Brrrr. Perfect for a Tim Burton remake of the Shining.
January 15, 2013 at 7:57 AM
Gojira said...
Far more attractive and welcoming than 51 Astor Place. I'll take it any day over that excrescence, which will never sport a humble milk bottle on one of its windowsills. Which it doesn't have anyway.
January 15, 2013 at 9:49 AM
Anonymous said...
That building (the Waldorf-Astoria) is an absolute monstrosity. Good to see that horrible aesthetic design isn't a new phenomenon.
Wow! How do you just demolish a structure like that? Not only mentally (it's beautiful and must have been such process to build) but also physically, after it had stood for such a short time? Wild.
January 16, 2013 at 10:20 AM
We had a post yesterday about 51 Astor Place, including quotes from developer Edward J. Minskoff from The Wall Street Journal. (Flashback: "it's great-looking, it fits in to the neighborhood, it's not overbearing.")
So, you know, at least one neighborhood blogger and several readers who just obviously don't appreciate great-looking architecture have dubbed 51 Astor Place the "Death Star."
Meanwhile! Turns out that this isn't the city's first Death Star... Crazy Eddie came across this Shorpy photo from 1902...
[Image]
Per the caption, "The Waldorf-Astoria, New York." The original, and somewhat forbidding, Waldorf at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. Complete with the obligatory windowsill milk bottle.
Of course, this Death Star had a short life... In 1929, the original Waldorf-Astoria was demolished to make way for something called the Empire State Building. (Did plans for that ever move forward?)
Not sure I'd describe that old Waldorf as a "Death Star." Maybe we can swap this out for 51 Astor? Dibs on the corner room at the top.
5 Comments
Close this window Jump to comment formBrrrr. Perfect for a Tim Burton remake of the Shining.
January 15, 2013 at 7:57 AM
Far more attractive and welcoming than 51 Astor Place. I'll take it any day over that excrescence, which will never sport a humble milk bottle on one of its windowsills. Which it doesn't have anyway.
January 15, 2013 at 9:49 AM
That building (the Waldorf-Astoria) is an absolute monstrosity. Good to see that horrible aesthetic design isn't a new phenomenon.
January 15, 2013 at 10:07 AM
Great find by Crazy Eddie!
January 15, 2013 at 12:20 PM
Wow! How do you just demolish a structure like that? Not only mentally (it's beautiful and must have been such process to build) but also physically, after it had stood for such a short time? Wild.
January 16, 2013 at 10:20 AM