Since New York’s earliest days, church organizations have held a considerable amount of the city’s real estate, which they use not only for direct religious services, but also as a means of generating income. Over the past year, we witnessed the destruction of one of the oldest properties of the kind, as the 119 year old Bancroft Building has been reduced to a pile of red brick rubble.
Satellite skylines across the water from Manhattan are a curious phenomenon: they appear to stay frozen in time for decades until they hit sudden, and typically large, growth spurts. As Lower Manhattan was still reeling from the tragedy of 9/11, Jersey City sprouted a forest of cranes. East of the Financial District, the current decade has ushered Downtown Brooklyn’s skyscraper renaissance, as its solitary peaks are now morphing into manmade canyons. Yet as 2015 draws to a close, Long Island City is set to command development watchers’ attention, and the region’s perpetual skyline underdog is about to undergo a complete overhaul.