"Downtown Brooklyn's most beautiful skyscraper is the former New York Telephone Co. Building at the northeast corner of Willoughby and Bridge streets. Built in 1931, it was designed by Ralph Walker of Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker, as the firm had recently been renamed. It is Walker's second-best building in the city, after 1 Wall Street. Walker and Ely Jacques Kahn were the two architects who went furthest in exploiting the zoning-mandated skyscraper-setbacks to dramatic advantage. Walker paid fastidious attention to the "skins" of his buildings, with subtle gradations of color and ripplings and folds that outdo any of the skin games played by today's so-called starchitects. Recently, the office building has been converted to apartments called the BellTel Lofts. City Tech Tower should be half as good."
No comments:
Post a Comment