Venturing dangerously close to Times Square, these few blocks still retain some of the nauseating sparkle from The Crossroads of the World. Featuring "America's Largest T.G.I Friday's" (which seems to imply that there are larger "Friday's" out there, just not in the United States), you shouldn't expect much to enjoy from this neck of the woods. Some older buildings remain, but their unique features are either neglected, hidden, or so high up as to not warrant noticing.

When I can, I avoid this part of town entirely – not due to any new-found fear of SUV terrorism (though, it's a nice excuse), but like any level-headed New Yorker avoiding tourists is like a game; a game you automatically lose if you set foot in Times Square. 

This is a street of extremes. On one side you have a handful of utterly unremarkable structures, while on the other you have the imposing, history, and record-breaking James Farley Post Office building. Taking up two entire blocks, the city's largest post office claims to have one of the longest rows of Corinthian colonnade in the world – though I've found some sources that claim otherwise. Either way, it's an impressive building. Built by the same architects who designed the original Penn Station, which sat across 8th Avenue, it was intended to be as imposing and beautiful as the original train station. Now days, it isn't even a contest as it faces the utterly pathetic Madison Square Garden. 

While the 8th Avenue facade is the most visible and impressive front of the landmark, the longer sides which sit between this street and 33rd are something to behold. While the western side of the building is lined with loading docks, as you move eastward, it's taken over by an impressively strange dry moat, which acts as a barrier between the sidewalk and the building. I wasn't able to get a good shot of it, but Wikipedia has a nice view from 33rd St. 

The southern half of the block wouldn't even pass as impressive on a block without an 8-acre masterpiece facing it. So you'll pardon me if I didn't pay it much bother as I walked around here.

Once again my schedule for shooting photos for this project has given me a completely skewed perspective on a block. What would normally be a busy stretch of 10th Avenue, filled with bars and restaurants, was utterly dead at 9am on a Sunday when I visited. Does this goes against my stated goal of accurate documentation for the site? Perhaps. But there's no way I'd be able to schedule my photo shooting to coincide with the various busy periods of each neighborhood. So that's just too bad.

There's an extreme contrast between the new and old apartments here. They share the same walls yet feature polarized visions of architecture. It's all a bit jarring. The overflow of bars, restaurants and food stores here made it feel like a place I ought to re-visit when the weather is nicer.

Smack-dab in the middle of nowhere, this neighborhood is mostly all apartments and low-rise buildings. In the distance you can see  the towers of midtown peeking through. Ingrained with a real sense of community of belonging, there's a myriad of corner parks and community gardens dotting the landscape on this block.

Federally subsidized under the Section 8 program, the Terrific Tenements, which sit in the middle of the block, are clearly in the marketing business. Looking like a plain set of regular 4-story buildings, I couldn't quite make out anything that was particularly terrific about them.

A street with several interesting industrial characteristics, this block is surprisingly dense with residential buildings. Cutting its way down the center of the block is a trench holding what I can only assume is part of the Northeast Corridor Amtrak line (where it goes and where it's coming from, I'm not sure).

The end of the block is dominated by a large building with some limited detailing on the north and the Salvation Army collection center on the south. With large, arched garage doors, it's a rather nice-looking warehouse.