On the Promenade Deck

Brooklyn Heights, 2012

An unexpected assignment came up quickly last week that took me to New York. I arrived in Manhattan Thursday evening and went for a walk. It was cold and windy as I walked to Madison Square Park in the hope of getting a Shake Shack burger before they closed. I like to walk by the New York Life Building when I’m down that way because it’s such a majestic bit of Early Twentieth Century corporate architecture.

I’d also wanted to take a look at the condo building known as One Madison Park, a most interesting 50-story glass and steel structure that from one perspective looks like nothing so much as one of those vertical CD racks that were once popular. One Madison Park was conceived with great ambitions, but fell on bad times and remains nearly empty. Still, it’s an interesting building, worth seeing if you’re in the neighborhood.

What’s relevant to this story is that as I walked down Madison I happened to look up and see the opportunity for a really unexpected picture of the New York Life building as reflected in the glass façade of One Madison Park.

The only problem is that I only had a wide lens on the camera and that wouldn’t do the shot justice. It was also so windy that I really should have used a tripod. (Yes, that’s me admitting I should have used a tripod.) So I grabbed what I could with the wide lens and though I’m not proud of it, it at least gives you an idea of the opportunity that awaits if I come better prepared next time.

 

Met Life in One Madison Park, 2012

Over the next two days, I took about a hundred pictures. Some were quickly discarded. A few are worth keeping. Like the picture at the top of this post.

I’d always wanted to explore Brooklyn Heights. The draw is the famous Promenade that hovers over the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and has the arguably best view of lower Manhattan. On Saturday morning I cajoled by patient daughter into going to Brooklyn Heights with me. I wanted to walk the Promenade. I wanted to wander the streets and inspect their hundreds of Colonial-era houses.

It was a lousy cold and wet day. It was misty when we got there and the rain kicked in while I parked the car. But as I looked down Pierrepont Street toward the East River, I got a glimpse of that iconic view of Manhattan. In the distance the dull orange of a Staten Island Ferry provided a great contrast to the otherwise gray scene.

I jumped out of the car and snapped a few shots before the rain started in earnest. The one you see above is the best of that group, and at least so far my favorite of the whole trip. I must go back there on a nicer day.