The Shard, due for completion in 2012. Image from Wikipedia Commons.

It is a symbol, but of what? Not of an ideal or a heroic event, obviously, but not exactly of the inexorable march of economics, either. It is not a pure expression of land values or of profit-and-loss calculations. It’s more eccentric than that, something that popped through a gap in London’s wonky, many-layered planning system, where opinion and discussion counts for more than clear rules, and where many years and hundreds of thousands of pounds are spent deliberating arbitrary questions of taste. It is the crystallisation of a series of deals, involving players from Cricklewood, Hull, Southwark, the Gulf and Italy.

If anyone had sat down to plan the most sensible distribution of towers in London, they would not have come up with the Shard, standing alone on a crowded site in a location that is still a bit rackety, with little apparent relation to the things around it. But no one plans London like this and it’s unlikely to happen any time soon. Meanwhile, the startling, part-graceful, part-clunky, impressive, slightly nutty Shard is a true monument to the city that made it.

The Shard: A symbol of towering ambition (The Guardian)

Flatiron

Locals took an immediate interest in the building, placing bets on how far the debris would spread when the wind knocked it down. This presumed susceptibility to damage also gave it the nickname Burnham’s Folley. The building is also said to have helped coin the phrase “23 skidoo”, from what cops would shout at men who tried to get glimpses of women’s dresses being blown up by the winds swirling around the building due to the strong downdrafts.

Often, I ‘tourist’ backwards, finding something by chance, by vague direction and ambiguous means, then fill in the details and story post-find. Put simply, this is me starting with a general idea of where I should probably walk, coming across something that might make me cry a little or at least provide some bubblechills, then I’ll google around when I get home. It’s not the better way to sightsee in every situation, but it can work wonderfully, like with the Flatiron (formally Fuller) building. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!!! Until I was up on the top of the Empire State building the night before and the audio guide voice pointed it out to me, I hadn’t heard of it, and the next day I walked right to it without even meaning to (not surprising as it’s on 5th and Broadway) There is such major profound satisfaction in seeing such a gorgeous man-made structure like that – of course it’s a city icon! Times Square can eat my face, it can’t compare. I get way cheesy from hereonin, beware. The style descriptions, the stories of the construction etc, are lullabies to me..

I found myself agape, admiring a skyscraper — the prow of the Flatiron Building, to be particular, ploughing up through the traffic of Broadway and Fifth Avenue in the late-afternoon light.
—H.G. Wells, 1906

On the captions on the framed pictures inside the foyer I recognized the Burnham name (the designer of the building)  from the 1909 Plan of Chicago, aka the Burnham Plan. So, planner and architect. 🙂 His other commissions include other buildings in Detroit, Washington D.C, Chicago, Pittsburgh.. which is funny as this is most of the US cities I want to see for their urban planning.

The acutely angled corners give the building an exaggerated and dramatic perspective. As the city’s “first” skyscraper, New Yorkers worried that it would topple over. In the over 100 years since its construction the Flatiron’s only problem has been that city grime has settled into the crevices of the terracotta flowers and Grecian faces decorating the building. Even this has only served to accentuate its details.

Located at 175 5th Avenue, between East 2nd and 23rd streets. Completed 1902. 87 metres high and 22 floors, with the rounded narrow top end only six feet wide. Consists of a steel frame covered with a non-load-bearing limestone and terracotta facade. Beaux-arts architectural style; combined elements of French and Italian Renaissance styles.

Today, the Flatiron Building is frequently seen on television commercials and documentaries as an easily recognizable symbol of the city, shown, for instance, in the opening credits of The Late Show With David Letterman. It is depicted as the headquarters of The Daily Bugle, for which Peter Parker is a freelance photographer in the Spider-man movies.

It is a popular spot for tourist photographs and also a functioning office building which is currently in the process of being taken over as the headquarters of publishing companies held by Macmillan. Macmillan is renovating some floors, and their website comments: The Flatiron’s interior is known for having its strangely-shaped offices with walls that cut through at an angle on their way to the skyscraper’s famous point. These “point” offices are the most coveted and feature amazing northern views that look directly upon another famous Manhattan landmark, the Empire State Building.

In January 2009, an Italian real estate investment firm bought a majority stake in the Flatiron Building, with plans to turn it into a world-class luxury hotel, although the conversion may have to wait 10 years until the leases of the current tenants run out.

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http://commkey.net/daniel/flata.htm
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GRP/GRP024.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatiron_Building#Architecture
http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=building&lng=3&id=114793

Tyres

I finally walked my bike over to a petrol station to have the tyres pumped. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever had that done..? I totally heart the free air machine. I cycled to the Marina Bay area – heading due east from home – and got great pictures of the construction areas coupled with a moody sky. I tried to ride in as close into the actual site as I could but was eventually waved off by a guy with a stop sign. Lucky for me it didn’t rain.

I stopped at the Marina Bay Pier too, around sunset.

Riding around the city like this, with my ipod, camera and pack… it makes me very happy. I got to thinking about why it has such a big effect on me, something more than endorphins and fresh air. More than travel even. This is going to sound somewhat fucked up.. but it’s almost like the city is matronly, or parental. Comforting and protective, in all its pattern, form and grandeur. I think the idea was bedded in my subconscious, from back when I was a teen-bopper and listened to the All Saints cover of a Red Hot Chilli Peppers song. *Googles* … ‘Under the Bridge’. Obviously the tone of the song is pretty morose (and beautiful). That isn’t what’s relevant though. The relevant part is the connection you have with the extended space you exist in.

Yeah, I’m silly. But I know.. a significant chunk of my life will involve The City. Somehow 🙂