An Art Deco globe illuminates a New York lobby

The 37-story New York Daily News building, at 220 East 42nd Street, is pure Art Deco beauty.

And it’s even more of a masterpiece thanks to the illuminated 12-foot globe that’s been revolving under a black glass dome in the lobby since 1930.

“Around it, spreading across the floor like a giant compass and literally positioning New York at the center of the world, bronze lines indicate mileage to various international destinations,” writes Fodors.com.

“The Daily News, however, hasn’t called this building home since the mid-1990s, 15 years after it played the offices of the fictional newspaper the Daily Planet in the original Superman movie.”

It attracts lots of gawkers today, just as it has for 80 years. [Image above courtesy of New York Architecture]

The mysterious working men on a Soho building

It’s Labor Day weekend, an appropriate time to showcase some lovely and mysterious bas reliefs.

They’re of artisans and workmen, and they decorate a Lower Sixth Avenue building at Watts Street.

The images line the facade. They depict men using pre-machine age tools to measure, mix, and sharpen.

Each one is certainly a testament to humanity’s ingenuity. But why here?

A little digging reveals some background. Designed by architect Ely Jacques Kahn in 1928, the 14-floor Art Deco loft was originally known as the Green Building.

Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find any record of previous early tenants that would shed light on why the bas reliefs were carved there.

A chemistry company? Toolmakers? Fabricators? Tthe images are striking and inspiring, especially in this no-man’s-land of West Soho.