Follow-up: Skyscraper Cranes – Race for the Top

 December 27th, 2019 – New Apartment Buildings on West 57th, NYC

       Left – “One 57 Moma Tower,” and right – “111 West 57, (Steinway Tower.)

See comments about Skyscrappers  and Crane Management on previous post: here

Thanks for viewing. Click on for a closer view, and comments are always welcome. M 🙂

Fly-Over Salute to First Line Heroes

Most of the country, and particularily cities like New York, continue in a state of shut-down due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Today, a most welcome and meaningful show of support was heralded simultaneously by the Navy’s Blue Angels, and Air Force’s Thunderbirds, seen below flying from just south of the George Washington Bridge, to The Freedom Tower in lower Manhattan.
I joined about 30, mostly masked onlookers atop a basalt outcropping near Goffle Road, Hawthorn, NJ, to witness the event some 15 to 20 miles (24 to 32 km) distant from Manhattan. Close-ups are seen through ground haze, and a 600mm  lens.


Thanks for viewing. Comments are always welcome, and zoom in for a closer look. M 🙂

NYC Sunrise – Perspective, Part Two

             Sunrise Over Midtown – Lower Manhattan just left of Center

     From Eagle Rock Reservation,  N.J,  a Rescue Dog looks right

Perched on a remnant from the World Trade Center, his gaze is on lower Manhattan

 

                   Thanks for Viewing, and comments are welcome.

                             Zoom in for closer view.           M 🙂

A Snowy Trek to see Lucy

          Lucy Kaplansky, a Greenwich Village honed musician and singer-songwriter with pitch perfect vocals and acoustic guitar mastery, has impressed us during a number of local performances over the years. This past Saturday, as snow fell on the city and suburbs, my city savvy son and I made the trek, first by car in N.W. Bergen County, NJ, to the local train station. The end of the line is Hoboken, just steps away from the ferry terminal where we waited a few minutes for the frigid ride across the Hudson River to the “Battery” terminal (WTC area.) A cold half mile walk thru accumulating snow and partly along the water front, brought us to the pleasantly impressive “City Vineyard” restaurant on Pier 26.

         Preceded by an excellent dinner, Lucy would perform flawlessly with her music and stories, right there on the Hudson River, and practically in the shadow of One World Trade Center.

This  is  how  we  got  there…

          The last image above is through the window next to our high top table while watching the show, – overlooking the summer deck and Jersey City beyond. 

   City Vineyard is marked near the upper right on the map above.

        After the show, with my son leading the way, we would take a cab uptown to Penn Station, where the trains would bring us back under the river and eventually to the car (via Secaucus Jct.) and the final slippery road home. 

Note that these are i-phone images.

Thanks for viewing and comments are always welcome. M 🙂

 

 

Fun in Downtown L.A. Then and Now

Family Vacation, 32 years ago. American Airlines 747 from NYC’s Kennedy Airport to LAX. After the image below, is the story of  “Early A.M. in L.A.  on 11/10/87”   

 Images: Above: Giant Swiss Army Knive at Museum of Contempoary Art, Downtown L.A. – and L.A. as seen from Griffith Observatory, 11/11/87 with  City Hall to left – 5.6 miles (9 km) distant.
Above, the iconic L.A. City Hall, known at the time as “The Dragnet Building.”

Twelve hours after landing, I would be exploring Los Angeles by foot before the morning’s rush hour, while the family slept off jet-lag in the Holiday Inn about a mile away. An awesome two hour adventure into an “architectually diverse” downtown, with parks and plazas, and… WHAT??? – a Giant Swiss Army Knife???   Yes indeed!  

 

And, not far away, …Swinging Cars!hi

Years later, and of course living 3000 miles away, I wondered exactly where these two photos were taken. I searched maps, and photos where I could, without success – until now. Thanks to the remarkable 3D satellite image and orientation tools available on most any smart phone and/or computer, I “flew” between the buildings and first found the cars: W. Fourth street, and S. Grand Ave.  See it below?

The Swiss Army knife was a lot harder. In fact, it’s not there anymore. BUT, by looking at the photo I took in 1987, and specifically for the glass pyramid in its background,  I zoomed way in on the “Tom Tom” 3D map, and searched until noticing the glass pyramid structure. Below is from today’s mapping app, zoomed in showing that same glass pyramid. A “new” contempoary display is in the exact place where the knife was 32 years ago. 

Above: The Plaza at The Museum of Contemporary Art, on S. Grand Street, L.A. (From Tom Tom Maps,  Apple I-Pad)

Below, another photo of downtown Los Angeles on that beautiful morning.

Thanks for viewing. Comments are always welcome, and zoom in for a closer look. M 🙂

NYC from the Hudson River – Exceptional Lighting

Back last year, while returning by ferry from a day-trip to Manhattan, the lighting was awesome. Being the busy Christmas season of 2016, these images were saved in my computer until… now! Storms to the north and the late afternoon sun brightly shinning in the south-west accentuated the stunning view.

As usual, click on the image for a closer look, and thanks for viewing. Comments and questions are always welcome.   M 🙂