Bye, NYC


     Better late than never -  and in case of this final NYC post, it seems that ‘late’ is actually better. Having left New York two months ago, I seem to have needed this amount of time to reach a certain clarity that I would not have if I had written this blog post right after returning to Europe. Not that there was much time to write anyway – moving countries, flat-hunting and beginning the Diploma course has left little time for anything else, but it was also good to simply take a moment to appreciate all the recent events.





Among other things, being asked to write an article (above) summarising my Year Out experience for the Glasgow School of Art Undergraduate Magazine has been really helpful – it forced me to take a look at a year’s worth of learning and understand how much I’ve developed. This growth has obviously a lot to do with my Part 1 experience with Steven Holl Architects, and yet my previous blog posts seem to have overlooked the significance of the time spent simply living in NYC and absorbing the culture of the place. 

Now that I’m back in Glasgow for the Honours/Diploma of Architecture course that concentrates on cities and urbanism, this NYC experience becomes invaluable as almost every lecture references Manhattan: be it the urban grid, the theories of Jane Jacobs or the phenomenal success of the High Line – having a personal experience of the place really helps. 

In a rather surprising way, the time and distance away from NYC seem to have also distilled a lot of the experiences, and it’s mostly the good and strong emotions that remain (as it often happens with humans and their selective/self-protective mechanism of remembering). So while I know of all the dirt, funny smells and other discomforts that are very much part of NYC, it’s very much the ‘polished’ version of the city that remains – one very close to the dream sold in Hollywood movies. At first I thought this absurd gap between reality and memory of the place was something that applied only to me, but a recent discussion with my flatmates/Architecture classmates Ronan and Neil seemed to reveal that this effect is relatively commonplace: New York does seem to have some strange way of twisting people’s perception. 

There is a whole industry that uses this effect and the image of NYC as a major selling point; in the Architecture world this has been pushed to the maximum by the DBox Creative Agency who have re-branded Frank Gehry’s Beekman Tower as ‘New York by Gehry’ – and have created a whole package that very effectively sells the building as an integral part of the city. I find both the campaign and the resulting video very fascinating.
 




As part of the same campaign, a brochure celebrating New York (and Gehry's Architecture as a product of the City) was created - the fact that I cannot find almost any trace of it online is probably to do with the fact it was too excessive even in terms of NYC and must have been removed - but the following image sums it up:






While I agree that NYC is an incredible place where I have had an amazing time, I would argue against the (somewhat widespread) statements such as the one above. Every city has its unique aspects, and while NYC as a global metropolis has a lot to offer, it equally has a lot of drawbacks that I'm glad I learned about as well. It's been a great learning experience and I'm sure I will be back, but I am also glad I'm moving on to discover the rest of the world and all its wonders. Thank you and Bye, NYC!