Boy, there's a real fuss going on in New York over a building. There's arguing about religious overtones, how the new building is just two blocks away from the other building, and the first building should be considered like sacred ground. Mayor Bloomberg is in favor of building it, the community zoning board seems to be for it and the developer for the new building doesn't want to move it elsewhere.
In fact, the debate is getting so heated; it threatens to take the mosque controversy off the front pages. What? You thought I was already talking about the mosque? Boy, you sure don't understand New York, do you? No, it's a different building and similar issues.
Let's introduce the combatants. In one corner is Anthony Malkin, owner of the Empire State Building. In the other is Steve Roth of Vornado, who wants to put up a tower almost the same height as the Empire State Building a mere two blocks away at the site of the former Hotel Pennsylvania. The new building would be known as 15 Penn Plaza.
So, why all the fuss? Malkin thinks the new building would block the view of the old building and change the skyline for the worse. Go ahead, build it, he says - just somewhere else. In other words, the Empire State Building is New York. It's sacred. We don't want Newark residents looking over the river and seeing a different building and maybe just a few feet of our mast sticking out above it. That's sacrilege.
There are a few religious overtones to the story too. Malkin is the guy who refused to light up the Empire State Building lights to honor Mother Theresa, so he's not that well liked. Also, in a reverse situation from the mosque issue, the new building will be erected next to a religious structure. In this case, the religious structure is not a mosque, but rather the New Yorker Hotel - which is the United States headquarters for the World Unification Church run by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, a/k/a the Moonies. You may have heard of this Hotel - A Fordham University co-ed is suing them - not for religious oppression, but for bedbugs in the rooms. The Empire State Building also had a recent run-in with a bedbug problem. No doubt the new tower will too. Maybe someday the meek shall inherit the earth, but they'll still be bitten up by bedbugs.
I think there's a different psychology at stake. When the Twin Towers went down, the ESB once again became the city's tallest building. Although the new building will be about 25 feet shorter, who is to say that couldn't change? The ESB owes some of its height to a mast from which television and radio signals are transmitted. If some networks decide the signal is not good enough because it's blocked by the new building, they may want to relocate their transmitters to the new building, and the new building could put up a mast that would make it taller than the ESB. There is a historical precedent for this type of thinking. At one time, several building developers were in a race to build New York's tallest building. One was Walter Chrysler and another was the Bank of Manhattan building at 40 Wall Street. Chrysler secretly built his building's tall spine mast inside the building and overnight raised it through the hole in the roof making the Chrysler Building the city's tallest building for eleven months. Who beat Chrysler? The third developer. The Empire State Building, of course.
I think someone's over-compensating for something, don't you?
Eventually, all will be sorted out and the building will be built. The only question is what would happen if a mosque decides to rent out the top floors?
Marvin Wolf is a bankruptcy attorney who is a regular contributor to Local Talk. This article provides legal information, news and individual humorous opinion, and not legal advice. Mr. Wolf can be contacted through his office at (973) 735-2740 or his website www.wolfprotect.com.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
