785 Eighth Avenue - 40-story Condo - Theater District - by Ismael Leyva Architects

**lofter1** · May 7th, 2009, 06:15 PM

Originally Posted by Fabrizio

I Madison Sq. is a beautiful, thoughtful building... but make one of it's sides a blank, painted, concrete wall and it would be ugly too.

1 Mad has a version of one of those big blank walls -- it faces south and is on full view from Union Square.
Fortunately they weren't so cheap as the gang from Escalade and covered the concrete with attractive panels.

I MAd Park tower under construction:

More recntly, with the paneling going on:

1 Madison Park

**lofter1** · May 7th, 2009, 07:01 PM

Geez, my typing is atrocious

**spatulashack** · May 8th, 2009, 11:44 AM

I got a new job near the upper floors of Worldwide Plaza and I have a direct view of the blank wall. Over the last few days there have been workers drilling holes into the concrete. About 1/3 of the blank wall is now covered with spaced-out holes. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up but there is seriously something going on. Could they be getting ready to clad this baby? I tried taking a picture with my iPhone but the holes are too small to come out clearly.

**ablarc** · May 9th, 2009, 09:46 AM

Originally Posted by spatulashack

Could they be getting ready to clad this baby?

Woild be an improvement, but do they really need to spend the money? The paint job looked like it did a pretty good job of taking off the curse.

**Alonzo-ny** · May 9th, 2009, 02:10 PM

It definitely didnt.

**spatulashack** · May 11th, 2009, 06:01 PM

Originally Posted by Alonzo-ny

It definitely didnt.

Agreed. The pictures make it look better than it does in person. Viewed from the Worldwide Plaza courtyard it still looks like the building is under construction.

**BrooklynRider** · May 11th, 2009, 06:05 PM

Maybe they have plans to use the side of the building as a billboard / advertising space. It is the Theater District.

**spatulashack** · May 18th, 2009, 11:28 AM

It appears they are breaking up the dark grey part of the blank wall with thin black lines to give it the appearance of tiled panneling. I took a picture but it's hard to see. Either way, they are still working on making it less hideous.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink

**lofter1** · May 20th, 2009, 07:46 PM

The lobby at 306 West 46th looks to be nearly done.

That sidewalk shed has been up for nearly three years. it will be good to have it come down ...

The lobby ceiling seems to be mostly glass ...

Hard to see inside with the brown paper up, but where there's a crack ...

The storefront on Eighth will be all glass ...

Up above it does indeed appear that they've added vertical micro-striping to the concrete wall ...

But it might simply be shadows from incisions left by the concrete forms ...

Under cloudy skies this one looks as mean and nasty as can be ...

785 Eighth - Leyva

**rlrl** · May 25th, 2009, 08:09 PM

describe what 8th Avenue was like between 47th and 50th streets say 30 years ago? Obviously there were no Worldwide Plaza's or superfingers like now but was it a section that people avoided, was it safe during the day? At night? A lot of trouble or just bland? Was the big open parking lot that eventually became WWP a source of trouble? Was the Ramada at 790 a fleatrap or was it a decent legit pace for tourists? What was 785 30 years ago?

**scumonkey** · May 25th, 2009, 08:40 PM

redlight district - safe depended on what you looked like, and how you carried yourself

**rlrl** · May 25th, 2009, 09:27 PM

was 47-50th as bad as farther down by say 43-44th? or less dense? Did the prostitution spill over onto the theater sidestreets (like over by mama leone's or the theaters themselves) or was it pretty much confined to 8th?

**BrooklynRider** · May 25th, 2009, 10:51 PM

That area had some of the best / most notorious x-rated movie theaters and my recollection is that drugs and prostitution were more rampant on Eighth Avenue than on 42nd Street.

**ZippyTheChimp** · May 26th, 2009, 06:44 AM

8th Ave north of 42nd for about 10 blocks was in the 70s known as the "Minnesota Strip." It became the epicenter of degeneracy and the decay of morality in urban America.

Partly the passage of tough prostitution laws in some Midwestern states (mandatory 90 day sentence for 2nd offense in MN), and partly the allure of a career on Broadway, the area attracted pretty young runaways from the heartland. Broadway "producers" and "agents" were ready to pounce when they arrived at the PABT.

I think the NYPD anti-prostitution unit gave the area the nickname.

Taxi Driver, Jodie Foster. It was real.

**rlrl** · May 26th, 2009, 10:01 PM

48th street between 8th and 9th like 30 years ago? recently my brother stayed at the Belvedere Hotel at 319 W 48th and the hotel and street was really nice. i have parked on that block for the past 15 years and it has always seemed decent. However I am wondering what the Belvedere Hotel was like 30 years ago and what the general condition of the street was like. Maybe not so bad, since the school and discoteque was always there?