The Ladies' Mile

Manhattan is filled with boring skyscraper boxes. But fortunately Manhattan is also filled with the buildings that predate the boring boxes, so there are many opportunities to see incredible decorative elements. But you may have to look up. Union Square doesn't have a lot of skyscrapers, but it does have many late 19th/early 20th century tall buildings that were the skyscrapers of their time. Retail shop remodeling on the ground floors has robbed some of the buildings' original details, but if you look up, the story is awfully entertaining and elegant. It's remarkable to see the practical application of the belief that even the skyscrapers-of-their-time should display the same level of detail that, for example, a highboy should. But you can't see this - unless you lookup. So I spent an afternoon a morning wandering around looking up. These buildings aren't being cited as unique. They're actually pretty typical. In many cases these late 19th, early 20th century smallish skyscrapers are…