The 1,000 Faces of New York Architecture.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral is shimmering. Bright and huge. But not huge enough for all the skyscrapers around. The church still seems tiny. With all the reflections of the glass fronts it looks like standing in a fishbowl. The metro is howling in the underground looking like an express coming straight from the 50s. And there are also the silent falls of Grond Zero.

For a nice architecture tour with famous buildings start on 5^th Avenue with the St. Patrick’s Cathedral I mentioned before. 

It’s so strange the way it looks inbetween all those skyscrapers. Then walk down to Rockefeller Center. It’s not only one single building. Rockefeller’s thought: Think big! So the complex is consisting of 19 high-rise commercial buildings covering 22 acres. The best: The “Top of the Rocks”-platform is open again! So don’t miss the chance to go up there to take a look at New York from above. You won’t regret it. Make an online reservation in advance to avoid the massive lines. Quick tip: Buy also the Sun & Stars-Pass. It’s only $ 15 more and you can go up twice at one day - at daylight and a night.

I did so and it was just stunning. You don’t know how huge Central Park really is until you’ve seen it from above. And the view at night was awesome as hell. New York seems to be like a bright diamond. Everything was glimmering and glittering beyond horizon. You can also climb up Empire State Building but so you won’t have it on your pictures later. So I recommend Rockefeller Center.

Walking down further to Down Town Manhattan on 5^th Avenue you will find the New York Public Library and the Empire State Building. It felt like Frank Sinatra was just stepping out of the door. Then don’t go home but take some more blocks to see the famous Flatiron Building.

It looks like an open book and is simply breathtaking. It’s designd as a vertical Renaissance palace with Beaux-Arts styling. You can have a break in front of it by enjoying free WiFi or some music like I did. I can highly recommend The Mamas & The Papa for that kind of atmosphere.

But New York also has some stunning modern architecture in store. At this point I will mention the Ground Zero because it had a strong effect on me. There’s the One World Trade Center with some other new buildings around. Some of them aren’t finished yet (after all these years!). But the most impressive thing was the memorial: Two square pools in the center where the Twin Towers stood. Water is falling down in silence. It’s falling into another black square. It felt like this place is still bleeding and all the tears of a whole nation were still falling. To me this memorial is a masterpiece of architecture in relation to what has happened here.