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Look Up

New York is a city of canyons. As you walk through them, look up at the diverse formations of the canyon walls. Then think about why one new building is tall, skinny, and glass while an older one is chunky and made of yellow brick. And submerse yourself in the compressed, complex real estate of Wall Street’s competitive capitalism.

Be sure to click/tap on photos for a closer view. And check out other ways to see New York City …  Look Around, Look Down, People.

Shapes & Textures

Fire

It takes a while for tourists to New York City to start wondering about the ubiquitous tanks on rooftops.  They’re intriguing but puzzling as to their use. Well, for the more than 15,000 high-rise buildings equipped with tanks, they operate like toilets. Electric pumps feed them water for residents’ needs and for extinguishing any fires.  A simple float valve inside regulates the volume.

And speaking of fires, note the fire escapes hanging on buildings like bling jewelry, especially on the Lower East and West Sides. Follow the zig-zag of metal as it climbs upward to save the buildings’ residents maybe just once in a lifetime.

Peculiarities

There aren’t many cats — at least not visible to me — in midtown NYC except maybe one or two on ledges.

If you look on your phone for the address of a barber but can’t seem to find it at the given address, look up. You might have to climb some stairs

Down in the Lower East side, gaze up at the odd public clock — the Askew — in “Red Square,” built in 1989, the year the Soviet Union fell.  But don’t try to sync your watch with it. 

Up in Harlem, the aging, nondescript YMCA, some of it built in the early 1900s, was the residence of a number of prominent and self-respecting African-American who brought about the Harlem Renaissance in the mid-20th century.

Clock with wrong time by design NYC
Harlem YMCA tower

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Look Down

The subway system is the fastest, cheapest way to move around the City. Sure, some stations can be dim and grim. But look into the dark and down at the floors and experience something new and interesting.

 Look Around

Even on a drizzly evening unusual things are happening around you, so keep your eyes open and ask  yourself not only what but why.

 Look at People

New York is an implosion of diverse folks living their individuality. Some will fascinate you, others with make you uncomfortable.  But all are humans like us.

Want to travel to other places?

Woman half-hidden by peppers in Barcelona marketplace

Barcelona

Barcelona is an explosive visual experience of architecture, markets, and street folks, dominated by the billiant imagination of architect Antoni Gaudí whose mystifying church, La Sagrada Familia, has been under construction for over 140 years. Then there is the brilliant colors of the marketplace and the absorbing daily lives of locals.

Night shot of ornate courtyard in Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi

Saudi Arabia & Beyond

Over the years I consulted in Saudi Arabia and explored the Arab Gulf region, I was fascinated by the area’s opulence of magnificent mosques and ambitious commercial developments, by the implosion of multicultural people in the “oasis” cities — Riyadh, Jubail, Dubai — by the graciousness of everyone, especially Saudis, and by the love for the desert.