New York and a Memorial

By Jian Shuo Wang on 2011-10-12 01:42 · New York

When I am talking about the feeling of New York, something reminded me of the feeling. That is a memorial in Berlin - the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. I don’t want to connect New York with murder, or holocaust, but from the architect perspective, you can see something in common.

When people get in to a maze of poles, and look left, it is an alley, and to the right, it is the same. People just want to escape. Look at this. Is it the same as standing at 31th street, and 6th ave?

13 Comments

This is a very interesting comment on New York, the sense of closeness and almost clautrophobia from the architecture. Beijing was so open and wide that as an American I was surprised. Shanghai still have a feeling of space. What do you think of Hong Kong, downtown? I will see what other people comment. Thanks.

— Bob Brandt · 2011-10-12 11:59

Hong Kong is crowded, but not as orderly as New York, so people have chance to see sky all the time. In New York, it seems only King Kong, who jumps from top of buildings to building can enjoy the sky, while most of the people only see a narrow line of sky when they cross the roads.

— Jian Shuo Wang · 2011-10-12 12:52

This is very surprising comment to me. Yes, NY is crowded but there is something, history/culture and architecture details on almost every building... I don't see any thing remotely related to the images above.

NY is not an IT heaven, Wall Street is not NY, thank goodness for both. That city is a city about people, people from all culture and every corner of the world... it is also about culture, culture of every corner of the world. I do agree with your previous post that not everybody feels comfortable to live (make a living) in that city (I know I don't want to). But what that city offers very few place on earth can compete.

Oh, well, it looks like the city really didn't speak to you... that's too bad. Or, maybe you had very specific group of friends who led your way. I actually don't know anybody who goes to New York to see Wall Street.

— GN · 2011-10-12 13:38

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— Srini · 2011-10-12 18:59

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Have a nice day!

— Gong Yufeng · 2011-10-12 23:33

sorry i just couldn't agree with the perspective and thought it is so strange that you'd feel this way - especially coming from shanghai. like the other commenter said - perhaps it's the particular flavor of your trip clouded your perspective on the city. i am a native shanghainese (graduate of sjtu too) and have spent half of my life in shanghai and half of my life in bay area. nyc is no question one of my favorites (among others like shanghai, barcelona, istanbul and san francisco). nyc has sooo much to offer and its financial district is only a thin slice. don't give up on it so readily :)

— Annecy · 2011-10-13 01:48

Hi annecy and GN, don't be too worried. I actually enjoy New York a lot. Especially if you check the archive of this blog under new York category of my last trip of 14 days in New York.

There are Art (MoMA, MET) and there are culture (Broadway, Lincon center) and there are so many things. I just talked my impression of the architect.

Sometimes people need art to simpilify the actual world afor us to see something. For example, the statue current exibition at the City Hall spimplified the few models of the architects often seen in NYC, like one with 8 layers, one is smaller than the lower one, like a pyramid. That help me a lot to recognize the pattern. The memorial is also an over simplified version of what I saw in New York - just the architect.

— Jian Shuo Wang · 2011-10-13 05:15

:-) no worries at all... just was surprised, visually.

— GN · 2011-10-13 08:16

Yes. Visually, it is very surprising, but I believe that is what I felt. Maybe no one put these two together - maybe the architect of the memorial - he is from New York.

— Jian Shuo Wang · 2011-10-14 23:10

OK. Finally Facebook comment will appear on the comment section - just wait some time and it will be replicated.

— Jian Shuo Wang · 2011-10-15 00:49

I don't like to use FB... if I can help it. I don't like the feeling that they are tracking everything every path of your online activity. I found it intrusive.

— GN · 2011-10-15 05:57

@GN, for a generation, the term of privacy is re-defined, and they embrace it in a way much stronger than we do.

— Jian Shuo Wang · 2011-10-15 16:31

That maybe but I don't believe that is going to hold for too long... I hope it won't.

— GN · 2011-10-15 17:41