Pick a building from the list below. You are required to visit the building at least once. Walk around the building, go inside, if you can. What is it like to look at it from the street; to see it from a distance? What is it like to enter the building (if you can)? Pay attention to the neighborhood around the building and how it relates to its surroundings (or doesn’t). Do materials like brick or glass or stainless steel or something else make a difference to the overall effect of the building? Does color play a role?
Find out what you can about the building, its history, why it was built, especially why it was designed the way it was.
Write a 3 page typed double spaced paper, 12 point type. Tell something about its history, about the architect, about who ordered it built and why. Above all, why does the building look the way it does? Why do you think this building was designed this way? Describe your experience visiting the building. What do you think of it?
You must turn in a snapshot of yourself with the building as proof of your visit.
The List
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41 Cooper Square, Cooper Union, Thom Mayne (3rd Avenue and 7th Street)
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The Empire State Building, Shreve & Lamb (34th Street and 5th Avenue; you are not required to visit the observation deck)
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The Chrysler Building, William Van Allen (42nd Street and Lexington Ave)
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Rockefeller Center, Raymond Hood, Wallace Harrison, etc. (5th Avenue from 52nd to 48th Streets; you are not required to visit the observation deck)
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The Guggenheim Museum, Frank Lloyd Wright (5th Avenue at 81st Street; it would be nice to take a look inside, but they will charge you $25 admission, no exceptions; so visiting the inside is encouraged, but not required.)
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The Seagram Building, Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe (Park Avenue and 52nd Street)
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The Woolworth Building, Cass Gilbert (Broadway at Barclay Street, across from City Hall; while the Woolworth Building has been converted to luxury condominiums and is no longer open to the public, you can take a
guided tour of the lobby)
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The United Nations Buildings, Oscar Niemeyer, Le Corbusier, Wallace Harrison, etc. (1st Avenue and 43rd Street; NOTE, I want a report on the BUILDINGS, NOT the organization; a lot of the UN is closed for security purposes, but you can take
a guided tour).
-The old
Whitney Museum of American Art, Marcel Breuer (945 Madison Avenue)
-The new
Whitney Museum of American Art, Renzo Piano (99 Gansevoort Street)
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The Daily News Building, Raymond Hood (220 East 42nd Street)
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MacGraw Hill Building, Raymond Hood, (330 42nd Street)
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Lever House, Gordon Bunshaft & Natalie de Blois (390 Park Avenue)
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The General Electric Building, John Cross (570 Lexington Avenue)
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The Flatiron Building, Daniel Burnham (175 5th Avenue, at 23rd street)
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AT&T Building (now the Sony Building), Phillip Johnson (550 Madison Avenue)
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#1 World Trade Center, John Childs (You are not required to visit the observation deck)
-World Trade Center Transportation Center, Santiago Calatrava, (This building is almost finished and scheduled to be open later in 2016)
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The National September 11th 2001 Memorial, Michael Arad (World Trade Center; You are not required to visit the museum; the Memorial is free; I want a paper on the the Memorial and its design, not on 9/11)
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Hearst Magazine Building, Norman Foster (959-969 Eighth Avenue at West 47th Street)
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Time Warner Center, David Childs, (10 Columbus Circle)
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Perry West Condominiums, Richard Meier, (173 and 176 Perry Street at the corner of West Street)
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8 Spruce Street, Frank Gehry, (8 Spruce Street in Lower Manhattan just south of City Hall Park)
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New York Times Building, Renzo Piano (8th Avenue between 40th and 41st Streets)
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Bayard-Condict Building, Louis Sullivan (65 Bleecker Street in Lower Manhattan)
NOTE: If you have a building in mind that is not on this list, but you would really like to write about it, please see me.
