Blog

By Claudia Winkler, Class of 2007
Photos by the author

Our annual architecture tour, New York City, attracted 40 docents. The heat index was above 95 degrees most of the time, and we spent a lot of time outside enduring very high temps. Nevertheless, we did a lot of fun activities!

Our first tour, in Greenwich Village, featured the Stonewall Inn where, in 1969, the gay rights movement began as patrons fought against police raids targeting the bar based on the sexual orientation of its customers. In 2018, the Stonewall Inn is still going strong.

We walked the High Line on our way to the AIA Architecture Boat Cruise. At the south end is the Whitney Museum of American Art by Renzo Piano (2015). Along the way, we saw Studio Gang’s new building, 40 10th Avenue, (the Solar Carve), which just topped out. We boarded the boat for a 2+ hour tour around Manhattan. Many of the docents are architects, and they’re very good at designating which buildings they’re describing. My favorite building is Via 57 West, a tetrahedron apartment building on the West Side designed by Bjarke Ingels (BIG). He also designed a building along the High Line that is still under construction.

The Midtown tour, starting at Bryant Park, was also great fun. Thanks to Barbara Weiner’s request, we went into the New York Public Library to see the Rose Reading Room; it reopened in 2016 after a two-year renovation. The ceiling is phenomenal as is the “Guilded Age” majesty of the entire building. The library is now called the Stephen A. Schwartzman Building, after the man who contributed $100 M in 2008. The Rose family gave $15M for the reading room renovation.

Along the south side of Bryant Park is the 1924 American Radiator Building by Hood & Howells. Black and gold bricks represent coal and fire. The top was inspired by the Butter Tower, next to the Rouen Cathedral in France. The Butter Tower also inspired the top of Chicago’s Tribune Tower. Does it remind you of the Carbon and Carbon Building?

Lower Manhattan n was fun, especially seeing Fearless Girl statue located very near Wall Street’s Charging Bull. Fearless Girl commemorates the leadership of women. (You GO, girl!) Both pieces of public art will be moved closer to the New York Stock Exchange by the end of this year.

SOM updated us on several of their properties, including a commercial building at Hudson Yards that will be built over railroad tracks. Its design is similar to 150 N. Riverside but without a tuned mass damper at the top, despite its 65+ stories. I asked about a damper and was told they are used only on residential buildings. That’s interesting for Chicagoans, considering that 150 N. Riverside, a commercial building, has the residential damper standard.

Saturday morning we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, the longest suspension bridge of the era, completed in 1883. The Roeblings, a family architectural firm, designed the structure. Emily Roebling assisted the supervision of the construction after her husband suffered from the bends, an all too common ailment resulting from working on the placement of the caissons. On the Brooklyn side the caissons go to bedrock; on the Manhattan side, however, the caissons rest on compacted sand.

On Saturday afternoon we were at the 9/11 Memorial Museum, a very sobering experience. The 9/11 Memorial Fountains reflect the footprints of the Twin Towers. The name of each victim is etched in bronze around the perimeter of the fountains. On the birthday of each victim, a white rose is placed by his or her name. The Memorial Museum is a sad, but must-see experience for Americans. One of the greatly damaged firetrucks is in the lowest level. We also saw the slurry wall that held fast as the towers fell, preventing even more devastation that would have occurred from flooding of the Hudson River. The monument docents are all very calm and measured, perfect for the environment. When I was there in 2016, I asked a docent how she could do the tour without crying: she said that if the tour members cried, she did also. Next to the 9/11 Memorial Museum is Santiago Calatrava’s Oculus. You’ve seen something similar at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Saturday night was a free night, and many of us went to see Broadway plays – The Band’s Visit, Come From Away, Carousel, and, of course, The Bette Midler Show, aka Hello Dolly. It was great for the Bette Midler fans making up 99% of the audience. I’m sure Betty Buckley will also be phenomenal here in Chicago.

The Sunday morning program was a tour of the beautiful Grand Central Station (1913). The firms of Reed & Stem and Warren & Wetmore worked together as the architects. By this point in time, I was suffering from heat exhaustion and left the tour, but I’m sure the remainder was great!

Stay tuned for the announcement of the 2019 tour.