On a recent balmy night just before sunset, we set sail on Classic Harbor Line’s “Around Manhattan Architecture Tour.” Hosted by the American Association of Architects/New York chapter (AIANY), the cruise highlights the city’s iconic buildings, bridges and landmarks and helps place Manhattan in an architectural perspective but with a maritime point of view.
As soon as we sailed away from the pier, the Empire State Building’s spire, poking above the metropolis in the heart of town, could not compete with the newer construction lining the far west side and vying for our attention. Everywhere our eyes fell there were treasures to behold especially with the guides pointing out hidden gems we may have overlooked. Like the horizontal ribbon of green seemingly floating above the streetscape; it took us a moment to realize it was the High Line–the elevated garden and pedestrian walkway that’s a poster child of how transformational urban planning can be. With the façade of the Standard Hotel straddling its southernmost point, the two were inextricably linked.
Cruising around lower Manhattan, we gazed up at the Freedom Tower glinting in the beautiful fading light. Here we also observed the island’s distinctive southern contours, making us aware of its shoreline and the major role it plays in the city’s buildings and infrastructures, especially now, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Our guides held forth with a variety of specific details and little known facts. Who knew for instance that the Statue of Liberty’s crown was so symbolic? Turns out each of its points represent one of the seven continents.
While the emphasis is on architecture that provides a deeper understanding of Manhattan’s instantly recognizable skyline, tour participants will also hear about the unique maritime ecosystem that surrounds one of the most populated cities on earth. New York Harbor–one of the greatest natural harbors in the world–is the result of the last great glacial age that formed the natural channel entrance that flows under the Verrazano Bridge.
Cruising around the tip of the island we caught a glimpse of Governors Island, a reminder of the harbor’s ongoing evolution. In this case the onetime Coast Guard base has been transformed into a public park incorporating the old McKim, Meade & White designed neo-Georgian Liggett Hall with the new Hammock Grove, an undulating forested area, and the Play Lawn, an 11-acre grassy field for sports and sunbathing. What were once marching grounds for the military has becoming a lushly planted zone of verdant grasses and nut bearing trees.
Soon afterward we passed under John A. Roebling’s Brooklyn Bridge, the engineering phenomenon that links two of the city’s five boroughs. Beneath the bridge is Brooklyn Bridge Park, home to Jane’s Carousel, holding court in a splendid new pavilion designed by Pritzker prize winning architect, Jean Nouvel.
Approaching Roosevelt Island we catch sight of the Louis I. Kahn designed Four Freedoms Park, which wasn’t completed until forty years after his death in 1974. The triangular four acre memorial to FDR is a symbolic stretch of prime shorefront, and consists of a tapered lawn with flanking allées of Littleleaf linden trees that converge at the top of a 100 foot wide ceremonial staircase, all pointing toward the tip of FDR’s namesake island.
With the refreshing Hudson River breezes blowing throughout the tour, gulls cawing, and tug boats tooting, thoughts of Manhattan were all but in the distance, the city’s ubiquitous honking horns, sirens and car alarms seemingly washed away. It was exhilarating to feel the current carry the boat along while rediscovering our remarkable island city, relatively small in stature (just over thirteen miles tip to tip and two miles at its widest in Midtown where the largest concentration of skyscrapers soar). Because of a unique characteristic of this island we call home–solid bedrock–it is and continues to be the perfect foundation for architects the world over to expand their resumes and design and build more distinctive and globally recognized buildings.
Here’s to the next chapter of New York, New York’s architecture.