Street Photography
November 19, 2012

Construction, 42nd Street

http://www.jamesmaherphotography.com/images/0000/4275/construction.jpg

1/200th at F7.1, ISO 1600 (28mm).

It's pretty unreal what goes into creating a building of this size.  Sara's an urban planner, and from what I've seen, the hardest aspect of creating a building like this is the initial planning.  For some of the massive buildings, it can take 5-10 years, just for that.

 


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4 Comments for "Construction, 42nd Street"
Karen says:
November 19, 2012 10:27
It's very true, there is a lot of planning required for all stages. The urban planning part can often can go unnoticed, most people never see what they do and how much needs to be considered. You and Sara will be able to walk the streets and tell your kids some amazing stories in the future about buildings or parks that almost weren't, challenges in maintaining the balance between commerce and community. Shots like these are great in that they document the process. I take a lot of construction shots. It's so easy to forget what was there, or how long the process took when you're passing a building every day five years after completion.
James Maher says:
November 19, 2012 13:29
Karen aren't you an engineer? Yeah, the planning, detail, and amount of people that go into every stage of creating these buildings is just incredible.
Karen says:
November 19, 2012 16:38
Haha, yeah, I took Civil and Petroleum Engineering. I've worked in both disciplines, currently in civil. I'm a little biased to the classic icon and construction shots but I love the story the street photography tells over time. Tell Sara I really think urban planning is under valued in the whole process. It's a very important part. It's easy to see what I do, there's a structure left behind to show for it but people rarely think about all the planning it took to make it possible. If you're in the industry I think it makes you think about it a bit more. I try to think about every part of the process and I have a huge respect for the trades. Without them, we'd just have a pile of papers on our desks. Nothing would ever really get built. I recently went to a reception for a building opening and they had interesting stats on man hours, miles or cable, weight of steel and volumes of concrete used in the project hanging from the exposed beams.
James Maher says:
November 19, 2012 22:32
They really are. Sara does affordable housing for the city (HPD) so there's even more hurdles and things to figure out. To be honest I still don't exactly know what she does!