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.
Infrastructure
The tunnels, bridges, utilities, public works, and structural systems that keep New York and other cities operating.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
The Cast-Iron Boxes That Guard New York's Pizza Water
New York's famous tap water is monitored through 965 sidewalk sampling stations, a quiet system that protects everything from public health to pizza dough.
The Hidden Roadway Under the George Washington Bridge
The George Washington Bridge became the world's busiest motor-vehicle bridge by adding a second roadway beneath the one everyone sees.