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10 to lose: Ugly buildings NYC would be better without

By David Freedlander, amNewYork staff writer | dfreelander@am-ny.com

June 19, 2008

The AT&T building at 33 Thomas Street in Manhattan has been included in amNewYork's special section 10 to Lose. (Tiffany L. Clark / June 18, 2008)

Each winter, amNewYork devotes a special issue to 10 buildings in New York City that we fear will soon disappear under negligent eye of the city's real estate interests.

Now, with the turning of the seasons and the sun high in the sky, we say enough with gnashing of teeth over this vanishing city. It's time to do a little pruning.

Besides, even the glittering New York City skyline is bound to contain a few clunkers. That's why we asked some of the city's leading architects and critics to put away their pencils and take out their erasers, and tell us which parts of New York the city would be better of without.

1.) Trump SoHo

Mitchell Joachim, Terreform, sustainable architecture professor at Columbia University

He finagled his way into getting a project like that done. It's incredibly tall, casts a shadow on everything, and is totally oblivious in scale to every building next to it. In New York this is the kind of pompousness we've come to expect. It would be totally unforgivable anywhere else. Worst of all, it's totally bland."

2.) Corinthian Apartments

Philip Nobel, author, "Sixteen Acres: Architecture and the Outrageous Struggle for the Future of Ground Zero"

"Corinthian Apartment buildings on First Avenue. I'm a big fan of Paul Rudolph and that building is like a bad copy of the best Paul Rudolph. It looks like a stack of coins. You can tell the architects did a cynical calculation, thinking, 'People like bay windows. Why not stack row and row of bay windows on top of one another.'"

3.) One Police Plaza and environs

Ethan Kent, Project for Public Spaces

"The entire area from 1 Police Plaza to the FDR. "It's so isolated and has that whole Robert Moses tower in the park idea. You could have a great waterfront there with great views of the Brooklyn Bridge if you could get a developer to develop it with a vision of where public space really comes first, and connects the civic center of New York to Chinatown. You could create a much better integrated neighborhood."

4.) NYU Kimmel Student Center

Andrew Berman, Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

"The NYU Kimmel Student Center on Washington Square South. UUUUGLY. And it now blocks the view through Washington Square Arch down Fifth Avenue; you used to be able to see the downtown skyline (including the World Trade Center pre- 9/11) framed through the arch; now the arch is more or less engulfed by the KimmelCenter ."

5.) Marriot Marquis

Kurt Anderson, host, "Studio 360"

"Marriot Marquis in Times Square. It's terrible aesthetically and urbanistically. And the sooner the better, since it's almost 25 years old and could soon start acquiring that campy/nostalgic/revisionist fondness that seems to coalesce around hideous New York buildings when they reach a certain age."

6.) Atlantic Center

Rob Lane, Regional Design Programs, Regional Plan Association: