In a city that defines monumental architecture in the modern age, a look at New York City's skyline is like a history lesson in modern architecture. While many cities have towers taller than New York's, none can lay claim to such a complete collection of modern and contemporary architecture -- to a skyline that illustrates the development of modern architecture and where the world's first skyscrapers stand among modernist glass towers, imaginative post-modern creations and even Gothic church spires. New York City offers architecture enthusiasts treasures at every corner, but a few sites stand out as the perfect place to stop and take a few pictures.
Midtown East
- Midtown East is home to some of New York City's most emblematic buildings. On 5th Avenue, the Empire State Building is the iconic image of the city -- so often photographed and filmed that it can almost seem like a cliche. The Chrysler building on Lexington Avenue is another art-deco building offering good photo opportunities, with its sleek steel finishing reflecting city lights and sunsets. Just down the street is the huge Grand Central Terminal, notable both for the ornate details of its beaux-arts exterior and the interesting lighting in its cavernous classical interior. For more modern architecture, head up Park Avenue to Mies van der Rohe's 1958 Seagram Building, a defining work of the functionalist international style.
Rockefeller Center
- While most visitors head straight to the ice-skating rink, Rockefeller Center is actually a huge art-deco building complex running from 47th to 52nd street in Midtown West. The complex includes both recognizable buildings like the GE Building and a series of plazas and open spaces with monumental works of art. The carefully planned and well-spaced complex provides for interesting photographic vistas and more air than in most of Midtown. Among Rockefeller Center's most famous sculptures is the massive gold-leaf statue of Prometheus stealing the fire from the Gods in the central sunken plaza. You can also climb to observation decks in several of the buildings to take photographs of the Midtown skyline.
Harlem
- Before minority migration to the area and Harlem's famed artistic Renaissance, this corner of Manhattan was a tranquil suburban housing area for some of New York's wealthier residents. Architecture from that period can still be seen in Harlem's ornate Gothic churches and residential architecture like the town houses on Strivers' Row and the Astor Row Houses. Today, these elegant row houses make Harlem one of the few places in Manhattan with buildings low enough to let in good photographic light throughout the day. The vibrant and multi-ethnic neighborhood also provides fascinating images of how its residents have breathed new life into many of the neighborhood's historic landmarks.
Financial District
- The southern tip of Manhattan -- today the city's Financial District -- is where New York began. It's also home to a stunning diversity of architecture from different periods, from colonial fortresses and churches to the huge neoclassical old Custom House and some of the world's first skyscrapers. The area around City Hall is especially notable, with the 1913 Woolworth Building and the 1912 Municipal Building demonstrating early skyscraper designs by Cass Gilbert and McKim, Mead and White respectively -- looking more like elongated Gothic churches than modern steel towers. In the distance, you can also see Frank Gehry's -- of Bilbao Guggenheim fame -- recent contribution to the city skyline, the dynamic, crumpled steel towers of 8 Spruce Street inaugurated in 2011.
