Feu d'artifice
Our Fourth of July party is probably a thing of the past, given the much, much better views that we enjoyed from Chelsea last night. The downpour rather miraculously stopped just in time.
The tower at the left is the old Metropolitan Life Insturance building. I believe that it's about to be converted into a condominium. Met Life is now headquartered, of course, at what we still call the Pan Am Building, after Pan American World Airways, a now trenchant symbol of the "American Century."
Comments
I still think of it as the Pan Am building and I don't even live in NY. In some ways it was, in my childhood, so emblematic of the modern NY with its helipad, as the Empire State and the Chrysler were emblematic of an earlier era. Still, whenever I think of Manhattan, I think of the Chrysler building.
Posted by: Tony | July 5, 2007 03:24 PM
The same Pan Am Building that for some reason, held my imagination as a child, probably for its rooftop heliport and fancy restaurant that my aunt took me to as a boy for dinner and to see all Park Avenue lighted for Christmas. It is also one of the buildings I now loath, As it blocks the sky and ruins the silhouette of the lovely railroad tower building that gracefully straddled Park Avenue for years.
Posted by: LXIV | July 5, 2007 03:25 PM
RJ - your top 2 photos are incroyable!!! I am waiting for Old Town's firework this weekend - right over the Potomac, but I doubt I'll get anything as splendiferous as your first photo. I'm impressed!
Posted by: Laura | July 5, 2007 07:02 PM