Cultural Disparities In New York City

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Since the birth of America, New York City has stood at the forefront of the nation’s commercial and social stratosphere, serving as a key center for commerce, freedom and cultural expression. Situated at the center of the Hudson River and Atlantic Ocean, New York City has, since its inception as our nation’s first capital in 1788, been a heavily trafficked area, ripe with a systematic influx of commerce and an unprecedented level of immigration. The environmental location of New York, most notably it’s easily accessible ports and large coastal positioning, has been extremely conducive to the rapid economic and social progression that has made New York the larger than life, bustling city that it is. America’s ideological…show more content…
With an illustrious list of former clientele, including John and Jaclyn Kennedy, the Plaza Hotel was designed to impress upon its occupants the utmost sense of class, luxury and decadence whose essence typifies the upper-echelon of New York City residences. Located between 58 and 59th street on the esteemed 5th avenue, with each room being more venerable than the next, it is no wonder that the Plaza was made a New York City Landmark in 1969. Around Midtown, 5th avenue is notorious for expensive shopping, luxurious residences and an extensive array of businesses and office buildings which house some of the most successful companies in the world. Surrounded by skyscrapers, the Plaza is neither overshadowed nor outclassed by its much larger neighbors as it encompasses old-fashioned architectural components derived from Greek and Roman styles, along with an aged look that only reiterates its significance in New York’s architectural history. According to The City Journal’s Spring 2006 edition, the Plaza’s architecture includes a “ tripartite form of a column, separating the three-story limestone base from the shaft with a bold stringcourse. The base’s rich embellishment of Doric columns, elaborate pilasters, and balustrades relates it at street level to the vanished structures”(xxx David Garrad Lowe) Its entrance invite incomers with a…show more content…
The Time Warner Center is an emblematic of the rapid progression in architectural composition, displaying a sense of arrogance characterized by its sheik, faceless, yet intimidating façade. With two, 750 feet high skyscrapers connected by a multi-story atrium, the Time Warner Center possesses a shopping center, a separate hotel, as well as a 1,200 seat theatre in conjunction with the several hundred condominiums and office buildings. Soaring high above the clouds, the two towers sheer enormity could baffle viewers as an overwhelming sense of arrogance is exude which in tandem completely isolates it from the surrounding

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