Welcome to Street Seen, where Curbed video operatives investigate the non-archicritic's impressions of some of New York's most architecturally significant buildings. Have a suggestion? Send along a note.
In 2006, long before zero-carbon cities or mindblowing spaceship-like campuses for Apple, a gleaming, triangular-framed, 46-story tall office tower opened atop a six-story cast-stone base originally completed in 1928, becoming home to the Hearst Corporation, not to mention one of the most decade-defining, eye-catching pieces of starchitecture in the city. The building, designed by British starchitect Norman Foster, was the first skyscraper to break ground in NYC after 9/11 and was hailed as "the most beautiful skyscraper to go up in New York since 1967" by Paul Goldberger, then the architecture critic for The New Yorker. "It's refreshing to see a tall building that clearly emerges from rational thought," Goldberger wrote. "Yet the Hearst tower also has a jauntiness that most modern buildings lack." All eloquent points, sure, but what do passersby think? Above, watch.
· All Hearst Tower coverage [Curbed NY]
· All Street Seen posts [Curbed National]
· All Norman Foster coverage [Curbed National]
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