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33 Thomas Street
- malexw 7y agoWhenever I hear about this building I can't help but be reminded of Geoff Manaugh's idea for a Ghostbusters III, where the Ghostbusters discover that the NYNEX telephone system is actually... well, I'll let you read it: http://www.bldgblog.com/tag/ghostbusters-iii/ http://www.bldgblog.com/tag/ghostbusters-iii/
- Sniffnoy 7y agoNote, that link is actually a link to a tag page; it just happens that the post you're trying to point out is the only post with that tag. The actual post link is here: http://www.bldgblog.com/2009/06/nynex-embedded-angel-of-new-york-city/ http://www.bldgblog.com/2009/06/nynex-embedded-angel-of-new-...
- mrmonkeyman 7y agoIf landlines are part of the subtle body of an angel, I wonder what wireless networks are the body of.
- d1str0 7y agoI too watched the latest Half as Interesting. :)
- danfraticiu 7y agoI too wanted to post this comment :)
- forgotmypw10 7y agoOne of my favorite buildings in downtown Manhattan.
- rdl 7y agoI like the "jenga building" near it, too. (56 Leonard)
- kevin_thibedeau 7y agoFinally getting it's sculpture installed years late.
- anonu 7y agoThat building is insane. Apartments are $3000 plus a sqft. There's not that many high rises in downtown Manhattan that command prices like that... Definitely on the high end. Not sure if you'd really want 33 Thomas as your main view though
- saagarjha 7y ago> The building has also been described as the likely location of a National Security Agency (NSA) mass surveillance hub codenamed TITANPOINTE. Of course it is…
- degenerate 7y agoRelated article from 2016 about the building: TITANPOINTE "Project X" https://theintercept.com/2016/11/16/the-nsas-spy-hub-in-new-york-hidden-in-plain-sight/ https://theintercept.com/2016/11/16/the-nsas-spy-hub-in-new-...
- whoisstan 7y agoCaptured those reflections on the building this morning, they look like a puzzle. https://www.flickr.com/photos/whoisstan/49074343638/in/dateposted-public/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/whoisstan/49074343638/in/datep...
- winrid 7y agoLooks like an alien language in The Fifth Element...
- pierrefar 7y agoLooks like the stages of mitosis (cell division): https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/mitosis-and-cell-division-205/ https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/mitosis-and-cell-d... The faint lines are the cell walls and the bright spots in the middle would be the DNA. I can believe this is what they're going for with a bit of squinting.
- gniv 7y agoWow, very nice photo. Are these the reflections of the windows from 220 Church Street?
- whoisstan 7y agoI only caught that while running by for a brisk morning jog. I didn’t pay much attention to the source.
- dillondoyle 7y agoCould it be part of Mr Robot ARG? I don't follow closely enough but it's final season and they have pretty in depth (and IRL) puzzles.
- zeroping 7y agoMan, I'd love to have a tour.
- etaioinshrdlu 7y agoI don't know why this type of building is even tolerable. What is this, the USSR? It looks like it could be the Ministry of Love...
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- whalesalad 7y agoA video all about this building was in my recommended YouTube yesterday. Deja vu.
- ddxxdd 7y agoDeja Vu is the feeling that a current event is identical to an event from memory. This is actually a Baader Meinhoff moment for you.
- visarga 7y agoLiterally it is correct - 'already seen'
- napsterbr 7y agoI just watched a similar (possibly the same) video 10 minutes ago. Imagine my surprise seeing it here :) Or actually, there's a good chance it was posted here because someone was recommended the same video and watched it.
- whalesalad 7y agoTotally. Makes you realize how simple it is to get ideas planted into your mind by others.
- walrus01 7y agoSee also, 60 hudson
- jrockway 7y agoIs 60 Hudson a notable spying location? I've been inside there and didn't even have to sign in, we just went right up to our cage. 111 8th Avenue has "National Security Agency" on the tenant directory you see when you walk in. Always thought it was weird that Google leased some of its building to the NSA after the Snowden leaks. (When I worked there, one of my pet projects was to remove the access codes for the bathrooms. Eventually it was escalated high enough and they told me that the NSA demanded it. The codes were like 1 3 5 and 2 4 6. I never understood the purpose other than to annoy me.)
- walrus01 7y ago60 hudson has many different tenants and many different colo facilities in it. What's going on will vary widely on a case by case basis. Regarding 111 8th a lot of the telecom tenants in it were in there before Google bought the building.
- busterarm 7y agoThe 10th avenue building Google also shares with the FBI (top floor). I've always thought that the FBI taking a floor in E-Corp's building in Mr Robot was a dig at Google because of this. The building one block north of there is the NYC DEA office.
- t34543 7y agoI’ve had space in 60 hudson, 111 8th, and 32 AoA. Far less mysterious and easy to get into. Although the facility I was in at 32 AoA apparently had a bunch of cross-atlantic fiber terminations via AC-1. I never saw anything ominous. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Crossing_1 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Crossing_1
- raverbashing 7y agoLegend says there is a building of such importance in central London but of course it's officially denied (or at least was) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BT_Tower https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BT_Tower
- rasz 7y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_(video_game) used this building as an inspiration for 'The Oldest House'
- fonkyyack 7y agoExactly what I though! I finished Control about a week ago so it's still fresh in my mind. (great game tho)
- gmueckl 7y agoYou barely get to see the outside of "The Oldest House" in that game. But the interior spaces designed in that game are something else. It's almost entirely white light on concrete, but the mileage they get out of that is amazing.
- Jerry2 7y agoThis video about 33 Thomas St building was awesome: >Field of Vision - Project X https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOJugaGK0eU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOJugaGK0eU >A top-secret handbook takes viewers on an undercover journey to Titanpointe, the site of a hidden partnership. Narrated by Rami Malek and Michelle Williams, and based on classified NSA documents, Project X reveals the inner workings of a windowless skyscraper in downtown Manhattan. >Directed by Laura Poitras and Henrik Moltke.
- obituary_latte 7y agoI came across this video from the linked Wikipedia article. It’s a good video but lacks much detail IMO. I was hoping for something longer and more in depth (although it did lead me down a rabbit hole of Field of Vision videos which are all excellent). Does anyone know of more detailed vids about the building? The suggested YouTube videos didn’t offer much.
- dmix 7y agohttps://theintercept.com/2016/11/16/the-nsas-spy-hub-in-new-york-hidden-in-plain-sight/ https://theintercept.com/2016/11/16/the-nsas-spy-hub-in-new-...
- scrollaway 7y agoI guess the OP found out about it through Half as Interesting's most recent video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=kF4EUM8CwT4 https://youtube.com/watch?v=kF4EUM8CwT4 I recommend that channel. It's the same guy who runs Wendover Productions.
- thdrdt 7y agoBrutalism is a strange style. It alienates but I always feel it is closer to humans than most modern buildings.
- keiferski 7y agoI've often thought similar things. I think it's because in comparison to many glass modern buildings, Brutalist ones tend to age in way that appears more organic. They also don't tend to have a ton of windows, which is more inline with historical architecture.
- thdrdt 7y agoYes, I also think that stone and rock (concrete) feel more natural than glass.
- hnarn 7y agoI think someone here on HN actually wrote in regards to the post about "facading" (keeping the facade, tearing down the building behind it) that the difference between concrete and stone, and steel and glass, is that stone and concrete invites you to touch it. There's something cold and alien about steel and glass that makes even a concrete wall feel inviting. It's also not transparent, feels more solid, and is much closer to our "mud hut" past than any modern office complex. Sure, brutalist buildings can look... brutal. But I've always felt that the surrounding area, the colors and the interior design makes more difference than anything. You could definitely make a brutalist neighborhood feel much more alive and inviting if you just paid attention to those things than an ice cold, modern investment bank sky scraper.
- Merrill 7y agoThere is also no practical reason to have windows in a telephone equipment building. They cannot be opened to cool, they only would light a limited area along the wall. The entire building must be air conditioned, and lighting is only turned on when people are in the equipment aisles. Warehouses and data centers are the same, except that they don't attract attention since they are low horizontal structures with much more utilitarian cladding. The most interesting telecom buildings are the ones underground.
- anonu 7y agoIt was the Snowden leak that confirmed it was an nsa site.
- fourthark 7y agoTo be fair, there are a lot of NSA sites. This one just looks impressive.
- fit2rule 7y agoSee also One Wilshire Blvd, in downtown LA, which has been widely known as a CIA listening point for the entire Oceania/Pacific region for years ..
- martyvis 7y agoAll major cities seemed to end up with similar facilities at end of the 1970s to cope with the exponential reach of telecommunications at that point. In Australia, Melbourne has 320 Exhibition Street http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/telstra-exhibition-exchange/19804 http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/telstra-exhibition-... and in Sydney, the Kent St Exchange Telstra Kent Telephone Exchange 95/105A Clarence St, Sydney NSW 2000 https://g.co/kgs/3ifj5d https://g.co/kgs/3ifj5d (At least they both have windows - I've been in Exhibition and they do function )
- oogali 7y agoWhile just as impressive, that Telstra exchange point is more similar to Verizon's building at 375 Pearl Street [than 33 Thomas] which held local Verizon local switching facilities for many years (f/k/a Bell Atlantic, f/k/a NYNEX, f/k/a New York Telephone). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/375_Pearl_Street https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/375_Pearl_Street
- arbuge 7y agoThis is the one in Dallas: https://www.dallasnews.com/business/local-companies/2018/06/27/ugly-dallas-att-building-is-one-of-several-used-in-nsa-s-secret-spy-program-report-says/ https://www.dallasnews.com/business/local-companies/2018/06/...
- jimnotgym 7y agoI find it funny that brutalist buildings always remind me of Nineteen Eighty Four. It is amusing then you find out it may be a hub of mass surveillance.
- 52-6F-62 7y agoOn the other hand, Roberts Library at U of Toronto is a haven and protectorate for knowledge and rare books. And it looks like a fortress! It’s one of my favourite buildings and one of my first stops in the event of a sci-fi-level zombie Armageddon. https://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/libraryphotos/robarts-library_0.jpg?itok=T7gmCpL0 https://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/sites/default/files/st... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Fisher_Rare_Book_Library https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Fisher_Rare_Book_Libr...
- chacha2 7y agoLooks like a Turkey.
- Merrill 7y agoThe 18 foot ceilings accommodated the then standard 11 foot, 6 inch equipment racks, with space overhead for cable racks, bus bars, AC ducts, etc. It was built about the time that the standard was changed to 7 foot racks for the new electronic switching systems.
- carterschonwald 7y agoi actually was in that building to meet a friend one time (he was working at ATT labs at the time). the spinning door into the lobby is the most intensely rugged/durable looking thing i've ever seen, and every door was electronic lock access only. lack of windows aside, a neat space!
- skizm 7y agoIsn’t there another one of these in Hell’s Kitchen area? I used to live right next to it.
- stevespang 7y ago"The building has also been described as the likely location of a National Security Agency (NSA) mass surveillance hub codenamed TITANPOINTE.[1]"
- rb808 7y ago>SKIDROWE As someone who always struggles coming up with names, this acronym(?) is awesome.