Whats your favorite "vintage" Skyline or building?

[Magus]

I am working on a project and wondering what people prefer. I rather like the Chrysler over the Emire Stat myself. And City hall in Los Angeles is nice as well.

So...whats your vote?

 

[Doctor Strange]

I like the American Standard Building in NYC. See:

http://www.greatgridlock.net/NYC_Images/amstand2.html

Main site - absolutely worth bookmarking if you don't have it:

http://www.greatgridlock.net/NYC/nycfront.html

 

[Tomasso]

I love the Wrigley Building at night.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The RCA Building in Radio City.

(I wont ever ever ever call it the GE Building.)

The Palmolive Building in Chicago is pretty nice too --

 

[Tomasso]

The Palmolive Building in Chicago is pretty nice too --

Looks like the Playboy Building(1967-90). Chicago is loaded with architectural gems from the Golden Era.

The Chicago Board of Trade Building is an icon of this ilk. She really looked fine in the "Untouchables".

 

[K.D. Lightner]

I lived in NYC for 13 years. I always loved the Empire State Building, but my favorite building was and is the Flatiron Building:

http://www.blue-print.net/newyork2003/files/flatiron-building.jpg


karol

 

[The Reno Kid]

Chrysler Building!

I've developed an appreciation for some of the more mundane local buildings (at least the ones that haven't been torn down in the name of "progress"). But as for the real American icons, it's gotta be the Chrysler Building.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

I...But as for the real American icons, it's gotta be the Chrysler Building.

I'm with you; irrationally exuberant Art Deco masterpiece: The Chrysler Building.

 

[The Wolf]

another vote

Even though the Empire State Building was reputed to be Doc Savage's HQ I'm a big fan of the Chrysler Building. I appreciate the modern gargoyles ( the eagle heads).
The Flat Iron building is also wonderful. Times Square in the golden age looked great, when neon signs looked like the future instead of a palmistry sign.
Let me also give a vote for the ferry building in San Francisco. Pulling up to it with the city growing from behind it. You can feel the excitement.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

I have to agree with HJ about the Chrysler Building. And no, I'm not just being an agreeable "fake wife", I really love the aesthetic of this building.
On another note, one can't get much more art deco than South Beach in Miami. I know this isn't a skyline, but wow, what a great group of buildings, big and small. Architects have done a fantastic job preserving them, and when going there it's like being transplanted to another time.

 

[Tomasso]

I rather like the Chrysler over the Emire Stat myself.

So...whats your vote?

I would pick the Chrysler Building over the Empire State Building. I love that spire and I greatly prefer its lobby.

 

[Benny Holiday]

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Circular Quay

Great idea for a thread, Magus. I love the MCA (it used to be the home of the Maritime Services Board) because it's so classically Art Deco, and it was thus one of the first Deco buildings I recognised as such when I first fell in love with the style.

I've always nicknamed it "the Dailey Planet" because it looks like it's appeared straight out of an old Superman serial.

 

[G. Fink-Nottle]

For me, it's the Fred F. French Building at 5th and 45th.

 

[Twitch]

The Chrysler build in without a doubt is the most recognizable edifice in the US. I always scan any movies of the NYC skyline shots for it.

 

[Tomasso]

The Chrysler build in without a doubt is the most recognizable edifice in the US.

Washington D.C. may have a few buildings that are a bit more recognizable.

 

[TheRetropolitan]

I'm going with the Chysler Building. I work about two blocks from it, and every time I pass a window I take a peek. It's wonderful.

 

[Story]

Magus,
Why not splice the features you like best?

As seen in the movie GHOSTBUSTERS, standing in for Ivo Shandor's creation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivo_Shandor ) by topping off the apartment building at 55 Central Park West.

 

[LeFonque]

Chrysler for me.

 

[Hondo]

SF ferry building

I'm not into buildings, none the less they are awesome once you know a bit about their history, enjoyed all submitted photos, very cool.
Being on the West coast, I've fond memories of the SF ferry building, (and that fog horn) my how the times have changed, thanks

(stroll down after photo)

Survived the 1906 earthquake with barely a scratch.
- Inspired by La Giralda, bell tower of Seville Cathedral.
- After the 1906 earthquake the clock remained stuck at 5:16 for a year.
- Designed in late 1892 by A. Page Brown (1859-1896), graduate of Cornell University, not long after moving to San Francisco in 1889.
- Edward Swain supervised the completion of the Ferry Building after the architect was killed in an accident in January, 1896.
- Designated as a landmark in 1977 by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
- Re-opened March 21, 2003 after US$75,000,000 restoration.
- Once the transportation hub of San Francisco where 170 ferry boats a day brought commuters and transcontinental railroad passengers to the foot of Market Street where the city streetcar lines ended.
- Built as the Union Depot and Ferry House.
- The clock tower has a steel frame with self-supporting sandstone walls that was strengthened after the 1906 earthquake and reclad in reinforced concrete painted to match the sandstone base.
- This structure was one of the first steel frame buildings in San Francisco.
- The clock, with its four 22-foot diameter clock faces, was officially re-started on June 17, 2003 at 12 noon by Mayor Willie Brown.
- Designated City Landmark #90 on July 9, 1977.
- The Grand Nave of the Ferry Building is 660 feet long, 45 feet wide and fully skylit.
- At one time the Ferry Building was one of the most used transportation halls in the world.
- The second and third floors offer over 170,000 square feet of premium office space with dramatic views.
- The completion of the Bay Bridge (1936) doomed the ferries and as a result the Ferry Building's role.

 

[CharlieH.]

It's hard to have just one favourite building, but as far as vintage skylines go, I'll say it's the '39 World's Fair.... and by night: