Seagram Building and Alexander Calder Sculpture

Aside from it’s architectural importance, the Seagram Building (designed by Mies van der Rohe), has personal significance to me. When I graduated from Cooper Union and began photographing the Lower East Side, the first prints I ever sold were to the Seagram collection. Phyllis Lambert of the Bronfman family, which owned Seagram, was putting together a collection of materials–including photographs–to serve as the basis for the Canadian Centre for Architecture. Acting on her behalf was Richard Pare, a curator and architectural photographer, who I had studied with at Cooper. Richard, along with Joel Meyerowitz, who also taught at Cooper, influenced my ideas about photography, especially with regards to the view camera. The money I got from that initial sale kept the Lower East Side project alive and launched my career, such as it is. I remember walking into the Seagram Building with my portfolio–and a good deal of satisfaction.

Bergdorf Goodman/58th and Fifth Avenue

LVMH building and Tourneau shop on 57th Street

In recent years, architecture has gotten more adventurous in New York, though it is still a relatively conservative town compared to any number of European capitals. One of the buildings to break the ice in the late 90s was this small tower by Christian de Portzamparc, the French architect. Its folded curtain wall disrupts–without violating–the continuous masonry and stone of the north side of 57th Street.