A Home for the Headlines
StreetscapesJanuary 23, 2015
A structure that just missed the New York City landmarks preservation law of 1965 was the 1905 Times Tower at 42nd Street at Broadway. Reminiscent of the Florentine campanile by Giotto, it was an expansive gesture by The New York Times, then moving uptown from Park Row. The newspaper left the building around 10 years later, but the tower survived for 60 years before being stripped to its skin. By the time the landmarks law was passed, even the skeleton had disappeared from view.
At one time most of the newspaper industry was clustered along Park Row, where The Times built its own skyscraper at No. 41 Park Row in 1889. But when the Ochs family bought the paper in the 1890s, they were open to new ideas, especially in 1900, when construction began on New York’s first subway, its route turning at what was then called Longacre Square. In 1903 The Times’s architects, Eidlitz & McKenzie, filed plans for a 24-story tower on the trapezoidal plot at the south end of the square, bounded by 42nd and 43rd Streets, Broadway and Seventh Avenue.
The New York Times Tower, seen here in 1929 looking southwest from Broadway and 43rd Street, reminded some of Giotto’s campanile in Florence.
The New York Times Company Archives
While construction was underway, The Times asked the city to rename the location Times Square, a proposal to which there were objections. One came from The New York Tribune, which in 1904 praised “our excellent neighbor” but also said that “the established names of streets and places ought seldom to be changed.”
The American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society chimed in, calling Longacre “dignified, reputable and euphonious” and denouncing the “pernicious” practice of replacing long-established names with those of commercial endeavors.
However, Times Square it became and remains.
Architects’ and Builders’ Magazine suggested that The Times “should recognize the demands of artistic taste and utilize their properties so as to promote municipal improvements and add to the beauty of the city,” a century later rather a quaint notion. The architects created a two-part marble tower stepping down to the new Times Square. It was surrounded by colonnettes, and almost purely vertical in effect. The taller 24-story section of the tower had a passing resemblance to Giotto’s campanile in Florence, but old photographs show much early French Renaissance detailing, with window moldings and late Gothic ornament.
Montgomery Schuyler, the picky architectural critic, called it “a valuable addition to our short list of artistic skyscrapers.”
The Times seemed eager to boom its artistic contribution, frequently maintaining that its tower was taller than the acknowledged record-holder, the 1899 Park Row Building, two blocks from the 1889 Times building. But The Times was including the four below-grade stories; the actual measurement, beginning at sidewalk level, the customary starting point, was 362 feet for the Times Tower, 380 feet for the Park Row.
Perched on the top of the Times Tower was a round little observatory awash in French Renaissance detailing, as cute as a candy box, although it is not certain how it was used, or whether it was open to the public. In November 1904, before the building was occupied, a system of searchlights was installed to signal which presidential candidate was victorious. The lights facing west went on — Theodore Roosevelt had won.
Employees leapt from their desks to the windows one night in 1910 when Frank W. Goodale circled the tower in his 58-foot-long dirigible as thousands cheered below. In 1928 the horizontal electronic news ticker was introduced, and The Nassau Daily Review of Long Island reported that the multitude supporting presidential candidate Alfred E. Smith was downcast when news of the Hoover landslide flashed by: “The roars of the crowds ceased.”
Passers-by pause to watch a news bulletin on the electronic billboard of the tower in 1967, by then owned by the Allied Chemical Corporation.
Neal Boenzi/The New York Times
In 1963, the Allied Chemical Corporation bought the tower from an investor, stripped off the detail and clad it in white Vermont marble. No one seems to have lain down in front of the bulldozers — indeed there were no bulldozers, no demonstrations, only a few letters to the editor. But a cartoon by Alan Dunn, reprinted from Architectural Record magazine by The Times in 1963, suggests more than the printed record shows. A woman is painting picket signs saying “Save the Times Tower” while a man, presumably her husband, says, “I never heard you rave about it before it was going to be modernized.”
Ada Louise Huxtable, who became the architectural critic of The Times that year, decried the pending demolition of Penn Station and the remodeling of the Times Tower, calling ours an “impoverished society,” although she did say the tower was “never a masterpiece.” But Alan Burnham had listed the Times Tower in his 1963 book “New York Landmarks.” Ms. Huxtable was still sore in 1975 when she referred to the Times Tower as “replaced by the lowest common denominator of non-design.”
Now the Times Tower is mostly signboard, flashing lights and huge vinyl banners, part of the new, improved Times Square.
StreetscapesJanuary 23, 2015
A structure that just missed the New York City landmarks preservation law of 1965 was the 1905 Times Tower at 42nd Street at Broadway. Reminiscent of the Florentine campanile by Giotto, it was an expansive gesture by The New York Times, then moving uptown from Park Row. The newspaper left the building around 10 years later, but the tower survived for 60 years before being stripped to its skin. By the time the landmarks law was passed, even the skeleton had disappeared from view.
At one time most of the newspaper industry was clustered along Park Row, where The Times built its own skyscraper at No. 41 Park Row in 1889. But when the Ochs family bought the paper in the 1890s, they were open to new ideas, especially in 1900, when construction began on New York’s first subway, its route turning at what was then called Longacre Square. In 1903 The Times’s architects, Eidlitz & McKenzie, filed plans for a 24-story tower on the trapezoidal plot at the south end of the square, bounded by 42nd and 43rd Streets, Broadway and Seventh Avenue.
The New York Times Tower, seen here in 1929 looking southwest from Broadway and 43rd Street, reminded some of Giotto’s campanile in Florence.
The New York Times Company Archives
While construction was underway, The Times asked the city to rename the location Times Square, a proposal to which there were objections. One came from The New York Tribune, which in 1904 praised “our excellent neighbor” but also said that “the established names of streets and places ought seldom to be changed.”
The American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society chimed in, calling Longacre “dignified, reputable and euphonious” and denouncing the “pernicious” practice of replacing long-established names with those of commercial endeavors.
However, Times Square it became and remains.
Architects’ and Builders’ Magazine suggested that The Times “should recognize the demands of artistic taste and utilize their properties so as to promote municipal improvements and add to the beauty of the city,” a century later rather a quaint notion. The architects created a two-part marble tower stepping down to the new Times Square. It was surrounded by colonnettes, and almost purely vertical in effect. The taller 24-story section of the tower had a passing resemblance to Giotto’s campanile in Florence, but old photographs show much early French Renaissance detailing, with window moldings and late Gothic ornament.
Montgomery Schuyler, the picky architectural critic, called it “a valuable addition to our short list of artistic skyscrapers.”
The Times seemed eager to boom its artistic contribution, frequently maintaining that its tower was taller than the acknowledged record-holder, the 1899 Park Row Building, two blocks from the 1889 Times building. But The Times was including the four below-grade stories; the actual measurement, beginning at sidewalk level, the customary starting point, was 362 feet for the Times Tower, 380 feet for the Park Row.
Perched on the top of the Times Tower was a round little observatory awash in French Renaissance detailing, as cute as a candy box, although it is not certain how it was used, or whether it was open to the public. In November 1904, before the building was occupied, a system of searchlights was installed to signal which presidential candidate was victorious. The lights facing west went on — Theodore Roosevelt had won.
Employees leapt from their desks to the windows one night in 1910 when Frank W. Goodale circled the tower in his 58-foot-long dirigible as thousands cheered below. In 1928 the horizontal electronic news ticker was introduced, and The Nassau Daily Review of Long Island reported that the multitude supporting presidential candidate Alfred E. Smith was downcast when news of the Hoover landslide flashed by: “The roars of the crowds ceased.”
Passers-by pause to watch a news bulletin on the electronic billboard of the tower in 1967, by then owned by the Allied Chemical Corporation.
Neal Boenzi/The New York Times
In 1963, the Allied Chemical Corporation bought the tower from an investor, stripped off the detail and clad it in white Vermont marble. No one seems to have lain down in front of the bulldozers — indeed there were no bulldozers, no demonstrations, only a few letters to the editor. But a cartoon by Alan Dunn, reprinted from Architectural Record magazine by The Times in 1963, suggests more than the printed record shows. A woman is painting picket signs saying “Save the Times Tower” while a man, presumably her husband, says, “I never heard you rave about it before it was going to be modernized.”
Ada Louise Huxtable, who became the architectural critic of The Times that year, decried the pending demolition of Penn Station and the remodeling of the Times Tower, calling ours an “impoverished society,” although she did say the tower was “never a masterpiece.” But Alan Burnham had listed the Times Tower in his 1963 book “New York Landmarks.” Ms. Huxtable was still sore in 1975 when she referred to the Times Tower as “replaced by the lowest common denominator of non-design.”
Now the Times Tower is mostly signboard, flashing lights and huge vinyl banners, part of the new, improved Times Square.
時報大廈的前世今生
建築2015年01月23日
有一棟建築，恰恰錯過了1965年頒佈的《紐約市地標保護法》(New York City landmarks preservation law)，那就是建成於1905年、位於百老匯(Broadway)和第42街交匯處的時報大廈(Times Tower)。它的外觀容易令人聯想起佛羅倫薩的喬托鐘樓(Giotto's Campanile)，是《紐約時報》的一個大手筆。當時，報社正從公園路(Park Row)搬到上城區去。大約十年後，報社遷離了大廈，但那棟建築又挺立了60年，直到最終被拆得只剩空殼。到《地標保護法》通過時，這棟大廈連骨架也蕩然無存了。
有一段時間，大多數的報社都集中在公園路上。時報也於1889年在公園路41號修建了自己的摩天大廈。但是，當奧克斯(Ochs)家族在19世紀90年代收購了報社時，他們樂於接受新的思想觀念。尤其是在1900年，紐約正開始修建第一條地鐵，其線路經過了當時的朗埃克廣場(Longacre Square)。1903年，時報僱用的設計公司愛德利茲&麥肯齊建築設計事務所(Eidlitz & McKenzie)就提出一個計劃，要在朗埃克廣場南端的一塊梯形地塊上，修建一棟24層大樓。這塊地的邊界是第42街、第43街、百老匯和第七大道。
圖為1929年的紐約時報大廈，它坐落在百老匯和第43街的交匯處，面朝西南。其外觀讓一些人聯想起了佛羅倫薩的喬托鐘樓。
The New York Times Company Archives
在施工過程中，時報要求市政府將朗埃克廣場更名為時報廣場（Times Square，又譯「時代廣場」——譯註）。這項提議遭到了一些反對。反對者之一就是《紐約論壇報》(The New York Tribune)，該報在1904年時稱讚了「我們優秀的鄰居」，但表示「既定的街道名和地名應該少作變動。」
美國風景及歷史古迹保護學會(American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society)也隨聲附和，宣稱「朗埃克」這個地名「高貴、體面而又悅耳」，譴責以商業訴求為目的去改變約定俗成的地名，宣稱這是一種「有害的」行為。
不過呢，時報廣場這個名稱還是定了下來，並沿用至今。
《建築師與建造商雜誌》(Architects' and Builders' Magazine) 認為，時報「應該順應藝術品位的要求，利用它們的房產來促進市政環境的改善，讓市容更加美化」。放到一個世紀以後的今天來看，這個觀點着實古怪。建造商修建了一座由兩部分組成的大理石高層建築，衝著新的時報廣場，呈高矮階梯狀遞減。它周身圍繞有小圓柱，幾乎完全垂直。較高的那部分包含24層樓，與佛羅倫薩的喬托鐘樓有幾分相似，但從老照片上可以看出許多法國文藝復興早期風格的細節，包括石膏線窗套和晚期哥特式的裝飾。
挑剔的建築評論家蒙哥馬利·斯凱勒(Montgomery Schuyler)表示，時報大廈「在我們為數不多的最具藝術性的摩天大樓當中，是個有價值的新作。」
時報也似乎頗為熱衷於宣傳其藝術貢獻，經常宣稱時報大廈的高度超過了當時公認的記錄保持者——1899年建成的公園路大廈(Park Row Building)。這棟樓距1889年建成的原時報大樓（公園路上的那座——譯註）僅有兩個街區之遙。但是，時報算上了四層地下樓層的高度；而按照實測，從人們習慣的地面樓層開始算起，時報大廈的高度是362英尺（約合110米），而公園路大廈的高度則是380英尺（約合116米）。
有一個圓形小觀景台坐落在時報大廈的頂層，其上充斥着法國文藝復興風格的裝潢細節， 就像糖果盒一樣可愛；只不過，我們現在已不能確定它的用途，也不知道它是否曾經對公眾開放過了。1904年11月，大樓在商戶入駐前安裝了一個探照燈系統，用來指示贏得大選的總統候選人是哪一位。照向西面的探照燈亮着——西奧多·羅斯福(Theodore Roosevelt)勝了。
1910年的一個晚上，弗蘭克·W·古德爾(Frank W. Goodale)駕駛58英尺（約合18米）長的飛艇繞着大廈轉了一圈，引得樓內員工紛紛離開辦公桌，跑到窗前觀望；還有成千上萬的圍觀者在樓下歡呼。1928年，大廈上安裝了橫向的電子新聞滾動屏，據長島《納蘇每日評論》(The Nassau Daily Review)報道，當胡佛(Hoover)以壓倒性優勢勝選的新聞在電子屏上滾動出現時，支持阿爾弗雷德·E·史密斯(Alfred E. Smith)的人群一下子消沉起來：「人群中的助威聲戛然而止。」
路人駐足觀看大廈電子公告板上的滾動新聞，當時是在1967年，大樓的業主還是聯合化工公司。
Neal Boenzi/The New York Times
1963年，聯合化工公司(Allied Chemical Corporation)從一位投資者那裡買下了這棟大廈，將其裝潢細節拆除，表面飾以佛蒙特大理石。似乎沒有人躺在推土機前抗議——當然，現場沒有推土機，沒有遊行示威，只有幾封信被寄給了編輯。不過，阿蘭·鄧恩(Alan Dunn)的一幅漫畫比當時刊發的文字記錄更能說明問題。1963年，時報選登了原刊於《建築實錄》(Architectural Record)雜誌上的這幅漫畫。畫面上有一名女子正在製作抗議標牌，上面寫着「拯救時報大廈」；而旁邊一個像她丈夫的人說，「以前怎麼沒見你這麼這麼關心它。」
埃達·露易絲·哈克斯塔布萊(Ada Louise Huxtable)同年成為了時報的建築評論員，她對時報大廈的改建及賓州車站(Penn Station)即將被拆除一事表示了譴責，把我們的社會稱為一個「貧瘠的社會」。只是，她也確實說過，那棟樓「從來就不是一件傑作」。但是，阿蘭·伯納姆(Alan Burnham)在他1963年推出的書《紐約地標》(New York Landmarks)里，收錄了時報大廈這棟建築。哈克斯塔布萊在1975年談到時報大廈時，依然感到痛心，她說：「它被最沒有特色的建築取代了。」
如今，時報大廈的主要面目是由公告板、閃光燈和巨幅橫幅組成的，成為了那個改頭換面的新時報廣場的一部分。
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