New York City: The Meatpacking District

The next Soho, soon to be coopted by corporate retailing, if it hasn't been already.

New York City: The High Line

This is a small portion of Spencer Finch's The River That Flows Both Ways, 700 panes of colored glass installed in existing window frames in a tunnel along the High Line. Finch travelled the Hudson River on a tugboat and photographed the river once per minute for 700 minutes. A single pixel from each image provided the color for each pane, which is arranged chronologically to document the journey.

New York City: The High Line

The recently opened High Line Park presents an interesting (and popular) re-imagining of an elevated rail line as a park. It resulted almost by accident after the West Side Line through Chelsea fell into disuse and was partially reclaimed by nature. Local residents lobbied for the creation of a park along the old rail line, and the city of New York agreed to fund the project rather than dismantle the line as planned. It opened last summer, and it's been enthusiastically embraced by the community ever since.

New York City: The Art Students League

Designed by an unknown architect in 1875, the Art Students League is as noteworthy for the artists it nurtured as for its architecture. The list includes Thomas Hart Benton, Alexander Calder, George Grosz, Hans Hofmann, Roy Lichtenstein, Reginald Marsh, Louise Nevelson, Georgia O'Keeffe, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. (Correction: As I've just been informed by an anonymous commenter, the building was designed by H.J. (Henry Janeway) Hardenbergh, not by an unknown architect.)

New York City: The Potter Building

Norris Starkweather's 1886 Beaux Arts marvel is not only impressively ornate, it's also the first building created with terracotta over a fire-protected steel frame.

New York City: A few random buildings I liked

New York City: The Siegel-Cooper Dry Goods Store

Totally over the top yet strangely appealing, the Siegel-Cooper Dry Goods Store was commissioned from architects Delemos and Cordes in 1896. An exuberant example of the Beaux Arts style, its scale is as grand as its ornamentation.

New York City: The Woolworth Building

The magnificent Woolworth Building, Cass Gilbert's 1913 masterpiece of Neo-Gothic architecture. At 792 feet, it was the world's tallest building for 17 years.

It's Spring, or so it seems...

It's got to be Spring when both the Tower of Jewels and the ornamental cherries are in bloom, but I still wish it would warm up a bit.

Oops...