New York's Weirdest Building - LOST FOREVER - IT'S HISTORY

[@ITSHISTORY]

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[@sybrenkruijf8570]

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[@ITSHISTORY]

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[@sybrenkruijf8570]

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[@KingFluffs]

Does the script tell you to say it's realistic?

[@ThatOneGuy0006]

Mountain Dew ass logo

[@MurraySheer]

This building in its original state is immortalized in the 1984 classic Ghostbusters, the Stay Puft marshmallow man walks right next to it. Great video, really enjoyed it!

[@mariecolette170]

Yessss! Something soo familiar about the building was nagging me yet I couldn't place it and u hit the nail on the head! I like the way it looked before it stood out gave u a fun feeling. Now u walk by there and notice nothing.

[@magnushmann]

I went and looked that up immediately, thanks!

[@MurraySheer]

Thanks guys glad the comment helped

[@MurraySheer]

@@magnushmann lol no problem, trying to work Ghostbusters into any helpful relevant information.

[@MurraySheer]

@@mariecolette170 glad I could help, love me some history/Ghostbusters

[@OssianLore]

They turned something of a monolithic monument into something that looks like a road tunnel ventilation tower. What an awful story, a sad indictment, and an all too poetic analogy...

[@mugwump242]

I agree. The new appearance, especially viewed from a bit of a distance, strikes me as a vernacular, industrial building. I used to live a few miles from a glass recycling plant and both it and this new museum exterior give off very similar vibes.

[@OssianLore]

@@mugwump242 Truly a travesty

[@williamhilbert8324]

It was pretty unique now it's a eyesore that's rich people for ya money can't buy taste

[@edu7979]

@@williamhilbert8324could in the start of the 1900s, all went to shit when bauhaus and all that international bullshit cropped up tho

[@FernandoTRA]

The hotel that used to be there was much superior to the lollipop building or the reskinned building. Both versions are hideous. At least the lollipop version was sort of interesting in a weird way.

[@andriaduncan5032]

I've always loved the look (and feel) of marble, so I'd have to go with the Lollipop as my favorite. But I wouldn't call the update "hideous," just **blah** ho hum, another modern tall building, nothing special. Even if one doesn't care for the particular styling of the Lollipop, it actually had style --- the modern version does not. I've always loved the esthetics of "Moorish" design, even neo-Moorish like the many and varied Fox theaters, so I really liked those upper narrow arches. It echoes back to Roman and gothic as well as Moorish or neo-Moorish.

[@ImAnEmergency]

I actually really like how the lollipop building looked. It was like someone took Brutalism and gave it some ✨pizzazz✨ and someone’s entire inventory of breeze blocks. The horrendous replacement looks like leftover Lego pieces shoved together.

[@louiewright8503]

Totally agree !

[@postmodernrecycler]

Yes to your description!, plus a probable influence by the paintings of Giorgio di Chirico.

[@catholiccrusader5328]

Thank you! You are so right.

[@greentriumph1643]

George had a unique aesthetic vision and strong opinions about art. That is why he was/is so hated. Better than much of the blandness that we have today.

[@CliffRoth]

It wasn’t particularly weird but after the transformation, it’s certainly ugly.

[@jimkirk4357]

They butchered a piece of architectural art in favor of a hideous, unremarkable glass box. What a shame that a bunch of schmucks were allowed to vandalize a beautiful building. They should be arrested and thrown in prison for the stealing taxpayer's money to commit this crime.

[@pastForgetting]

This reminds me of what happened to the beautiful Telephone Building in Kansas City, Missouri. It was originally adorned with glazed terracotta tiles that were embossed with ornate designs. In the 60s AT&T flattened the skin of the building by hammering off the designs, then covered it in yellow aluminum siding. The municipal government acquired it about 20 years ago and removed the aluminum siding. It resurfaced the defaced terracotta and painted it cream colored. City offices are in it now.

[@mugwump242]

I used to live in a city where AT&T did the same thing. It was Neo-Gothic in style, built during the 1920s of brick with abundant glazed terra cotta accents. In old photos, the arches, ornaments, and oriel windows look so elegant. Then in the 1970s, they re-skinned the building as one big, monolithic, orange brick cube with vertical pop-out sections about 20 feet wide that run continuously from the 2nd floor all the way to the structure's top and are spaced at regular intervals all around the building. The pop-outs have side facing windows so a person could look out and see through the identical side window of the next pop-out but it can't be easy to see what's happening on the street below.

[@LususxNaturae]

I’ve never liked the new design of the building whenever I passed it & I didn’t even know it was a new design. The old one was whimsical & mysterious. It looks like a secret club that you want to be in. The new one looks…. Out of place.

[@catholiccrusader5328]

Agreed!

[@mugwump242]

So funny you mentioned the "secret club" intrigue factor of the old design. When I saw it, my first impression was that it reminds me of a whimsical (or even satirical), Modernist take on the big fraternal lodge buildings constructed in large US cities from the early 1900s through the 1920s. I'm sure the Shriners, in particular, would've approved of the old design's low-key Neo-Byzantine feel.

[@two-face1041]

Honestly I would argue the old building looked out of place and that’s what made a good and unique

[@lauriepenner350]

Weird-looking buildings like this one are impressive in an I-can't-believe-someone-really-built-this kind of way. You just have to admire the chutzpah of the guy who forced this thing through to completion despite the pushback. Many now-beloved structures started out the same way - the Sydney Opera House, the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty, for example.

[@mugwump242]

There are a lot of architects out there whose skills and abilities as salespeople and self-promoters successfully keep clients (and many in the world of professional critics) distracted from the shortcomings in their designs.

[@andyrob3259]

Only in America. What the fk sort of museum would try to Sue another person wanting to set up their own museum with their own purchased art work.

[@ArthurBrooklyn]

One that is owned by rockefeller.

[@Kremithefrog1]

Yeh i don't get that at all. Pretty sure there is no patent on museums.

[@ptorq]

"How dare you try to exhibit Art(TM)."

[@charlescrawford7039]

The architect, Edward Durrell Stone also designed the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. His townhouse (Landmarked) at 130 East 64th Street still exist. The windows on the street side are also not apparent since they are concealed by a concrete ornamental screen. Other New York architectural oddities at the time were the headquarters and annex for the National Maritime Union designed by New Orleans architect, Albert Ledner. The Union’s headquarters at times was referred to as the “Steel Trap Building” given the teeth like facade. Architecturally speaking, the latest reskinning of Stone’s building is not a resounding success. Mr. Socash, thanks again for another great video!

[@randibgood]

Stone's townhouse was a beautiful use of Breezeblocks. His neighbors, however, not too pleased, would be an understatement! I'm glad it was returned to his original design.

[@two-face1041]

Oh wow at is a Washington DC local who’s really into the theater I totally see it this is totally the same exact guy

[@lj5801]

He did not own Rembrandt's "Storm on the Sea of Galilee." That was one of the paintings stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

[@theshenpartei]

This building’s legacy lives on films like ghostbusters

[@christopherwelch136]

The original hotel was stunning. The 50s saw a lot of NY’s amazing turn of the century architecture destroyed. Sad.

[@pavelow235]

AT&T Long Lines Building is the weirdest building in Manhattan...this one is down right normal looking compared to that.

[@DeBaRe]

Had to think about that as well..

[@redfox4561]

Plus this building doesn't have the NSA spying on people in it

[@ArthurBrooklyn]

@@redfox4561 not true. The NSA is spying everywhere, all the time.

[@Nobodyimportant696]

@@DeBaRe I was thinking the same

[@jtgd]

@@redfox4561 why would the nsa need a special ugly building in nyc when they can comfortably do it from Maryland?

[@eduardoramirezjr4403]

I worked on W. 57th and 8th, so I had to pass by the Building many times. This was especially the case when I headed over to the Park, Lincoln Center or Columbus Circle. It was quirky and a bit odd, but it stood out as a landmark or location to meet up with someone. Still, many NY’ers miss the previous design and refer to 2 Columbus Circle as the site of the old Lollipop Building.

[@nomadicmonger9455]

I'm a life long New Yorker and I never knew what was in that building, I thought it was a weird office building.

[@eduardoramirezjr4403]

@@nomadicmonger9455 To be honest, I don’t believe anyone knew-including myself- what was inside the building

[@jerryfinzi3235]

I became a member of the Gallery of Modern Art (as this Huntington Hartford museum was called) as a 15 year old artist, with full VIP privileges (my favorite, the restaurant). My Mom and I would sit for many minutes in front of paintings, taking in the details and talking about their meaning. The building itself was a wonderful blend of modern and classical styles with a bit of Moorish thrown in. The design and function were both impeccable. Shame in the City for going against their purchase agreement to preserve this treasure. The new revision is one of the most blatant examples of architectural arrogance, ignorance and ugliness.

[@floydnixon6922]

When I was growing up I use to think that is a weird building I would see no one go into it or come out of it whenever I was around Columbus Circle. When I started working for a fire alarm company doing service calls. The building has a service contract for that building and I visit from time to time if they need service. I did not know that it was museum with a nice restaurant looking out over the park.

[@briancooney9952]

Weird little tidbit: This building, on Columbus circle, built by a guy with the last name of Hartford, is referred to as the "Lollipop building" Hartford, CT has a building on Columbus Boulevard that's referred to as the "Candy Cane Building" (because of a gaudy red stripe on the side of it)

[@williammcdermet6932]

This video is confusing, because it shows the building in one of its iterations, while discussing another. Frustrating to watch.

[@angelamonk716]

AGREE... added his mono tone voice I stopped at 3 min mark

[@mr.k6136]

Great Channel it's sad that people don't see the beauty in the buildings and architecture anymore I have an absolute crazy infatuation with Victorian era buildings

[@denniscass4013]

The remarks made by Brad Cloepfil (the lead architect for this building's renovation) about those who favored retaining the original Stone design are as tone-deaf and uninspired as his architecture. If you're wondering why the windows appear to depict a poorly rendered International Harvester logo, it must be grudgingly acknowledged that this may have been at the client's request or demand (per David Dunlap, NY Times May 1, 2008).

[@gtv6chuck]

I remember seeing that building and thinking that it looked like a mausoleum. But that remodel is rather appalling.

[@pagerhoads1531]

My dad worked for A&P from the 50s until 1975 when they closed

[@RJLbwb]

The original design looked like some transformer station that that was trying to look nice and renovation looks like it was inspired by a heat sink for a PC.

[@Oldbmwr100rs]

Yeah, it looked like an AT&T switching station to me! But still, it was also unique in a good way, standing out against a rather icky looking giant apartment complex and a bunch of steel and glass buildings that all look close to the same. A building you could either ignore or really want to know what's going on in it.

[@robertkeffer3361]

This building is a lost masterpiece, like Pennsyvania Station and the Singer Tower. I've always liked it and admired Stone's audacity in building it.

[@thanasistama3943]

Remember going to the Huntington Museum as a boy in 1960s. Sad to see it refaced.

[@TWOCOWS1]

i know this building well. it served as "New York Cultural" support department something. There were no windows and the inside was totally dark. There were ceiling lamps, but the workers were all as depressed as state prisoners might be. The architects should have been imprisoned for such a disregard for human workers inside that rat cage. For a while, the outside of the building was used as movie screen, when some artistist set up projectors in Columbus Circles outside, showing nice films. Then the building was abandoned and stood empty for a while. I was hoping it would be pulled down, but instead some one bought it for a dollar from the city, knocked some windows into the solid facade and turned it into just another offrce building

[@mrcarlo1966]

I walked past the building everyday in the early 80’s going to High School. The building was always a little bit of a mystery for me it didn’t seem to have any purpose and after a while as different as it was it seemed to disappear in the background .Columbus Circle is so different now than it was at that time. The New York Colosseum is long gone and the Gulf and Western building completely transformed. In my opinion the exterior of the new building is pretty disappointing.

[@samiam5557]

Did the Lollipop Guild furnish workers to build this?

[@edwardfletcher7790]

The best thing about visiting that building to see the art is you can't see the building at the same time...

[@TheJoborg100]

I grew up by the building and I remember it fondly. Now that it has changed , the character and art of Columbus circle has become a hideous bunch of ultra modern buildings that don't do any justice to Columbus circle at all.

[@riproar11]

As a designer and avid fan of architecture, I find that the original design was brilliant but the cutout arches on the top area should have also been on the bottom, instead of the lollipops.

[@ap70621]

The A&P was founded in 1859, it didn't become the largest retailer until decades later. They went bankrupt in 2015.

[@MessiahProphylaxis]

What a bizarre trade. "Sorry to hear about the world war gentlemen, perhaps my yacht will help you defeat Hitler." "Thank you kindly rich Sir! Please take a military transport ship in exchange, we can't imagine a use for it at the moment."

[@SteveTheFazeman]

The so-called "lollypop" columns remind me of connecting rods to a crankshaft.

[@oscartango2348]

Any art gallery should be housed in a building with unusual architecture that evokes debate. That's exactly what art does. I think the museum of modern art building is absolutely hideous, but I'm sure most people love it.

[@bobholtzmann]

I was checking the building out on Google Street View -- the lollipop columns are still there! They are half visible behind a frosted storefront glass facade.

[@Susie_Floozie]

Whoa, you're right--there's just a hint of them. What a damnable pity it's all that's left of it.

[@paco7992]

This building looks like it says,"HI!" That's friendly.

[@paulaltman9751]

What a shame... The Huntington Hartford Museum was aging very well and more appreciated as time went on. I remember the building being built. I also remember when the iconic Hotel Astor was demolished and think that that might be a good subject for one of your histories.

[@SamanthaScarlette]

The original looked better. I never knew there was an art museum at Columbus Circle.. so clearly they're not doing that good of a job.

[@calxtra5361]

THEY CHANGED AN ELEGENT BUILDING INTO AN MODERNIST EYESORE HOW COULD NYC HAVE DONE THIS!!!!

[@AmosAmerica]

The "Lollipop Building" was an eye sore. The interior of this new building is amazing. The new facade is okay at best, but anything is better than what it was. I for one hated even walking by it prior to its new look.

[@RaymondHng]

2:15 "... _hair_ of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company"?

[@mrpeel3239]

The rare example of a renovated structure that outshines its original architecture. Ps the downstairs Auditorium is a hidden jewel.

[@ericmoore571]

I live just a few blocks from this building and I pass it often but I've never noticed it, it's so dull looking. I like the original so much better!

[@smoothvirus]

I mostly remember this building as being the site where the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man materialized in 1984.

[@henrycoats2202]

I love how when someone doesn’t like something, yet has the backing to change it. Does so at their whim without throughly thinking it through. They seem to think that their opinion and only their opinion matters.

[@jetsons101]

This just goes to show you--- "You learn something new every day" Thanks for posting.....

[@jbarthol]

They need to restore it to its original design.

[@SocialistDistancing]

In a world of uninteresting buildings that are forgettable, they added one more to that list. To me it looks they're trying to hide something in the building and hope that nobody notices it. The hotel that stood before had style. The lollipop building had some interesting features. But this face-lift, looks like their trying to hide the old telephone exchange behind it.

[@poussin483]

Hi I like your video,i prefer the old style of the building shame that they have dome renovation with glasses it remooving the charm.

[@kuripangui]

Hello!! I was watching the videoclip "2 become 1" of Spice Girls and the old facade of this building is shown in one scene. Awesome!

[@bearinmind50]

E.D. Stone was also the designer of the General Motors building on the other end of 59th St at Central Park. So, his designs once bookended Central Park South. Maybe the ‘H’ is supposed to remind of Huntington Hartford, but in any case, the exterior renovation is garbage.

[@rockyBalboa6699]

First they will hate your building and then the city wants to buy it and give it a Heritage status!

[@henriquejambu]

Damn the renovation really is awful, it was so unique before :(

[@darrens3]

Basically ruined quite an interesting building. While not to everyones taste I think fold can agree that the new building, for all its gains in space is an aesthetically ungainly slab, where its predecessor was more light hearted, its replacement is cold and contextless. At least you could recognise the original building as being 'that' building from NY. Whereas post-rennovation its so generic it could literally be from any capital city, anywhere in the world, from Berlin to Dubai.

[@larrygrimaldi1400]

Funny, I never heard anybody call it the Lollypop Building, we called it the Huntington Hartford Museum--- and it was nowhere near as weird as FLW's Guggenheim Museum----- I remember being in there and they had stuff like in MOMA and the Whitney (The old grey Whitney, not the fancy new one down by the High Line) The entire Columbus circle area had one big architectural fight after another, because Jackie Kennedy didn't want anything tall enough to shade the Park. Huxtable liked stark simplicity like Black Rock, or maybe HH had once been rude to her at a party.

[@bullzdawguk]

10:21. Interesting. I never knew NYC had trams at one time.

[@davidmackieson4609]

They really turned it into an eyesore

[@josephwarra5043]

"New York, New York's a h*ll of a place, With 11 Zillion people all looking for space, And each one sayin' "Get outta my face!" New York, New York, it's a H*ll of a place!" -- old NYC song

[@brucehain]

It was the plushest thing around, including the intimate sky garden restaurant, with a giant Dali with sails on a wall along an open floating stairway.

[@eddyalex6803]

Just here....waiting....for the premier..

[@ITSHISTORY]

I'll join the chat soon.

[@katherinekinnaird4408]

Just curious...what became of the marble that was removed?

[@gpatty6538]

I was thinking the same thing

[@rudeboyjohn]

@@gpatty6538 most likely in a NJ landfill

[@JamesDavidWalley]

Cut up into countertops for the mansions of the One Percent.

[@majorneptunejr]

@@JamesDavidWalley Well at least it would be put to use and not broken up into gravel.

[@REAL-NANO]

I love the old buildings shape of a octagon with a circle inside, it gets the structure benefits of an arch with the benifit of 90 or 45 degree angles to work off.. I love the new buildings bottom half BUT NOT its top half...

[@majorneptunejr]

When I first saw this I was trying to figure out what the "H" &"E" stood for. I thought surely that this intentional, since it covers the entire front of the building. Am I the only one seeing this?

[@paulmezhir8354]

E Durell Stone was not one of the principal designers of Radio City Music Hall....he played a minor role in the design if some interiors of the center. Stone was, however, the principal architect of the Museum of Modern Art in the 1930s......even more important in light of his design of the Columbus Circle building.

[@bedstuyrover]

Eventually, they will rebuild the original facade when blandness goes out of style.

[@waynecampbell7609]

The "update" took it from odd to ugly.

[@briancooney9952]

It's hideous now. But you can argue that it's gone the same way art has gone - dull, simplistic, uninspiring, inartistic

[@G1nn3y]

I always wondered what the deal was with that building. Now I know!

[@royalewithchz]

Thanks for another great video Ryan. I had never heard of this building before and personally find both the old and new look particularly ugly. But I respect people who try new things and break out of the “usual” box. Swing and a miss unfortunately on this one, but like I said I still respect the architects greatly. I find all the public backlash peculiar and mystifying, on both ends of the spectrum. But, I’m not from New York and this isn’t my backyard. 🙂

[@joejakubec9708]

Had to bail before the two-minute commercial ended.

[@petemavus2948]

It's seems Columbus Circle has always had a contentious place in American History. The original "lolipop" building had such a morgue/muaseleum like air about it any time I was in it's immediate vicinity. As someone else here states, I too never saw anyone going in or out of it nevermind any discernable life or light inside. Watching this video even adds to the odd uneasyness.

[@OuterGalaxyLounge]

So, they replaced a high-rise mausoleum with an even worse high-rise electronic circuit board. Way to go, NYC.

[@postmodernrecycler]

I lived in NYC during the last years before "remodeling". I knew nothing about it but found the design clearly special compared to any other building I'd seen. What we take for granted. . . .

[@lawrencelewis2592]

You want a nice building? Look at the Niagara-Mohawk building in Syracuse- it's an art-deco masterpiece!

[@G1nn3y]

I would agree, it's something.

[@roxannepearls901]

It was an interesting building to begin with now it’s just fugly.

[@maxswagcaster5315]

The city also missed the opportunity to use the side of the building as a projector screen

[@davidhill1404]

It was used as a projector screen. I remember seeing art slides projected on the Circle side in the late 60's 9r early 70's.

[@maunasiliandergamba2387]

Why would someone want to turn the city into this glass concrete monstrosity? New York looks really scary, but in a depressing way

[@rcavictor1]

Attended College at NYIT in the early Nineties I passed that building everyday and found it quite different but in a NYC way. The new outside layer of the building now in my opinion its not attractive at all. It should have remained as it was.

[@ejiroakamune6620]

I attend school there now, the old one would have been astounding. In my belief is a renovation should add to q building instead of removing its history

[@rcavictor1]

@@ejiroakamune6620 I agree with you 100 % !!

[@timfaracy754]

@@ejiroakamune6620 The original NYIT building is still at 135-45 West 70th street between Broadway and Columbus Avenue. Now it's the Alexandria Condominium. It was built as the Knights of Pythias Temple.

[@glennjones6574]

Certainly that entire building can be the museum...?

[@illuminotmereloaded6896]

The building does not seem that bizarre to me, though it is especially unpleasant aesthetically in its present state. To me, New York's Monolith building is the Millennium Hotel across from the WTC complex that was. And the 'Master Building' built for Nicholas Roerich gets my vote for most bizarre building in New York.

[@WillOHaver]

The base columns of the building remind me of the original World Trade Center tridents.

[@Expatriate1977]

this building is proof that money doesn't buy skill or taste. he needed to curb his ego. this building should have humbled him

[@samiam9059]

It would be impossible to change that without controversy. As the looks are now, just average for rare slot in time.

[@Cam2Art]

As I recall Dali was a favorite as I did visit the original incarnation.

[@WinkelManBearPig]

Someone made a boatload of money selling off the removed materials

[@stephenchapel2058]

The strangest building in NY City was the Tombs.

[@floydnixon6922]

It is now a museum with a restaurant. I work for a fire alarm company and I sometimes go there to do service on the fire alarm system. We also have the Hartford's mansion down on Spring street.

[@TypeOneg]

It looks like a transfer station for electric.

[@mikejgrzelecki1]

Very informative. I used to work in Columbus Circle. Hadn’t really noticed how ugly the new interpretation is. The top floor restaurant has spectacular views of the park. Bravo

[@JMM33RanMA]

What an amazing video! I've become a fan of this site. If you are interested in controversial architecture, there is an interesting case in Boston. The old city hall , [not the oldest] is an over decorated French Second Empire style building between the new city hall and the New State House. I was taking my international students around the Freedom Trail and commented on the present city hall as the ugliest building in America, an eyesore that should be demolished. They were shocked and said that it is one of the worlds best examples of the Brutalist style. Its hollow core with variable positioned platforms around it rather than normal floors makes navigating and probably working there difficult, and it is very ugly, looking more like a factory or power plant than a government office building. If you are looking for more controversy about architecture, the fate of this building is under discussion, and has been for some time. Thanks for another great video, keep up the good work!

[@knight2255]

Are there any NYC buildings built between 1940-80 that would be missed if they were to be torn down?

[@cme98]

Oh you mean the classic rectangle box made of glass style? No. Wouldn't miss a single one.

[@mugwump242]

I don't particularly like the original design but at least it was unique and made a statement. The replacement appearance, on the other hand, could be vaunted as an archetype for what most people dislike about the 21st century high-rise design trend (hmm, I suppose, for the location, this is considered mid-rise, isn't it?). The 21st century mode, so far, seems like a race to put up the most remarkable building for the category of excellence in being unremarkable. We rarely, if ever, see even that little bit of redeeming audaciousness those 'Modernist' buildings of the 1950s-'70s sometimes enjoyed by owning their starkness and brutality so boldly and brazenly. This building appears to lack an organized scheme and also an identity, truth be told. If the old one was the Lollipop Building, the new one is the "Meh" Building.

[@wintersbattleofbands1144]

10:04. I think he means it's income couldn't cover it's operating costs.

[@spddiesel]

Those columns look like piston rods.

[@nightrunner1456]

Incredibly channel, WOW. Plus, the architectural.

[@nightrunner1456]

Glad to also see Detroit buildings.

[@Techno-Universal]

They could of still painted murals on the structure instead of replacing the exterior due to the large amount of flat space on the structure which could of allowed for local artists to be commissioned to paint/design murals that could be painted onto the building’s exterior! :)