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How is it attractive? It looks extremely oppressive. I remember coming by that building while walking through Manhattan by chance and thinking this must be some government surveillance center or something.
I can totally understand why one would dislike it, but personally I'm a huge huge fan. My favorite features: - the lack of glass gives the granite façade lots of space to shine. - the off-center elevator shafts on the building's two long sides prevents the entire building from being disorienting at street-level: https://i.imgur.com/DQdWQ36.jpg - the round-rect vent windows contrast with the sharp lines of the granite…
The roundrects give the design a deep kind of uncanny valley effect for me. They suggest some kind of human characteristic, either a hooded face or an orifice of some type, depending on the angle that you look at the building. From street level (e.g., your first photograph), it's like a series of six hooded figures, with another six hooded figures towering over those figures or standing on their backs.