This year’s holiday shopping suggestion is one of my favorite stores in New York, and I highly recommend a visit to everyone, especially if you’re searching for a one-of-a-kind Christmas gift. Located in the shadow of the Empire State Building, Fantasma Magic is tucked away on the third floor of 421 Seventh Avenue, and other…
To see one of the most important exhibits at the New York Public Library, skip the main entrance… …and take the far-less trafficked 42nd Street door: Once past the metal detector, hang a right down the first corridor… …and continue on into the Children’s Center. See that wooden partition in the center of the center…
Though there are many movies I’m excited to cover for “New York, You’ve Changed,” I had no choice but to start with the movie that first introduced me to New York City… I first saw Ghostbusters when I was about 8 years old and instantly fell in love with it. I watched it over and…
I came out of the Chrysler Building yesterday and noticed a number of people staring at the ugly, uninteresting glass-curtain building across the street and taking pictures. Thus, I had to stop and stare too…but why were we all staring? For a second, I thought someone might be jumping or something. As this proved not…
I recently scouted a great parking garage on 44th between Vanderbilt and Madison. It’s right next to Grand Central Station, and was built quite a while ago. It shares some iconic Grand Central-esque features, from the brick in the walls to the zig-zagging arched roof over the ramp. While shooting pictures, I noticed something odd…
I was walking south down Broadway from 34th Street today when I saw this pretty amazing temple perched on top of a building at the corner of 28th Street: See it, jutting out from the left hand corner? It’d be sort of boring if it was just a building motif that spanned the entire top…
One of my favorite blocks in Manhattan is West 46th Street btw. 5th and 6th Avenues. An incredibly diverse mix of styles are represented there, ranging from art deco buildings to brownstones. All were built prior to 1930 and very little has been done since, making the block essentially an architectural museum. West 46th is…
On 8th Ave btw. 39th and 40th is this really great faded travel sign, complete with an arrow on the right side pointing down to where a (long gone) travel agency used to be. I love finding remnants of old travel ads throughout the city. In a world of Travelocitys and Expedias, the idea of…
Way over on West 59th Street between 10th and 11th is this great little Parks Department rec center, dwarfed on all sides by ultra-modern glass-curtain highrises. Once a bath house, the rec center now houses a public pool. What I especially love about this building are the two aquatic sculptures in the upper corners. In…
I was in midtown today scouting around East 48th Street, an area with a ton of archetypal New York hotels (The Waldorf-Astoria, The Intercontinental, The Benjamin, The Marriott East Side, etc., etc., etc.). I happened to notice something on the W Hotel at 541 Lexington that I haven’t ever before: elephants! They’re actually somewhat difficult…