United Nations Secretariat Building, NYC, 2021.
All the pixels, none of the diplomatic immunity, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/51381729335/
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this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2025
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Captured with the Phase One Achromatic back and the Rodenstock 32mm/4.0 HR-Digaron lens, with the back shifted down 8.5mm to maintain the building's geometry. I brought out contrast in the sky with a polarizer, but otherwise used no color contrast filtration. The camera was positioned across the avenue about 10 meters up from the plaza level (at the bottom of the "canyon" of the skyline reflected in the bottom center of the building).
> with the back shifted down 8.5mm to maintain the building's geometry.
Much appreciated. To my untrained eye, I feel like it really adds to the impression the image evokes.
Love them or hate them, mid-century rectangular glass curtain buildings like this are easy to dismiss as being "boring", but I think that misses something.
Reflections of the surroundings become part of the facade, which changes at different angles and throughout the day. I visited several times and made dozens of photos, all quite different, before I settled on this one, and there are infinitely many photos others could make, all unique. (Similar to the new World Trade Center in this regard).
The UN Secretariat building was designed by an international team of architects (most notably Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer) and completed in 1950. It was the first important "International Style" modernist skyscraper in New York - exemplified here here by a simple, unadorned rectangle with reflective glass curtain walls on either side.
Glass box office buildings became almost cliche in mid-century NYC, but the UN remains unusual in being set apart in the skyline, uncrowded by neighbors.
I have mixed feelings about Le Corbusier's architecture (to say nothing of his urban planning philosophy - he clearly influenced Robert Moses), but I think the UN Secretariat building was one of his successes.
An aside: If you look at the full resolution version (downloadable on flickr), you can see the HF amateur radio antenna on the roof. Nerds are everywhere, even/especially at the UN. There's also a family taking a group picture on the street in front.
This is another photo in my series, "Slightly better versions of the pictures of local attractions that you find on the walls of your cheap hotel."
When I was in the Army (1980) one of my duties was to set a Linhof 8×10" to take photos for manuals, and I became almost skilled in perspective tuning, so I've an idea of what you make to take you incredible photos.
When the camera was perfectly set, the photographer (sergeant) arrived with the plate (too expensive to to give it to a private!) shot the photo and take the merit.
But who cares? I had a lot of fun!
@[email protected] just read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headquarters_of_the_United_Nations about the selection and construction of the site ..
@[email protected] I hadn't thought of these buildings as reflecting their environment, I will look more closely, thank you. Maybe we just don't clean the glass enough in Australia 🙂
As a person who worked inside them, they were definitely boring from the inside. And often very glary, light reflected from other buildings.
I guess it's the architect's job to mediate these two perspectives to the benefit of both.