NY Construction Mania: more good than bad

Like many people living in New York City these days, I have little need for an alarm clock--jackhammers are my wake-up call at around 6.45/7.00am six days a week and sometimes (outrageously) in the middle of the night. Construction's cacophany then seems to follow me around all day long. I almost can't stand it.

The downside to all this activity (aside from irritating residents and causing deaths and injuries to workers and innocent bystanders) is that there are prolific developers out there who don't have making thoughtful architectural structures on their to-do lists. Their legacies will be the eyesores, the cringe-making reminders of these moneyed times. Donald Trump's quote in an excellent profile in this week's New York magazine sums up this kind of approach to building nicely. “In New York,” he says, “I can build a box as-of-right [within existing regulations]. Or I can get a creative design, go through ten years of community boards, and still get refused 32 to zero. Given that choice, I’ll build a box.” And, as with Trump Soho, up that box goes, quick as a flash.

There is an upside though--enough to convince me that, despite the efforts of the likes of Trump, New York's updated skyline will be marvelled at by future generations. Soon, there really will be lots of interesting buildings for people (with deep pockets) to live in and for the rest of us to admire (or ridicule) as we walk on by. Fortunately, as Nicolai Ouroussoff pointed out in a recent article in the New York Times, much of what's going up these days ranges from "soaring, elaborately decorated towers by international celebrities like Jean Nouvel and Frank Gehry to smaller but equally ambitious architectural statements by lesser-know talents." For details, read the article, it's a good one.

So, I'll put up with the noise, dust and inconveniences but I can't wait until it's all finished.