Broadway at West 65th Street — December 13, 1993

Seven years ago, I came across this 1993 photograph in my 'shoe box', but because the picture is 21 years old, I had a difficult time identifying the exact location. I could make out the street signs that said "Broadway", but little else looked familiar.

 

What a tool Google Earth and Google Maps have become for identifying location shots like this. The 'street view' in Google Maps is especially useful.

 

I'm sure many Upper West Side residents of Manhattan can identify this spot, even though roughly 60% of what you see in this picture no longer exists. I'm sure part of what threw me off was that the vantage point is unusual. I appear to have been in a second floor window or some such location. And apparently, judging by the curb that seems to run directly below my feet, the window seems to be directly over the street.

 

At first glance, this appeared to be somewhere in midtown Manhattan, but the trees in the distance look like Central Park or some other 'green space', but I still couldn't place this spot no matter how much I toured the side streets along Broadway on Google Maps.

 

I spent an hour or two simply searching online for addresses of the businesses seen in this shot. Every one of the shops that are identifiable in this photograph are no longer in business. One of them actually filed papers on September 10, 2001 - how eerie.

 

I had a clue from the very beginning that helped. I noticed the traffic pattern. One-way traffic on Broadway flowing diagonally across another street heading the opposite direction. There are only a handful of intersections like this along the entire length of Broadway's path through Manhattan. In Times Square, Madison Square, and twice on the Upper West Side - at the intersection with Amsterdam Ave. and the intersection with Columbus Ave.

 

Finally, using the 'street view' of Google Maps, I was able to identify the white building on the upper left. The street level of the building has been changed, but the upper section is the same today, as you see here. However, nothing else in this picture matched the Google Maps view. Take a look for yourself. I now recognize that building as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at 125 Columbus Avenue.

 

I was curious about the red-brick building, with the bright windows, midway down the street — close to what appears to be Central Park. It was distinctive enough to be a certain landmark. Here, Google Maps 'street view' threw me a curve. The webware application doesn't permit 'travel' on W. 65th Street from this intersection at Broadway. Undaunted, I knew there had to be a way around this roadblock. And that's exactly what the solution was — a way around. Google Maps DOES permit travel on West 65th if you go around to the other end, from Central Park West. I did that and inspected the tops of the buildings as I slowly traversed the street toward Broadway. Low and behold there was that distinctive building, almost from the same angle as this shot above. Check it out, here.

 

That discovery still left me confused. Where had I taken the shot from? Was I in a bookstore or restaurant? No. The corner where this picture was taken is the Julliard School at Lincoln Center. The 'street view' of Google Maps doesn't show a window or even a place where I could have stood to take this shot. But, it does show construction in progress. Maybe something has been removed. Like everything else in the photograph, maybe there used to be a structure or something else there where I stood to take this shot.

 

I next took a look at the spot on Google Earth. There was the answer. The satellite imagery is several years old on Google Earth and it clearly shows that there used to be an outdoor stairway and balcony, accessible to anyone, over the north curb of West 65th Street, roughly 105 feet from the Broadway intersection. I'll include a link to that view on WikiMapia. In the WikiMapia view, I've positioned the cross-hairs directly on the spot on the Julliard School balcony were the above shot was taken some 14 years ago. My camera was aimed toward the 4:30 - 5 o'clock direction in the WikiMapia view. Take a look.

 

Now that I've determined the exact location of my camera position, here's a street view of the same spot today. Notice how much has changed.

 

Thanks for tagging along with me during this little bit of detective work. I hope you had a little fun along the way.

 

OH — My wife just walked in the room. I asked her to identify the photo's location. No hints were given. She immediately identified it as W. 65th at Broadway, at the Julliard School, because she recognized the name of the restaurant across Broadway on W. 65th, Shun Lee. Who needs Google Maps, Google Earth, etc. when you have a wife like that?

 

P.S. If anything shows potential visitors to New York City how rapidly and extensively the city is changing, this photograph should. Almost weekly, older buildings are demolished to make way for new ones, usually high rise condominiums. Granted, some of the old buildings are dangerous, poorly constructed, and eyesores (like the Chemical Bank branch above), but no doubt many of their replacements will turn out to be even worse. And they are all exactly alike in style. Bland, mirrored boxes with a few eccentricities thrown in masquerading as creativity. Does anyone realize what a city full of mirrored glass boxes will be? A "House of Mirrors", or more appropriately, a "City of Mirrors".

 

The problem with glass buildings is that light simply reflects off of them, it doesn't illuminate them. They have no character of their own, they only reflect their surroundings, the are chameleons, mirroring their neighbors while having no surface identity. They have no solidity, no substance. A glowing sunrise or sunset can't bathe them in a soft warm glow, it can only be reflected from them. If you don't believe me, just notice how dark the streets are around a bunch of mirrored glass buildings at night. Streetlights don't illuminate glass structures the way they illuminate brick or stone buildings and therefore the surroundings are comparatively darker. So, in addition to the aesthetic problems created by a city of mirrors, you also create a safety problem with darkened streets.

 

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