The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Ritual
Most people visiting New York City right now will brave the cold and the midtown Manhattan crowds to get a photo of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. The tree has transcended geography, language, and religious beliefs – in the past eight decades, it has become an internationally-recognized symbol of New York in the…
December 30, 2019
The Dakota: Fame and Survival in New York City
How does a building get famous? How do a building’s residents shape its history? What would the Upper West Side be like without The Dakota? Over the past 135 years, The Dakota building has maintained its complicated place in the spotlight. It was built on the Upper West Side when the area was farmland; scandalously far north (and west) from everything else at the time. Some critics suggested the building would fail; it was so remote it may as well be in ‘Dakota territory,’ which is the rumored reason for its unique name. It anchored the subsequent residential book on Central Park West, it survived three financial crashes and drastic neighborhood reconstructing, and it’s been home to famous artists, thinkers, and Bohemians for decades. In some ways, Manhattan’s Upper West Side has been built around The Dakota. No matter what…
August 26, 2019