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Hearst Tower, New York

Foster's Hearst Tower opened officially on 9 October with a gala celebration. The 46-storey glass-and-steel world headquarters tower rising 597 feet from within its landmark six-story base on Eighth Avenue now houses 2,000 New York City-based Hearst employees. The tower rises dramatically above Joseph Urban’s existing six-storey Art Deco building. Designed to consume significantly less energy, Hearst Tower is utilising outside air ventilation for up to 75% of the year and is a model of sustainable office design. The tower has a triangulated form with its corners peeled back, the effect emphasises the building's vertical proportions and creates a distinctive facetted silhouette on the skyline that reveals unique views across the Manhattan grid. Establishing a creative dialogue between old and new, the tower is linked to the existing building by a transparent skirt of glass which floods the spaces below with natural light, giving the impression of a glass tower floating weightlessly above.

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Columbia University Invites Ahmadinejad to Speak

Columbia University has invited the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to give a speech tomorrow at the Morningside campus, Columbia's president, Lee Bollinger, announced late last night. Mr. Bollinger in a statement said he did not invite the president himself but learned yesterday that his university had extended the invitation to Mr. Ahmadinejad, who is in New York City for the U.N. General Assembly.

Statistics Show Big Jump for City in Fall Allergies

New York City now ranks as the 11th worst city for fall allergies, a significant drop from its ranking last year, 73rd, according to a study released yesterday by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. While New York was the only city among the 20 lowest-ranked with a better than average pollen level, allergy sufferers' heavy use of multiple medications and limited access to doctors led to the city's low score.

[mp3] MET Podcast: Tradition & Transgression in British Fashion

Experience a new dimension of AngloMania through the commentary of punk legend John Rotten as he relates fashion of necessity to social structures and the bravado of the individual.
Link: http://www.metmuseum.org/audio/exhibitions/mmaExhibPodcast.05012006.mp3

[mp3] MET Podcast: Samuel Palmer: Vision and Landscape

Delve into the Romantic Era of Samuel Palmer with Museum Director Phillippe de Montebello and selected poetry by Milton.
http://www.metmuseum.org/audio/exhibitions/mmaExhibPodcast.03142006.mp3

City Picks Company To Create Wireless Public Safety Network

The city has awarded the defense company Northrop Grumman a $500 million contract to create a wireless network that will allow emergency responders to download fingerprints, mug shots, anti-terrorism databases, and other materials while in the field. The five-year contract, announced yesterday by Mayor Bloomberg, will significantly upgrade the city's existing emergency technology in a post-September 11th world where terrorism is a constant concern. The award is a coup for Northrop Grumman.

Famous Architects Unveil Plans for World Trade Center

The designs for three of the skyscrapers that will eventually occupy the World Trade Center site were unveiled yesterday, just days before the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. Designed by three of the world's most famous architects, the soaring glass-and-steel structures represent major progress for a site that has long lain fallow and has become a source of intense dispute.They were unveiled by the developer Larry Silverstein on the 52nd floor of Seven World Trade

Verizon Seeks Piece of City's Cable Pie

The companies that offer cable television services in the city should be kicked off "Easy Street," an executive with the telecommunications giant Verizon says. At a City Council hearing yesterday, the executive, Thomas Dunne, said that if his company is granted a cable franchise, the prices New Yorkers have been paying to get wired up at home will almost certainly decrease. "Today New York City residents have but one choice for a wireline cable provider"

H&R Block Says Spitzer Overstepped

Saying that Attorney General Eliot Spitzer had overstepped his jurisdiction, an attorney for tax-preparation giant H&R Block asked a judge yesterday to dismiss much of a lawsuit Mr. Spitzer filed against the company. In March, Mr. Spitzer filed suit in state Supreme Court accusing the Kansas City, Mo.-based company of steering hundreds of thousands of customers toward faulty retirement accounts. Poorer customers with less money to contribute were guaranteed to lose money due to hidden fees.

5 Years Later, Forgotten Lessons

On Sunday, the day before the fifth anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center, the Twin Towers Alliance (www.twintowersalliance.com) is holding a rally at Central Park's Naumberg bandshell at 4 p.m. Although the organization is waging what some may see as a hopeless battle, I completely support its position that unless the twin towers rise again, the terrorists will have won. Had a rally been held in the months after September 11, 2001, the response would have been enormous, because