United Nations General Assembly Building, NYC, 2021.
All the pixels, none of the simultaneous translation, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/51381729335
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this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2025
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The UN Secretariat building was designed by an international team of architects (most notably Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer) and completed in 1950. It was the first important "International Style" modernist skyscraper in New York - exemplified here here by a simple, unadorned rectangle with reflective glass curtain walls on either side.
Glass box office buildings became almost cliche in mid-century NYC, but the UN remains unusual in being set apart in the skyline, uncrowded by neighbors.
I have mixed feelings about Le Corbusier's architecture (to say nothing of his urban planning philosophy - he clearly influenced Robert Moses), but I think the UN Secretariat building was one of his successes.
An aside: If you look at the full resolution version (downloadable on flickr), you can see the HF amateur radio antenna on the roof. Nerds are everywhere, even/especially at the UN. There's also a family taking a group picture on the street in front.
@mattblaze@federate.social that would be the antennas belonging to the coveted 4U1UN indeed ☺️
@mattblaze@federate.social
I like this photo; the immense, almost stern, sterile wall, and then the tiny details that are signs of life.