Rooftop Water Towers

Seen on rooftops all over the city, these water storage vessels last about 30 years. The yellow cedar wood strips are held together with steel bands, and the water inside swells the wood for a leak-proof fit. The wood insulates the water well enough to keep it from freezing in winter. Buildings taller than five stories need to have water pumped to the upper floors.

In the 19th century, NYC required that all buildings higher than six stories be equipped with a rooftop water tower. This was necessary to prevent the need for excessively high pressures at lower elevations, which could burst pipes. In modern times, the towers have become fashionable in some circles. As of 2006, the neighborhood of Tribeca requires water towers on all buildings, whether or not they are being used.


Two companies in New York build water towers, both of which are family businesses in operation since the 19th century. The original water tower builders were barrel makers who expanded their craft to meet a modern need as buildings in the city grew taller in height.

The rooftop water towers store 5,000-10,000 gallons of water until it is needed in the building below. The upper portion of water is skimmed off the top for everyday use while the water in the bottom of the tower is held in reserve to fight a fire. When the water drops below a certain level, a switch or  valve activates activate a pump or open a public water line to refill the water tower.

Lincoln Restaurant and Lawn

How many restaurants do you know of where you can walk on the roof? Lincoln, the ultra expensive new stand alone restaurant at Lincoln Center (average check for a glass of wine and two courses is $120 per person), offers a steeply angled 10,000-square-foot rooftop swath of green for picnics and sunning. I’m not making this up.

The 147-by-70-foot lawn offers much needed green space to the Lincoln Center campus, which has undergone a recent transformation with a price tag of more than a billion dollars. That’s billion with a “B.” They hired the firm behind the Bellagio fountains in Vegas to rework the Lincoln Center plaza fountain, and new wide steps leading up from Broadway have risers that have LCD lights spelling out promotions.

The Henry Moore sculptures, reflecting pool and grass-roofed restaurant, looking toward the Juilliard School. A corner of Avery Fisher Hall is on the right.

The southwest edge of the restaurant roof is at plaza level, but ascends up nine grassy steps to 23 feet in height. The tall grass surface (90 percent fescue, 10 percent Kentucky bluegrass) is energy-saving, temperature-regulating, and storm-water-absorbing. The restaurant structure straddles the steps that connect Avery Fisher Hall and the Vivian Beaumont Theater, descending from the plaza level down to West 65th Street, facing a reworked Juilliard building and Alice Tully Hall.

The scene from an upper floor of the Juilliard Building looking across W. 65th St. toward the Met. Avery Fisher Hall is to the left, the Vivian Beaumont Theater to the right.

The grass roof lies just a few feet above the restaurant's wood slat ceiling (shown below right)

Grand Central Terminal Laser Light Show

See a spectacular kaleidoscope light show displayed against the famous Zodiac ceiling, walls and pillars of Grand Central Terminal, the world's largest train station. The light show is a holiday tradition established in 1999 and is enough to stop even the most frazzled and jaded commuters in their tracks.

To the strains of Duke Ellington’s “Take The A-Train,” lasers on the ceiling show two commuter trains arriving from opposite directions. The trains pull to a stop, and a reindeer leaps out of each one and crosses over to the other train. Then a laser beam traces the outline of one of the zodiac constellations painted on the ceiling. The crab (Cancer) leaps to life and becomes a train conductor, sidling down the center aisle of the car, punching the reindeer's ticket stubs with its claws.

Delighted tourists hold on to each other as they lean over backward to gaze at the overhead display. Another show starts. The familiar music of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite fills the enormous room. As “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies” begins, the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building sprout arms, bow to each other, and begin waltzing across the ceiling. The show ends with giant sprigs of mistletoe appearing over the heads of the commuters and tourists. Cell phones come out of purses and pockets as tiny flashes capture affectionate real-life kisses and lingering hugs by those who just watched the show. Ah – Christmas in New York City!

Main Concourse, from December 1, 2010 through January 1, 2011, every half hour between 11:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. daily. FREE!

Grand Central Terminal: 87 East 42nd Street
www.grandcentralterminal.com

D'Espresso Coffee Bar

Turn your head to the right, and it all makes sense.

The next time you’re near the NY Public Library, pop into D’Espresso, a coffee bar with a decorative punch. Walls and ceiling are covered with tiles printed with photos of bookshelves, the wall behind the long banquette seating is clad in wood flooring, and a skylight behind the bar boasts pendant lighting mounted horizontally.

Deliciously disorienting.

D'Espresso: 317 Madison Avenue at 42nd St. 212-867-7141

Washington Square Park

Washington Square Park is a nearly 10-acre public park that is a landmark in the Manhattan neighborhood of Greenwich Village. An open space with a tradition of nonconformity, the park’s marble Arch and fountain areas have long been popular spots for both residents and tourists. Most of the buildings surrounding the park now belong to New York University, which rents the park for graduation ceremonies and uses the Arch as a symbol. Although NYU considers the park to be the quad of the school's campus, Washington Square remains a public park (click plan image to enlarge).


Located at the foot of Fifth Avenue, the park limits are defined by Waverly Place, West 4th Street, McDougal Street and University Place. In the early 1600s the native Americans who lived here were attacked by the Dutch, who drove them out. By the mid 1600s the Dutch farmers gave this land to slaves, thus freeing them, as a reward for protecting the area from Indian attacks. In 1797 the land, then not part of the city proper, was purchased by the New York Council for use as a public burial ground; during the yellow fever epidemics of the early 1800s, most of the victims were buried here, safely away from town, as a hygienic measure. To this day, the remains of more than 20,000 bodies rest under Washington Square. The cemetery was closed in 1825.

In 1826 the city leveled the area and laid out a public square to be used as a parade ground for use by volunteer militia companies. The streets surrounding the square became one of the city's most desirable residential areas by the 1830s, and the protected row of Greek Revival style row houses on the north side of the park remain from that era. By 1850 the parade ground had been reworked into a public park, and a fountain was added in 1852.


Inspired by Roman triumphal arches, the Washington Square arch, at the southern terminus of Fifth Avenue, celebrates the centennial of George Washington's inauguration. It replaced an 1889 arch, a temporary structure made of wood and stucco. Having met with overwhelming popular approval, McKim Mead & White's original design was rebuilt in marble in 1891, in the fashion of the famous Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Decorated with sculptures of Washington in both his civilian and military guises, this arch became the symbol of a new America devoted to the arts. In the first decades of the 20th century, the West Village became an increasingly bohemian neighborhood, and this arch became a site of artistic and social rebellion.

Many NYC residents are not aware that Fifth Avenue motor traffic passed under the arch until 1958. During the 2007-2009 renovation of the park, the fountain was realigned to be on an axis with Fifth Avenue and the Arch. Because public input was not sought or considered, this recent renovation created much acrimony between the city and area residents.

Gemma: cum grano salis

Gemma Restaurant
212-505-9100; breakfast, lunch and dinner
335 Bowery at E. 3rd Street (the Bowery Hotel)

The best thing about this over-the-top trattoria is the decor. The worst thing is that you can’t make a reservation unless you’re a hotel guest. It’s noisy, packed with trendies and serves great pizza and roast chicken (be sure to order the zucchini flowers stuffed with ricotta). And not too expensive. Check out the adjacent hotel lobby, described by a fellow blogger as "the phantom of the opera retires to a Tuscan villa." With a grain of salt, indeed.

The Breslin Bar & Restaurant

The Breslin, inside the Ace Hotel, is a veritable pork festival.

Corner of Broadway & 29th Street
212-685-9600; reservations not accepted
100-seat restaurant serves breakfast (from 7:00a), lunch and dinner (until midnight); closed 4:00-5:30 pm daily
Bar (seats 40 or so) open until 4 a.m. daily
www.thebreslin.com

This is the place to go if you weigh about a hundred pounds and just can’t seem to gain weight. Cure guaranteed. From the same folks who brought us the famed and trend-setting Spotted Pig, the Breslin, named after the hotel that occupied this location for many years, is an extravagant gastro-pub that opened last December. The menu is a paean to pork (vegetarians will run screaming), but the hottest item seems to be the lamb burger with feta cheese and red onions, served on a cutting board with a side of thrice-fried french fries (chips, as listed on the very Brit menu) and cumin mayo.


Housed in a 12-story corner building (c. 1904), the restaurant echoes a British pub, with tavern green walls, dark tufted leather banquettes and unfinished wood floors. Coveted booths sport plaid curtains and red cubbies to charge phones and computers. Those who need a touch more privacy can close the curtains and press a button to request a server (a light goes on outside your booth to signal the wait staff). How cool is that?


From the bar, try a “pickle back” – a shot of whiskey with a pickle juice chaser. I swear I’m not making this up. If the weather is truly frightful, try the egg nog with rum on the bottom, calories be damned. A popular main dish? Pig’s foot for two. Bar snacks? Semi-shelled boiled peanuts fried in pork fat. I swear to God.

Tip: Come VERY early if you don’t want to wait hours and hours for a table. This place is beyond hip and so full of buzz you’ll need insect repellent.

Direct from Portland, and also off the lobby of the Ace Hotel, is the east coast’s only Stumptown Coffee. Check out the hats on the servers and admire the street-facing floor to ceiling windows trimmed in black lattice. Is this place handsome, or what? Doesn’t hurt that they roast their own beans in Brooklyn. As if you needed added enticement to come to the corner of Broadway and 29th Street, the popular lobby of the Ace Hotel, stuffed with leather Chesterfields and tartan plaid wing chairs, is a destination in and of itself. At last midtown is waking up from its decades-old doldrums.