"Former Citicorp Center is now NYC’s youngest landmark building"

This is the article>>

I like the base because it doesn't feel bulky or bottom heavy. And there's a chapel down there.

Who bumped this old thread? Anyway, I remember when this building was new and reading about it in Time Magazine as an 11 year old in the hinterlands. I was interested in architecture at an early age and finally got to see it all in person in 1981 on my first NY trip. I also remember the Philip Johnson AT&T building making a splash with its resemblance to a chippendale chest of drawers. That one debuted in 1984 (I thought it was older). It’s been made a landmark too and younger than the Citicorp.

I live across the street from it. There used to be an atrium with stores on the ground floor. Very, very high ceiling. They'd set up a train layout every Christmas.

There was a food shop with hot and cold salad bars, and the hot food was really cordon bleu. But they closed the atrium for... I don't know. Something.

I used to love to get my lunch there, because at 11:00 a very hot guy would come from another building and wait outside trying to meet girls who came out to smoke. He was late twenties with black spiked hair, handsome in a rough way and really, really built.

Didn't there used to be a Conran's store in there once upon a time?

The buildings are too tall. What if there were a fire?

Wasn't it once at risk of toppling over because the architects/engineers fucked up the base?

In 1977, it housed the first all-salad restaurant I ever ate in. I met a blind date from the Advocate there for lunch, which my Los Angeles roommate recommended. He wasn't someone I wanted to fuck, but I liked the salad restaurant concept.

When the rebar has finally turned the concrete into dust, will they allowed to demolish it?

Iron+H2O+subzero+salt+time=decay.

Nothing made from old formula rebar and concrete will be around 200 years from now, most will be gone in 100.

Yes R8 there was something like that. If I am remembering correctly, the architects and engineers designed the structure to withstand up to say 75MPH winds/gusts. But someone after it was built mentioned “what about hurricanes?” Oops! They had to go in and floor by floor do whatever they had to in order to shore up the building so it would withstand hurricane force winds.

I don’t recall if the building was occupied yet, and the MPH number I wrote may very well be wrong, but that was the gist as I recall it.

I also remember when it was built, the slanted roof was supposed to be for solar power, but only the top 10 or so stories actually got any power, so it became more of a feature than a function.

I remember a New Yorker article about it.

Very scary, as I live in the next block.

I always thought, as I was passing the building, whose fucking idea was it to build a huge tower like that without a solid bottom? Why is that supposed to be an advantage?

For a while after 9/11, there were federal marshals or whatever standing around with machine guns. They were quite thrilling, of course. But still.

Oops.

I forgot to say that the reason the armed guys were there was because it was thought the building was especially vulnerable to a terrorist attack, as the enemy had only to smash into one of "stilts" the thing rests on and it would crash to earth.

Then they put barricades up, and the marshals disappeared.

[quote]I live across the street from it. There used to be an atrium with stores on the ground floor. Very, very high ceiling. They'd set up a train layout every Christmas.

Yes. When it first opened the Atrium with its stores and restaurants was a destination for New Yorkers and a big success.

Great restaurants. Maybe great is an exaggeration.

I remember Conran and there was an Alfredo's of Rome and the salad place - I used to joke that it was called Le Health. Now I can't remember it's real name.

Conran (left)

a destination

Atriums were part of the height and volume agreements and should never be closed. What bullshit.

There is a documentary on the tower's engineering. The engineers fucked up the calculations for winds hitting the corners. Also, before hurricane season. And they had to fix the entire thing, at night, in secret - it was occupied already and hurricanes were coming. Nightmare.

It should come down in my opinion.

If they fixed it, why should it come down?

It's not a green building, and it was "patched" and welded as a fix. It's not going to last as long as planned and as a flawed design, who needs it? They are patching in a renovated public space now, but the whole thing is a failure of concept.

[quote]the salad place - I used to joke that it was called Le Health. Now I can't remember it's real name.

Healthworks? I can't remember, either.

I work in the Seagram Building just down the street. This is one of the few secret smoking places left (the lower entrance level near the tiny Dunkin' Donuts).

From the Curbed article: Pershing Square wasn't already a landmark?

Conran's! I was a new arrival in NYC in 1980 and, as such, didn't have a nickel to spend at Conran's. All my money went for ballet classes. But I remember going there to see the beautifully designed and constructed products sold by Conran's. I would love to have a Conran's catalogue from that era to refresh my memory of it all. It was a great retailer.

r23, get the 1976 House Book.

[quote]Healthworks? I can't remember, either.

Yes. Healthworks. You can remember.

We still have Conran in London.

I NEVER go in there.

I get the feeling it's not good value.

They took over and restored the old Michelin Building.

Loved Conran’s.

I think Conran in New York was the American version of England's Habitat.

Habitat also still exists in England, in a diminutive form. Very uninspiring. It's been usurped by Ikea.

In the 60s and 70s in London, Habitat was a lifestyle and one of those sorts of shops you don't have anymore that was a pleasure to visit even of you didn't buy anything.

Habitat 70s lifestyle.

I bought at Club Chair and Ottoman at the Conrans in that building, that was around 1988, it was on sale and I still have it. I remember a friend and myself carrying home all the way to 62nd St & 2nd Ave, had to go back and pick up the ottoman myself and got it home in the trunk of a cab.

There also use to be an O'Charley's restaurant at sidewalk level of that building.

Yes, the United States had Conrans and Europe had Habitat, in fact there are still Habitat stores that I visit in Paris, some of the stuff isn't bad.

For some reason the Conrans stores in NYC closed, Citicorp & the one down at Astor Place. Years later Conrans reappeared with really beautiful and high end designer stuff at the shop they built at the base of the Queensboro Bridge. That was really a nice piece of architecture which is now sadly a T. J. Max.