51st St Between Lexington Ave and Park Ave
Are you familar with the GE Building? No, not THAT one...the other one, yes there's another GE building. And would you believe it puts the art deco grandeur of 30 Rock to shame? While the scale of the buildings in Rockefeller center are certainly impressive, they are practically simple when you compare them to the embellishments found on the building in the corner of 51st St and Lexington.
At 50 stories tall, it doesn't rival it's crosstown counterpart in scale, but the artfulness of the detailing here is something to admire. Covered in glass, granite, steel and enough sculptural elements to shake a stick at, even the subway entrance can't escape it's style.
However, when one looks across the street, it's enough to make you wonder what happened to architecture during the intervening 50 years. With practically no embellishment, the building is all-business...with hardley a right angle out of alignment.
If you can tear yourself from the beauty of GE (did I just say that?) you'll find more of the same down the street as the south side of the block continues to deliver great structures with a grand cathedrial. Of course the north side continues to disappoint with it's uninspired business fare.
This is perhaps one of the benefits to midtown, which I generally avoid when I can. The money flowing into this part of town allows for incredible things to happen (even if they happened 80 years ago).
Monday, July 13, 2009 at 8:00AM
Reader Comments (2)
I LOVE the old GE building - it's one of my favorites in town. Thanks for sharing your terrific pics!
I can't believe all the years I worked in midtown I never saw this building. It's magnificent. You captured some really neat shots.