Park-Avenue Bummeln bei Nacht

Park-Avenue Bummeln bei Nacht

The warmly glowing traditional form of the Helmsley Building presents an attractive counterpoint to
the soaring modern form of the MetLife Building on this crisp, clear wintry night in midtown Manhattan.

If the Helmsley Building looks familiar in a historical context, it is because, long ago, it belonged to
the New York Central Railroad, and its majestic form rose just beyond and above the classic Beaux
Arts architecture of Grand Central Terminal. That would have been the view from the opposite
direction, looking uptown from Park Avenue at or below 42nd Street. That is, until the soaring
Pan Am Building was built over Grand Central’s subterranean tracks, blocking the traditional view. That
iconic building would later bear the MetLife identification, proudly glowing in the Manhattan night sky.

I fondly remember a similar clear wintry night when Pan Am was a proud U.S. flag international carrier
(and the building bore the airline’s name), lifting off from the heliport atop that building in a large Boeing Vertol helicopter for the (too short!) trip over the glittering diamonds on black velvet of Midtown at night, across the
East River to Queens, to rendezvous with my waiting white, blue and silver Pan Am 707 Jet Clipper at JFK.

Ahhh…

The photo was taken after an enjoyable afternoon of shooting in this area with
F-C friend (and fellow 7 Train devotee) Hans-Gerd Hacker visiting from Germany.

©2017 Steve Ember