By Scott Etkin
Here is some Upper West Side history for a Throwback Thursday late afternoon.
Architectural Digest magazine/Condé Nast produces a series of “walking tours” on YouTube that explain the history and style of notable buildings and neighborhoods in cities like New York, Washington, DC, and San Francisco. On Thursday, they posted a new 10-minute video about the Upper West Side and some of its landmark buildings, including the Dakota, San Remo, and several others. The architect who leads most of the New York tours is Nick Potts, of Nicholas Potts Studio. He gave us permission to post this latest video. In fact, he sent the Rag his personal reflections on the project.
“This one was probably my favorite one in the series so far…[it] started with a fascination with the Central Park West skyline (which is, in my mind, one of the most extraordinary concentrations of apartment buildings in the world), and digging a little bit into the origin of the tall apartment house as a a building type and the technologies and laws that led to it. The UWS is so iconic, if not ‘the’ image of a NYC neighborhood to a wide segment of the larger public, and it can be hard to condense this much richness and complexity into ten minutes. My hunch is there might be more videos to come….”
Enjoy!
And this is why it is heartbreaking to see so many buildings being town down to build another anonymous high rise. Look at what’s happening in the area all around the iconic Zabars.
Here is one monstrosity of a building that the UWS IS blessed not to have.
It is called the Jenga building after the Jenga game
https://www.businessinsider.com/jenga-building-nyc-penthouse-exlusive-photos-56-leonard-2019-11
What a monstrosity!
Haha my kids have always called that not-too-lovely thing on the NW corner of 96th & B’way the Jenga building…can’t wait to show them this one🙄
Bahaha I’ve always thought that too about that building when I walk to the subway for work!! The only good thing is how it reflects in the puddles that swell up in the corner of the street. And now we have another mega luxury high rise tower facing it 🙁
Wonderful video tour by Nick Potts! I learned so much, thank you! I do hope there are more UWS landmark videos to come!
This was fabulous! Please give us more Nick Potts!!