Round No. 2: Archaeology at Home or Jackpot: I found the negatives

[robklurfield]

[go here for the first thread in this series:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=96384 ]

go to this link for the next thread:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=96432

Here's some images from the second roll of my dig. Most of these were shot from the Citicorp Building on Lexington Avenue at 53rd Street. This is their iconic building with the wedge at the top. In the early 80's, my first real job in NYC was as a proofreader at a law firm that had its offices on the top stories (53 through 55) of this building. It was to good an opportunity not to take advantage of the 360-degree views from that altitude.

Interestingly about the building, someone did a study of its behavior during high windows and determined that the building was at great risk of being knocked down. So, in what at the time was a very top-secret project, the engineering firm that built it did some major work up in that wedge atop the tower, putting in an enormous trough filled with some kind of high-viscosity oil and then added a massive weight to it to apparently damp the resonance of the structure during windstorms. They kept this very hush, hush for many years because the city building authorities, the engineers and architects were all concerned about creating panic. Before his death, one of the chief guys involved in the original design was either interviewed or wrote about the subject and confessed that when he discovered the wind studies that he became very depressed and worried that he'd created a disaster in the making.

Looking west. The building with the Chippendale-styled pediment at the top was the AT&T building designed by Phillip Johnson. It was still under construction in 1983 or 84 when this was shot. The building is now know as the Sony Building. It was quite controversial at the time, as many critics thought the pediment was a big joke on Johnson's part spoofing the whole retro classic movement. He denied it, but in retrospect, I think he probably had a good laugh over the design.

Pan-X
M4
90/2.8 Tele-Elmarit

 

[robklurfield]

Looking south towards the Chrysler Building. Few people realized that the original plans for the building included some gorgeous florescent lights in the windows at the top. The plans were rediscovered in around 1981 and the building owners were smart enough to finally execute the original design of this wonderful feature -- really one of the most iconic art deco elements one could imagine (you have to see them at night and wonder how the building went nearly 60 years before someone figured out something so obvious). I believe the building was undergoing a major exterior sprucing-up project in 1984 that included polishing and restoring all of the stainless steel architectural elements.

 

[robklurfield]

This one, from the same direction, is a bit of heartbreak. In the midground is the former PanAm Building (now MetLife) and, of course, in the background, the World Trade Center twin towers. It's disturbing to me that the negative is damaged in such as way as to have altered the texture of the towers, kind of reminding me of how they looked on the morning 9/11 with those tragic gashes in them. Very eerie seeing this image for the first time in nearly 27 years.

 

[Ducky]

I remember the damper being installed, quite a fuss but it worked.

 

[robklurfield]

Looking north. Central Park, the Hudson River and the George Washington Bridge to our left. In February 1968, someone who would eventually become a relative by marriage jumped off the bridge in a suicide attempt. He hit the winter ice on the river, breaking his leg in the process, but survived to live another 26 or so years. (Miss you.) This put him in the Guiness Book of World Records until the publishers decided to stop recording things that they deemed too dangerous. This was about an 18 or 20-story fall.

 

[robklurfield]

 

[robklurfield]

At our apartment on West 12th Street. A previous occupant of the building and, we were told by doorman at the building of this exact apartment, was Jimi Hendrix. This was a while before we lived there. I believe he did live in the building (he did a great deal of recording about four blocks south at his Electric Ladyland Studios on 8th Street (still famous and still pumping out music). I am not sure I'm convinced that he lived in the same small studio we did.

http://www.electricladystudios.com/

Not sure if this was one of our own cats, Maggie or Bennie, or friend's cat, Freddie ... no matter....

 

[davidbivins]

Thanks for sharing these. The damper project you speak of was the subject of a New Yorker article a few years ago. It was fascinating.

 

[robklurfield]

The piece in the New Yorker was absolutely fascinating. The same relative who survived the jump from the bridge worked on the project as a mechanic. He told me they had to be very secretive entering the building (all the work was done at night, I think) so as not scare tenants.

If you know the artist Red Grooms's work, the very same relative is also a figure on Ruckus Manhattan, Red's enornous homage to the Woolworth Building. He (the relative) is perched on a scaffold on the outside of the building. He worked in exterior building maintenance and Red used to come around when the shift ended on major restoration project on the terra cotta ornaments at the building. I have a broken gargoyle's head in my backyard that we believe came from the project.

Thanks for sharing these. The damper project you speak of was the subject of a New Yorker article a few years ago. It was fascinating.

 

[robklurfield]

Looking southeast. The UN is to the left of the frame and the East River in the background. I had forgotten how truly spoiled I was to have access to such great views on a daily basis. The views were breathtaking.

 

[robklurfield]

I almost forgot to mention that the firm I worked when I shot all of these skyline photos was known then as Breed, Abbott & Morgan. Guy Abbott, one of the founding partners, was Bernice Abbott's brother. Some of her photographs were in hung in the hallways and in several of the conference rooms. Quite an inspiration.

 

[robklurfield]

Sunset over the Hudson River.

 

[Michael Markey]

Bloomin` hec (as we say in the north) what a skyline.

 

[robklurfield]

I wish I had such easy access to such views now. I sure was spoiled. And, probably never expected it to end.

Bloomin` hec (as we say in the north) what a skyline.

 

[robklurfield]

from the next roll, the Citicorp Building

 

[robklurfield]

Another view of the Citicorp Building