West Side Residences
Kyle and Charles have both been doormen on 57th street for over 20 years, and therefore, they have observed much change that has occurred in the area regarding commercialization. Kyle works at Addison Hall on 10th Avenue and Charles works at Park Towers South on 8th Avenue. According to Kyle, he has seen the street change from an area “loaded with bums on the street” to an area that has some of the most desired real estate in the world. Charles believes that the area has drastically increased in value because of new buildings with extremely expensive units. Because the street is attracting more and more tourists, the west side is increasingly commercialized and more renovated. Kyle notes that many of the residents in Addison Hall have mentioned the newly opened Starbucks across the street, which he says, “actually raises the value of the area”. The Starbucks is a mark of sophistication, and also serves to attract more people to the west side of the street. In speaking about the residents of the buildings, Charles commented that he has noticed more and more Europeans moving into his building. Both Kyle and Charles also mentioned that more luxury apartment buildings are being built on the west side of 57th street, such as the One57 building, and therefore, the area is becoming increasingly attractive as a residential option.
After discussing with Kyle and Charles, I decided to interview a security guard from the One57 building on 7th avenue. This area, in contrast to the area around Addison Hall and Park Towers South, is extremely congested and packed with tourists and shoppers. Because of the commercialization and the rise of high-end retail shopping in the area, the sidewalk outside of One57 has a lot of foot traffic, and therefore, does not have the distinct residential feel that Addison Hall and Park Towers South had. However, according to the security guard, Andrew, the tourists are not really a bother to him or the residents, and that this situation represents how NYC has created a blend of the tourist culture and the residential atmosphere.
Coach Store and Fuller Building
The manager at the Coach store was not eager to answer my questions and was quite short with me. During the middle of the interview, she ran off to help a customer and then left us standing in the store for 10 minutes before telling us she didn’t “have time for this.” She did tell us, however, that she believes there is a fairly even 50-50 spread of customers being tourists and residents. The Fuller engineer told us that it seemed to him that it was difficult to differentiate between tourists and residents, but that he noticed that on the weekends, there was an increasing number of people walking their dogs and that the area was becoming more “family oriented,” particularly because of the locale being so close to Central Park. The resident confirmed this, saying “there’s definitely an interesting mix of people…different languages…you know? Everybody’s always doing something different.” On a separate day, I struck up a conversation with a tourist who was looking for the nearest train station. She said that she had just come from the MoMA a few blocks away and decided to take a walk past Madison Avenue. She said that there is something really intriguing about being in an area that is so hyped up and that her experience so far has been very positive.
Ironically, the Fuller Engineer said that on weekends, he’s not as eager to “run out of here” and that “the one good thing is, everybody’s always smiling; everybody wants to have a good time.” I found this funny, particularly because after we left him, we tried to conduct an interview with someone whose smile was not genuine, and it was clear that she was not interested in having a good time, or even helping us out.
Tiffany and Co. and Tourneau Building
As expected, it was a bit difficult to get people talk about the commercialization on 57th street because very few had substantial knowledge on the issue. It was challenging but I still picked up on a few facts that the store websites didn’t provide and were useful for our project. I had the opportunity to interview Ken, the elevator man at Tiffany and Co. who has been working there for nearly twenty years, Michael one of the workers at Tourneau, who has only been working there for about two years, and a tourist couple Lucia and Mario from Spain.
“What 57th street was like before it [Tiffanys] was built? I really wasn’t around,” Ken jokes. He let us know that Tiffany’s first location was way down at the tip of Manhattan. “At the time it was still pretty much woodlands up here [Midtown]. Central Park hasn’t even been built yet! However, as the city grew uptown Tiffany grew with it and this is its fifth location, actually. ” Michael told us that Tourneau had opened fairly recently in 2000. However, he let us know a bit more about the changing landscape and the surrounding stores “What was the Nike store before and the Trump tower used to be a very famous department store called Bonwit Teller.” In terms of real estate, on 57th Ken also let us know that the stores have shifted around a lot. Louis Vuitton across the street used to be a Warner Brothers store. He let us know that a huge mansion owned by the Vanderbilts was torn down to make way for Bergdorf Goodman store.
In regards to our issue, I asked Ken and Michael about the customers they get on a regular basis. They both gave similar responses. Ken mentioned that Tiffany attracted wide range of customers and that at any given time he might have French, Italian, Spanish, New Yorkers, Floridians in the elevator all at the same time. He says he enjoys the mix of people that come here and says it’s because it is a very culturally historic location. I asked, Lucia and Mario what they knew about Tiffany’s and they said with confidence said it was a film location for the movie Breakfast at Tiffany. I also followed up by asking if they had Tiffany’s in Spain. They said yes but it wasn’t as big. It’s safe to conclude that the store is a cultural icon. When I asked Michael to describe the customers he says it’s “a very eclectic mix. We have tourists. We have people that purchase watches on a regular basis that might cost between 100-500 dollars and we have people that purchase watches between 15k-300k dollars. Our sales vary.”
Carnegie Hall & The Russian Tea Room
As we expected with some our locations, it was very difficult to find people who were willing to give us the time of day to answer a few questions to provide us with information about the sites on our tour. As we walked into Carnegie Hall around lunch time, we did not expect to find anyone since there were no performances taking place at the time. However, as we walked in and stepped up to the information desk, we found a little old lady sitting behind a desk. The desk was covered in various brochures and souvenirs with “Carnegie Hall” printed across. The lady did not speak much but she did provide us with some information about the beginning of Carnegie Hall. She told us the story of “Mrs. Carnegie and her husband going on a honeymoon.” The idea of Carnegie Hall took form on the way to their honeymoon and the “rest was history,” she said. She quickly gestured at the brochures on the table, placed a button in my hand, and sent us on our way. With the information she provided, I was able to look deeper into the story of Mr. and Mrs. Carnegie and found out that Carnegie Hall did indeed originate aboard a ship on its way to Scotland.
Moving on to The Russian Tea Room next door to Carnegie Hall was less 
successful. Known to be a fine dining restaurant for the elite, we could not find anyone on the inside who was willing to speak with us. The decor we found on the inside, however, lived up to its stories I read online. Since I was not able to speak with anyone directly, I turned to the internet to see if I could find any reviews that would be of help. This is where I discovered that The Russian Tea Room was a lot more elite than I thought. Many people who dined here pointed out that it is not a restaurant someone visits on a regular basis but that it is more of a “bucket list item.” The Russian Tea Room has been the choice of fine dining in various well know shows, a.k.a Gossip Girl, and many visit to sit in the booth that Rick Hoffman once sat in.
