New York City, U.S.A. (by EMArg)

Quick City Overview: New York






Placed on the top of the most important cities of the world, New York functioned in the 20th Century as some sort of world capital, with a demonstration of all of the biggest industrial achievements of the Humanity in the century, from the conquest of the skies with the Art Deco and Neogothic skyscrapers (in a direct competition with Chicago), to the elevated trains, iconic bridges and one of the largest subway networks. The city is divided into 5 Boroughs: Queens, Staten Island, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan. The two main cores of the city are the Midtown Manhattan in front of the Central Park, who always was one of the most expensive places in the world, and the Lower Manhattan in front of the Statue of Liberty, who concentrates the whole history of New York. That was the exact place where the dutch founded New Amsterdam several centuries ago, just before when the british took over and renamed it. Nowadays, the old british buildings still lie between the skyscrapers who were built when the area progressed and it became the financial district, whose core is the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Wall Street. This was also the place where the old and new World Trade Center were built. Somehow, it served as the front door to those who sought a new life in America. And as for the 21th Century, the future looks very promising for New York, with the construction of new skyscrapers who are going to surpass the established height limit of the Empire State Building and the fast progress coming to the surrounding boroughs.

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In HD:

Central Park





After several centuries of physical and demographic expansion from the tip of the tongue of the Lower Manhattan, New York was then planned and organized on big grid layout system of the streets, with rectangular blocks, diagonal streets cutting it such as Broadway, and a huge green lung who served as an air purifier. That’s how the Central Park was born, nowadays one of the many neuralgic points of New York City and placed directly in front of the Midtown, the Fifth Ave. and just a few blocks from Times Square. Inside this huge park is lies the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), the Central Park Zoo, large esplanades who get filled by the newyorkers in the summer, and and the Wollman Skating Rink.

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In HD:

Midtown Manhattan






The Midtown Manhattan is the core of New York City and it concentrates most of the icons of the city and the international modern culture of the 20th Century: the theatres of Broadway, the massive amount of people at Times Square, some of the most relevant skyscrapers of the History of Architecture such as the Empire State Building, the Rockefeller Center, the Chrysler Building and the Flatiron, worldwide-recognized museums such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and also some of the most important avenues of the world such as the Sixth and Fifth Ave.

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In HD:

Times Square







One of the most glorious experiences in the US cities you may have is to get on foot to Times Square. It’s awesome to hear the noise of this particular place just a few blocks away. It sounds like the waves of the ocean on the coast, with the huge vibe of thousands and thousands of people, the cars and buses, and the music of the ads of the buildings. Though the city actually sleeps at night, Times Square is always moving. Chaotic and beautiful. What it’s known today as Times Square is the evolution of the intersection between the 7th Avenue and Broadway, an avenue who was opened in order to break the urban grid of Manhattan. Though the architecture in this area changed through all of the 20th Century, the core characteristic of Times Square, the ads in the buildings, remained intact. They actually play a big part on the scenery, shining in a very clear way from the rest of the city. At the same time, Broadway shines for its theatre industry, with some of the most relevant and coveted venues in the world.

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In HD:

Wall Street & Lower Manhattan







The second big center of New York after the Midwotn lies at the south of the island, in the Lower Manhattan. The classic grid that conforms most of the city suddenly change, with a street-layout that seems like those in of the old european cities. It is the oldest part of the city, once called New Amsterdam when the dutch bought the land, and then conquered a few years later by the english. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the first famous skycrapers of NYC came out within its streets, some of them placed in entire blocks. Because the streets are so small and the buildings so high and close to each other, there’s only a few hours of direct sunlight every day. Among this mix of art deco and neogothic skyscrapers, there’s the old buildings of 3 stories-high, built there from 100 to 200 years ago. Going trough Broadway, a few miles away from Times Square, there’s the Trinity Church where the Wall Street begins, known for the stockbrokers mystic and the image of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), who paradoxically is placed in another street. Its entrance was closed to the general public (even in a small sector of the street) since the events of the Occupy Wall St. movement. The most important and impressive place of the Lower Manhattan is, however, the World Trade Center, nowadays a reborn place with new constructions taking place: new skyscrapers (some of them almost finished), a big park, 2 fountains of the same size of the Twin Towers, and the entrance of the new transport node designed by Calatrava.