The neighborhood has changed. Of course. In the space of 36 years, nothing much stays the same, I guess. The Pace building itself has an addition on the top, which to my eye seems odd, and the open rooftop I used to see from my dorm window is now a building, or what could theoretically exist as a building on its own, except it is sitting on the roof of a building. Weird enough.
And those parking spaces along the Pace building where we all used to take turns in the free spaces created by the fire hydrant being involuntarily removed by a friend of mine are no longer parking spaces, there is no parking on the entire block. And Nassau Street has been turned into a pedestrian mall. Good idea, I think. It's way too narrow for cars.
Then there's the space across the street that used to be a ground level parking lot for Beekman Hospital. I remember keeping an informal count of the predominant color of the cars parked in the lot from day to day - it always amused me that, in a place one would expect might be occupied by the same personnel's vehicles every day, the predominant car color would change daily.
Well, no more parking lot. Of course. Manhattan real estate is way too valuable to be used as a street level parking lot. So they built something on it. Actually, they built a number of things on it, all contained in one slightly twisted building designed by Frank Gehry. Apparently, and I recall reading an article about this not so long ago, the lower floors house a school, while the tower is apartments, and rather pricey ones, at that. The school portion of the building is kind of square and red brick-ish. The tower is a twisted, dizziness-inducing silver thing, that looks like it is moving even if you aren't. I recommend standing still and holding onto something stationary if you want to take a close look. Here's a glimpse:
It's more than a bit disconcerting to have this tower growing out of this base, and both looking like they are from alternate universes, not part of the same building. But ok. Whatever. What fascinates me (and I've been up the ramparts of Gehry's Disney Concert Hall in LA, so I tend to be fascinated by this type of thing) is how the tower seems to move and twist in the wind as you're watching it.
I think I'll try to go see an apartment up there. No, I can't afford it, but I can't not take a look, if I can wrangle my way inside. Besides, the views have got to be spectacular.
By the way, here's a link to the website of the building, go take a look: http://www.newyorkbygehry.com/
