New York Coliseum, an office building and convention centre opened in 1956. The brainchild of Robert Moses who cleared the area of “slums”, it was never popular and was demolished in 2000 for the Time Warner Center after years of debate on what would take its place
Why is there a Soviet flag next to the American flag?
KKxasays
I went there for something long time ago but yeah it really was not used to great effect. It spent years unused
pixel_of_moral_decaysays
The main reason it wasn’t successful was the city didn’t really have a way to profit off of it. The TBTA, a state agency was the main beneficiary. Even back then city vs. state pissing matches was a thing.
Javits center and heavy political manipulation pretty much forced everything to move to the Javits center. Even though Javits until somewhat recently with the 7 line extension was a pretty big drag to get to. Javits also had the benefit of parking structures right at the mouth of the Lincoln tunnel to encourage out-of-state visitors.
SQUIRT_TRUTHERsays
Fuck Robert Moses
teenytinybaklavasays
fuck Robert Moses
JonB_says
While I’ve never seen this structure in real life, from all of the photos of it I’ve seen it looked horrendous. It’s rectangular form on the circle looked so bad and out of place, its wall of blank concrete (and i myself am a fan of brutualism) looks terrible.
Say what you want about a shopping mall and overpriced (tacky looking) condos, but I think the current building is far more effective at bridging midtown with the Upper West Side.
Viscount1881 says
Wikipedia article
[Google streetview of the Time Warner Center that stands there now]( https://www.google.ca/maps/@40.7683225,-73.9821768,3a,90y,278.95h,120.98t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1su4bhvziTU6gUsCZlb1DsdA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en). If you look behind the building you’ll find an apartment development that was built as part of the Coliseum project and still survives.
1954 Aerial view
Opening ceremony
Some interior shots:
Escalators
Auto Show
Nirvana concert in 1993 – five months before Kurt Cobain committed suicide
jayqwellan says
Why is there a Soviet flag next to the American flag?
KKxa says
I went there for something long time ago but yeah it really was not used to great effect. It spent years unused
pixel_of_moral_decay says
The main reason it wasn’t successful was the city didn’t really have a way to profit off of it. The TBTA, a state agency was the main beneficiary. Even back then city vs. state pissing matches was a thing.
Javits center and heavy political manipulation pretty much forced everything to move to the Javits center. Even though Javits until somewhat recently with the 7 line extension was a pretty big drag to get to. Javits also had the benefit of parking structures right at the mouth of the Lincoln tunnel to encourage out-of-state visitors.
SQUIRT_TRUTHER says
Fuck Robert Moses
teenytinybaklava says
fuck Robert Moses
JonB_ says
While I’ve never seen this structure in real life, from all of the photos of it I’ve seen it looked horrendous. It’s rectangular form on the circle looked so bad and out of place, its wall of blank concrete (and i myself am a fan of brutualism) looks terrible.
Say what you want about a shopping mall and overpriced (tacky looking) condos, but I think the current building is far more effective at bridging midtown with the Upper West Side.
imoldfashnd says
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majestic_Theatre_(Columbus_Circle)
suicideposter says
Didn’t know this one has so much haters, It’s actually one of my favorite examples of 50s international style.