Whew…editing my NYC photos from last month’s Out of New York Photo Conference has been slow going. So many photos, so much indecisiveness, lol.
In the first post from the conference I shared some skyline shots I created over the course of my 4 days there. This time I’m sharing images from the first photowalk I led around Midtown.
Our first stop was Hearst Tower. This building is home to the Hearst Corporations many publication and communication companies (Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, etc.). There are actually quite a few interesting bits of info about this building. First, the original building was completed in 1928 and is a designated landmark, it remains as the base of the new tower. The new tower was completed in 2006 and was the first skyscraper built in NYC after September 11, 2001.

It’s also the first “green” high-rise office building completed in NYC. The atrium floor is covered in heat conducive limestone, the tubing under the floors carries circulating water to cool in the summer and heat in the winter. Rain collected on the roof is stored in the basement and is used in the cooling system, to water plants and in the atrium’s water feature, which is aptly named Icefall and is built with glass panels to cool and humidify the lobby.

The exterior of the building has this great geometric facade for some fun abstracts.

The below abstract shows the corner of the building and its concave windows which are referred to as “bird’s mouths”.

A slight departure from my norm with a bit of a street photography take on the building.

On our walk from Hearst Tower to LVMH we encountered some great reflections and shadows. First up, Heart Tower (and an older building) reflecting in a neighboring building.

The lead image in the post is from this little walk as well as this one below.

Just a little look-up on our way…

I caught part of the city reflecting in the IBM Midtown building across from LVMH (our next destination).

So…LVMH (full name LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, basically the headquarters of a European luxury goods conglomerate). This building was designed by French architect Christian de Portzamparc. I found this building extremely difficult to photograph in an interesting way despite how much I love the description of the design. Basically, the bend in its geometric facade has been described as the fall of a skirt over a bent knee or as Portzmaparc has described it, like the unfolding petals of a flower. There’s also a blue cube at the center of the 10th floor that’s supposed to resemble a gem. All I know is I failed miserably at conveying any of these interpretations. So, here you have the building framed by Alexander Calder’s Saurien sculpture that’s in front of the IBM Midtown building across the street.

Up next, we had planned to go to the Austrian Cultural Center but it was under construction. Along the way I spotted these great shadows and reflections.

And, our final stop…Grand Central Station. As you’ll see below I was a bit obsessed with the beautiful chandeliers in here (and the clock).




One final street-ish photo.

For many more NYC shots from both this photowalk and the skyline head over here.