September 19, 2008
New York City is nothing if not used to change; residents, however, seem far more stalwart in resisting urban development. Case in point: the buildings at 497 Greenwich Street and 330 Spring Street in the Meatpacking District. Local tenants have railed against the projects since the very beginning, waving the flag of neighborhood aesthetics and preservation. The 497 building, which you can see below, is largely a gigantic glass box, with a slightly more artistic buckling-glass design on one small part of the facade, just before it cuts away to the brick building next to it. For an area so classically hip and modern, it's a strange thing to complain about, but it's hard to deny the aesthetic arguments locals make.
497 Greenwich Street (click to enlarge)
Pictures copyright 2008 NYC.com. All rights reserved.
The process of modernization is always piece-meal and uneven, and since there will always be new development and new designs to fight for space within the Manhattan atmosphere, it's probably pointless to resist. But the residents raise a good question: can modernization and development be done tastefully? In the case of 497 Greenwich Street, the answer is both yes and no. The wavy section of the building is distinctive and interesting, both eye-catching and jarring, and a subject for debate. Arguably, that alone validates its usefulness within the aesthetic of the neighborhood.
The proper part of the building, though--the expanse that reaches to Spring Street to the north end of the block--offers no such dialogue. It is, simply put, not compelling, both architecturally and in terms of the cohesion of the area's buildings. It simply sits upon its corner, all harsh angles of shining glass, only matching the neighborhood aesthetic in its reflection.
The Urban Glass House, though, seems intended to throw contrast around the area. Philip Johnson's original Glass House, the all-glass residence he built himself in the last year of the 1940s, was intended as a treatise on the beauty of simplistic design, and it is notable that there is a surprising amount to discuss about what is essentially glass walls and furniture and little more. The Urban Glass House, with its precise-looking stacks of glass-wall boxes not quite making it to a complete cube, also throws its neighbors into sharp relief. As you can see in the picture below, the more stately, classic buildings seem more extraordinary next to the clinical beauty of the UGH.
Urban Glass House - 330 Spring Street (click to enlarge)
Pictures copyright 2008 NYC.com. All rights reserved.
Whether the developers and designers of these neighborhood-shaking structures are demons or agents of progress can never be truly sussed out. As with the majority of buildings in cities around the world, time and taste will tell, and residents of the Meatpacking District may, in twenty years, be fighting future developers from razing the Urban Glass House in favor of a newer design.
(For more about 497 Greenwich and the Urban Glass House, as well as many other examples of buildings in New York City, check out the New Architecture Of Manhattan walking tour or the Architecture Guide, both located in our Visitor Guide.
Tags:
497 greenwich, architecture, glass house, new york, urban glass house
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Posted on 9/19/2008
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