How the Rockefeller does Central Park:

© Christine Mastroianni, all rights reserved

I am sitting here at my computer on a routine weekday evening gazing at this picture thinking "was it all a dream?" Okay, not really.. I know full well that my recent adventure to the Big Apple was rivetingly pure wide-eyed, adrenaline-fueled reality. But it was such a quick intense blast of New York magnificence that it almost seems dreamlike. My quiet little home city would have building envy if it knew what I was up to over the weekend.


Up to 70 floors, to be accurate - 67 by way of high speed elevator (complete with glass ceiling!), 2 by escalator, and the last by cement steps. The very highest platform comes with the best views because not only are you looking down over everything, including other sightseers, but your eyes are refreshingly unrestrained. There is no safety glass surrounding you up there, only a cement "railing" that reaches mid-waist - permissible, I suspect, because if you were so inclined or so unfortunate to scale that wall, you would only fall a few feet down to the lower viewing platform. And while I shudder at the thought of falling anywhere while standing 85 feet above the Avenue of the Americas, I was exhilerated and content to be standing there.


It was suppertime when I took this photo, this evidence of a venue that I was finally able to check off my NYC "must see" list: the perfectly rectangular mass of greenspace that is Central Park tightly nestled within a sea of concrete and rebar and glass. I love how it seems to just exist comfortably, unintimidated by the stature of its surrounding neighbours, proudly retaining its natural (albeit artificially originated) woodland escape kept safe from adept and opportunistic developers who must drool over this thankfully protected mass of real estate.


I located an empty spot at one of the few benches on the deck and sat down to drink in the view. I had been mesmerised by what I saw as I peered over each side of the tower's petal-like edging, but this one was my favourite. It's just so surreal; I'd taken a rickshaw through this same park during a previous trip, but it's a different place entirely from this angle! It even sounded surreal: the noise constantly created by all the traffic and other activity taking place at street level swirled up softly, magically filtered by the atmosphere with only a few sirens escaping from an otherwise peaceful cadence.


So contrary to popular convention, if it sounds like a dream, looks like a dream, and feels like a dream... it still just might be real!