The New York Times Magazine has posted an excellent microsite on the space in New York City that arises above 800 feet. As editor Jake Silverstein explains it:
The city has 21 buildings with roof heights above 800 feet; seven of them have been completed in the past 15 years (and three of those the past 36 months). In this special New York Issue, we explore the high-altitude archipelago that spreads among the top floors of these 21 giants. It totals about 34 million square feet in all, encompassing lavish living spaces, vertiginous work environments (during construction and after), elite gathering places. Visually, the experience of this new altitude feels different in kind from its predecessors, the peak uplifts of previous booms that topped out at 400, 500 or 600 feet. At 800 and above, you feel something unusual in a city defined by the smelly bustle of its sidewalks and the jammed waiting and inching and zooming of its avenues — a kind of Alpine loneliness. Every New Yorker knows the pleasant private solitude that can be found at street level, among anonymous crowds. This is something different: an austere sense of apartness inspired by achieving a perspective seemingly not meant for human eyes.
A few images from the issue that caught my eye:
Aerial view of 1950s Midtown Manhattan. Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Scott Small / 55, Laborer, 3 World Trade Center
Jack Davison for The New York Times
Follow the link to see a fantastic gif of this.
Illustrations by Brian Rea. Animation by Pablo Delcan.
A private event at the Rainbow Room, May 2016.
Matthew Pillsbury for The New York Times
Chrysler Building, 1,046 feet, as seen from the MetLife Building. Begun: 1928. Completed: 1930. ‘‘It’s in the clouds, like a Magritte painting. Slightly surrealistic.’’
Thomas Struth for The New York Times
