Dear Editors,
Brian Pape’s Needles in the Sky (West View News July 2014) was a refreshing exposure to a new phenomenon in Manhattan which I call the San Gimignano effect after the Medieval hill town in Tuscany, Italy. There the Donald Trumps of their day tried to outclass each other with competing towers. The accompanying photo illustrates how the slender tower at One Madison Square better fits the park environment than the bulky “contextual” shadowing wall to its right.
Not only does the slender wand leave its shadow imprint for a relatively short time, but often the builders, through the “zoning lot merger”, purchase the air rights from adjoining properties, often historic, buildings, thus maintaining a more humanizing streetscape at ground level.
Barry Benepe
