Photo Credit: Roving Rube. Viewpoint: 1st Ave. in the 40's, looking north; 1/20/02 2:16 PM.

Notes (Roving Rube): The sunlit stone skyscraper in center, at the corner of 1st Avenue and 49th Street, is the Beekman Tower Hotel.

The WPA Guide to New York City notes it was built in 1928 as a Greek-letter sorority residence (hence its original name of "Panhellenic Tower"?) and meeting house, and that "the structure's distinction is attained through its purity of form. The tower walls are of tan brick and tan mortar. The four corners are beveled, and their deep-set windows accent the verticality inherent in the shaft."

Note how "solid" the Tower looks compared to its neighbors; in The Architectural Guidebook to New York City, Frances Morrone says that "no other building in Manhattan looks so much like it was carved from a single block of stone".

The black band of glass around the penthouse is a restaurant, "The Top of the Tower". Morrone says this is one of the best views in Manhattan because you are not so far above the top of every this else like when on the Empire State building.

This part of Manhattan, near the UN (the Trump World Tower's shadow falls across the buildings at left), allows skyscrapers some sunlight and elbow room. The crane in the background looks to be on the perfect spot to plant another one.