey Pole Field That Tested America's Telephone Network

The New Jersey Pole Field That Tested America's Telephone Network

Bell Labs planted treated telephone poles in a New Jersey field to learn which woods and preservatives could survive decades of weather, insects, and rot.

How Bell Labs Learned to Rebuild Invisible Signals

How Bell Labs Learned to Rebuild Invisible Signals

Bell Labs' great communications breakthroughs came from one hard problem: weak signals fade, distort, and disappear unless a network knows how to rebuild them.

New York Public Library: The Bryant Park Plaque Hiding an Underground Door

New York Public Library: The Bryant Park Plaque Hiding an Underground Door

A split plaque in Bryant Park hides an emergency exit for the New York Public Library's underground stacks, where millions of books sit beneath the lawn.