Sticks and Stones

Slate visited the new NYTimes building along 8th Ave between 40th and 41st. Architecture has always been an interest of mine so reading the Slate photo-slideshow was an utter delight! Slate’s Witold Rybczynski pointed out such highlights as Renzo Piano’s meticulously detailed atrium, the extensive use of greenery to break up the monotony of the structure, and the building’s intricate exterior cladding. About the all-important newsroom he said: “Newsrooms are the heart of a newspaper. Rather than being hidden away, as they were in the old Times building on 43^rd Street, here the newsrooms are in a low annex visible from the street, especially at night. The entire news operation is housed on three vast 65,000-square-foot floors overlooking the landscaped court and giving reporters a view of birch treetops—in midtown Manhattan! The top two floors surround a two-story central atrium (right), whose skylight creates the atmosphere of a large atelier, rather than an anonymous office.”