MRand

I've been to New York many times for business and pleasure, but somehow in these trips I've overlooked Madison Square and the park there. What an omission!

My wife and I were returning from a week in Italy and had 24 hours in New York before catching our plane home. (If you care to read about Florence at Christmas time this year, here is the trip report: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-reporting.cfm .) We stayed at the Fashion 26 hotel on W. 26th St. (liked it a lot) and walked over to Madison Square Park to split a cheeseburger, fries, and a shake at the Shake Shack there that we've recently heard so much about from friends and the media. Taking advantage of the unusually mild weather for this time of year, we sat outside at the Shack, enjoying the juicy burger and fries and the fabulous "Fair Shake" which they describe as a "vanilla shake spun with 100% certified organic Arabica fairly traded coffee." Wow -- and it's even a lot better than it sounds.

But what caught our eyes was staring up at the amazing architecture surrounding the park on its east and south sides. Sure we've seen the Flatiron Building before while zipping down to Lower Manhattan or up to Midtown, but we've never paid attention to its spectacular surroundings -- north to south: the New York Life Building (topped off with its immediately-recognizable dazzling gold pyramid I'd seen from other vantage points in the city), the squattier Metropolitan Life North Building (designed by one of the architects on the Rockefeller Center project -- you can see the influence), the Metropolitan Life Tower (based on the campanile in Piazza San Marco in Venice, the tower was the tallest building in the world from 1909-13), and the new dizzyingly pencil-thin 50-story One Madison Park high rise on the southeast end of the square ("precarious" comes to mind -- my first thought on looking up at it: damn, I hope there's not an earthquake here someday). And then of course on the southwest corner, the incomparable Flatiron Building.

We enjoyed it enough that we returned the following day for a repeat performance before heading to the airport to catch our plane. If you're visiting New York and enjoy good burgers and shakes, architecture, cool urban settings, or all three, we'd highly recommend a visit to the square and the park.

starrs

It was a bit freaky when we were there this spring, with the installation of Antony Gormley's sculptures everywhere. Honestly, it felt like a sci fi movie with an alien invasion.

http://eventhorizonnewyork.org/?loc=interstitialskip

Aduchamp1

And it was the home of the firs two Madison Square Gradens. And now Credit Suisse occupies the Met Life Buildings.

Jenski

Don't forget the new Mario Batali food Emporium called Eataly that is right there on Broadway and 23rd, I believe. Also, my favorite restaurant in the city borders Madison Square Park-11 Madison Park.

starrs

What's at 1 W 25th Street - and are the Christmas decorations still up in the second floor window? They were still up last March. That was so strange.

Aduchamp1

What's at 1 W 25th Street - and are the Christmas decorations still up in the second floor window? They were still up last March. That was so strange.

There's one in every neighborhood.

yk

When I was there back in Sept, there were lots of food stalls next to the park. Everything looked so good that I almost had to try one from each stall.

owlwoman

This is also the sight of the Big Apple BBQ every year, yes, it's a great park. MRand, I enjoyed the Florence report very much, I am so ready to take a trip back to Europe!

Aduchamp1

We tried to go to the BBQ but they wanted $125 just to could get on the vaarious lines, even though $100 could be used toward food.

bigbomoho

thanks i was wondering who the nude guy was on the top of the buildings when i was there July 4th

MRand

starrs - thanks for the link; those figures on the buildings in the area do look pretty bizarre.

ggreen

Well, you probably missed Madison Square Park because it used to be a sorry forgotten corner of the city, more occupied by old statues, pigeons and other squatters than anything particularly memorable or destination-worthy. It's been undergoing a slow transformation for the better part of the last six years...

The immediate vicinity to the west used to be the toy center of the city: where Home Depot now resides on 23rd Street was until recently Mattel's headquarters, and many others were scattered throughout. The annual toy fair always used to take place in the building on the west side of the park (where Eatery is now, on 5th Ave between 23rd and 24th Streets), but now I believe it's held in the Javits Center.

starrs, that place with the Christmas decorations has looked exactly the same way in all my 20 years here - I swear, not an item has changed in all that time. I've always assumed the business was a relic from the toy industry...

The Met Life "north" building is so squat because the intended design was never completed. It was supposed to be a tower with a shape like the Williamsburg Bank building (now condos) in Brooklyn, but the Depression hit and they stopped construction cold on about the 18th floor.
(Here's some photos of the Brooklyn building, an amazing structure in its own right, from Forgotten NY: http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%2...ie/willie.html )

MRand

ggreen -- apparently the Met Life North building was originally meant to be a 100-story skyscraper:

http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=8942

ggreen

Yes, amazing isn't it?! ...One of my first jobs in the city was a temp position at Met Life as they were transitioning out of that space about 20 years ago. They had an employee cafeteria in the basement with blueprints, architectural sketches, and old photos framed on the walls. I've been fascinated ever since!