Dot My I

Poor surfaces. So often maligned. One should always look below the surface. See what lies beneath the surface because there is more than what meets the eye. On the surface of it, beauty is only skin deep.

Sometimes we love a surface - so smooth and shiny. It may be important to restore the surface, polish the surface or resurface.

Most of the world we see is surface. We admire and appreciate it, yet if we learn that what lies beneath the surface is somehow less than we expected, we are disappointed and it diminishes the surface itself.

New York City is a place of buildings, so we have lots and lots of large surfaces, looming over us daily. Here at 101 Park Avenue is a 49 story, 629 foot skyscraper. Eli Attia Architects designed the building, completed in 1982. It is the 64th tallest in New York.

Park Avenue and 41st Street is prime real estate, only steps from Grand Central Terminal. The building has its own Wikipedia page and has been used in film and television - in the 1990 film Gremlins 2, in Seinfeld as the site of George Costanza's office and as Dudley Moore's office in the film Crazy People. It affords, as would be expected, spectacular views. You can see a gallery of photos of the building here.

Uniquely shaped, strikingly positioned at 45 degrees to the street grid and glistening with reflective glass, 101 Park Avenue makes an impressive statement on the Manhattan skyline. The day I photographed it, there was an evening moon strategically located. Looking up at that surface, everything was so perfectly placed in a scene of urban penmanship, not forgetting while I crossed the streets to dot my I :)