Rockefeller Center Observation Decks Open November 1

Tickets are on sale for the soon-to-be-reopened observation decks on Rockefeller Center’s centerpiece RCA/GE Building.

(Credit where due.)

See also: Daniel Okrent’s Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center.

Cocaine Is The New Astoria

Low prices and easy access to midtown mean that cocaine is enjoying a renaissance. The New York Press whispers that it’s worse than you think:

When surveying the cocaine scene, it’s almost tempting to ask, New York-style (“Is Manhattan the New Brooklyn?” “Is Abstinence the New Sex?”), whether coke is the new weed–or at least the new coke. In terms of provenance (Medellin cartel) and potency (got talc?), though, coke is pretty much what it’s always been. What’s changed is who’s doing it, where, and why.

. . .

While the Mayflower set may have discovered some sense of decorum toward the drug, not all among the city elites have. Two acquaintances recently went into a meeting with a powerful business executive and were interrupted twice: first when the businessman pulled out a bag and took a toot, and again when his beautiful young daughter popped in to help herself to a bag for later.

Afterward, the pair was invited out for a drink by the daughter, who it turned out was in the eighth grade at an expensive parochial school. Lugging about a volume of Dante, she told them that most of her friends used coke, and that she had her own dealers but visited her father because he had better stuff.

If this sounds unbelievable, recast it with marijuana in place of cocaine. It’s disgusting, but not implausible—not even shocking, really. Perhaps coke is the new weed after all.

Big Map In Village Voice

Julian Dibbell writes up the Big Map in the Village Voice’s Site Specific feature.

The Best Skyscrapers

Lower Manhattan’s Skyscraper Museum asked a group of architectural heavyweights which of Manhattan’s many buildings were the best. The American Radiator Building did not make the cut:

One hundred architects, brokers, builders, critics, developers, engineers, historians, lawyers, officials, owners, planners and scholars were asked this summer by the Skyscraper Museum in Lower Manhattan to choose their 10 favorites among 25 existing towers, from the Park Row Building (1899) to the Time Warner Center (2004).

Ninety of them named William Van Alen’s Chrysler Building of 1930, which may come as close as any – despite or because of its ebullient eccentricity – to expressing New York’s cloud-piercing ambitions.

The surprising runner-up was Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building of 1958, which is the antithesis of Chrysler: cool, tranquil, rectangular and restrained. What they have in common is that both express the spirit of their times, Chrysler playing a jazz-age flapper to Seagram’s man in the gray flannel suit.

Before you slap your forehead and shout, “What about the American Radiator Building?” know that the survey’s respondents barely concealed their naked self-interest:

Neither the survey nor the answers were strictly scientific. Respondents tended to gravitate toward towers with which they are personally involved.

For instance, the RCA Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza (now the G.E. Building), was the No. 1 choice of Jerry Speyer of Tishman Speyer Properties, which co-owns Rockefeller Center; Samuel H. Lindenbaum, a land-use lawyer who represents the center; Howard J. Rubenstein, a public-relations executive whose firm promotes the center; and Daniel Okrent, the former public editor of The New York Times, whose 2003 book, “Great Fortune,” chronicled the history of the center.

Donald J. Trump checked off none of the buildings proposed by the museum but instead nominated Trump Tower, Trump World Tower, Trump International Hotel and Tower and 40 Wall Street. Yes, that would be the Trump Building.

That’s not to say that all respondents didn’t take the survey seriously:

There were some exceptions to self involvement. I. M. Pei did not chose 88 Pine Street, which his firm designed and where it has its office. But the building was among those picked by Robert B. Tierney, the chairman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Perhaps there is a designation in its future, though Mr. Tierney characterized the choice as one of personal affection and cautioned, “Nothing ‘official’ should be inferred.”

The World Trade Center was not on the list and did not appear as a write-in on anyone’s ballot. Leslie E. Robertson, a chief engineer of the twin towers, chose the Woolworth Building as his personal favorite. It, too, was once the tallest building in the world, 40 years before the topping out of 1 World Trade Center.

Survey results at the Skyscraper Museum’s website along with the executive summary:

Number 1 by a landslide is the Chrysler Building, making the list of 9 out of 10 participants, with 18 singling it out as their absolute Favorite. The Seagram Building took second place with 76 votes, while the Woolworth and Flatiron buildings tied with 73. The Empire State Building and Lever House ran a dead heat for fifth, followed closely by the RCA Building / 30 Rockefeller Center. Trailing these stars by more than twenty votes were the 1930 McGraw-Hill Building, the CBS Building / Black Rock, and the UN Secretariat.

I know the Seagram Building is historical and all, but seriously, what about the American Radiator Building?

Can I get a what-what?

A Full Recovery

How do we know New York has returned to normal four years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks? The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council is organizing an exhibit to commemorate Sept. 11. One of the pieces features an image of Bush with a gun to his head. The Daily News is outraged! And no one involved with the exhibit understands why (“we’re not out to make political statements”).