33 Thomas Street | Hacker News Reader

33 Thomas Street

en.wikipedia.org

156 pointsjawns59 comments

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Captured those reflections on the building this morning, they look like a puzzle.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/whoisstan/49074343638/in/datep...

Looks like an alien language in The Fifth Element...

Looks like the stages of mitosis (cell division):

https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/mitosis-and-cell-d...

The faint lines are the cell walls and the bright spots in the middle would be the DNA. I can believe this is what they're going for with a bit of squinting.

Wow, very nice photo. Are these the reflections of the windows from 220 Church Street?

I only caught that while running by for a brisk morning jog. I didn’t pay much attention to the source.

Could it be part of Mr Robot ARG? I don't follow closely enough but it's final season and they have pretty in depth (and IRL) puzzles.

This video about 33 Thomas St building was awesome:

>Field of Vision - Project X

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOJugaGK0eU

>A top-secret handbook takes viewers on an undercover journey to Titanpointe, the site of a hidden partnership. Narrated by Rami Malek and Michelle Williams, and based on classified NSA documents, Project X reveals the inner workings of a windowless skyscraper in downtown Manhattan.

>Directed by Laura Poitras and Henrik Moltke.

I came across this video from the linked Wikipedia article. It’s a good video but lacks much detail IMO. I was hoping for something longer and more in depth (although it did lead me down a rabbit hole of Field of Vision videos which are all excellent). Does anyone know of more detailed vids about the building? The suggested YouTube videos didn’t offer much.

https://theintercept.com/2016/11/16/the-nsas-spy-hub-in-new-...

I guess the OP found out about it through Half as Interesting's most recent video:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=kF4EUM8CwT4

I recommend that channel. It's the same guy who runs Wendover Productions.

Whenever I hear about this building I can't help but be reminded of Geoff Manaugh's idea for a Ghostbusters III, where the Ghostbusters discover that the NYNEX telephone system is actually... well, I'll let you read it: http://www.bldgblog.com/tag/ghostbusters-iii/

Note, that link is actually a link to a tag page; it just happens that the post you're trying to point out is the only post with that tag. The actual post link is here: http://www.bldgblog.com/2009/06/nynex-embedded-angel-of-new-...

If landlines are part of the subtle body of an angel, I wonder what wireless networks are the body of.

The 18 foot ceilings accommodated the then standard 11 foot, 6 inch equipment racks, with space overhead for cable racks, bus bars, AC ducts, etc. It was built about the time that the standard was changed to 7 foot racks for the new electronic switching systems.

Brutalism is a strange style. It alienates but I always feel it is closer to humans than most modern buildings.

I've often thought similar things. I think it's because in comparison to many glass modern buildings, Brutalist ones tend to age in way that appears more organic. They also don't tend to have a ton of windows, which is more inline with historical architecture.

Yes, I also think that stone and rock (concrete) feel more natural than glass.

I think someone here on HN actually wrote in regards to the post about "facading" (keeping the facade, tearing down the building behind it) that the difference between concrete and stone, and steel and glass, is that stone and concrete invites you to touch it. There's something cold and alien about steel and glass that makes even a concrete wall feel inviting. It's also not transparent, feels more solid, and is much closer to our "mud hut" past than any modern office complex.

Sure, brutalist buildings can look... brutal. But I've always felt that the surrounding area, the colors and the interior design makes more difference than anything. You could definitely make a brutalist neighborhood feel much more alive and inviting if you just paid attention to those things than an ice cold, modern investment bank sky scraper.

There is also no practical reason to have windows in a telephone equipment building. They cannot be opened to cool, they only would light a limited area along the wall. The entire building must be air conditioned, and lighting is only turned on when people are in the equipment aisles.

Warehouses and data centers are the same, except that they don't attract attention since they are low horizontal structures with much more utilitarian cladding.

The most interesting telecom buildings are the ones underground.

This one lacks windows because it was built to withstand a nuclear war.

“But it’s downtown” you say. “No way it would withstand a direct hit.”

Rumor I heard is that they thought for sure they would have SDI protecting Manhattan, and this is only supposed to survive a hit on Queens or Newark or something.

Crazy!

I don't know if this building was intentionally built in the Brutalist style, or ended up that way because of the requirement that it survive a nuclear attack and budget constraints.

I've never thought it was particularly alienating. Chicago's Marina City is brutalist and very iconic!

I would say it's more alien than alienating. Good brutalist structures always look uncomfortably orgianic which I quite like.

I too watched the latest Half as Interesting. :)

I too wanted to post this comment :)

All major cities seemed to end up with similar facilities at end of the 1970s to cope with the exponential reach of telecommunications at that point. In Australia, Melbourne has 320 Exhibition Street http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/telstra-exhibition-... and in Sydney, the Kent St Exchange Telstra Kent Telephone Exchange

95/105A Clarence St, Sydney NSW 2000 https://g.co/kgs/3ifj5d

(At least they both have windows - I've been in Exhibition and they do function )

While just as impressive, that Telstra exchange point is more similar to Verizon's building at 375 Pearl Street [than 33 Thomas] which held local Verizon local switching facilities for many years (f/k/a Bell Atlantic, f/k/a NYNEX, f/k/a New York Telephone).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/375_Pearl_Street

This is the one in Dallas:

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/local-companies/2018/06/...

Related article from 2016 about the building: TITANPOINTE "Project X"

https://theintercept.com/2016/11/16/the-nsas-spy-hub-in-new-...

I find it funny that brutalist buildings always remind me of Nineteen Eighty Four. It is amusing then you find out it may be a hub of mass surveillance.

On the other hand, Roberts Library at U of Toronto is a haven and protectorate for knowledge and rare books. And it looks like a fortress! It’s one of my favourite buildings and one of my first stops in the event of a sci-fi-level zombie Armageddon.

https://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/sites/default/files/st...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Fisher_Rare_Book_Libr...

Looks like a Turkey.

Legend says there is a building of such importance in central London but of course it's officially denied (or at least was) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BT_Tower

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_(video_game) used this building as an inspiration for 'The Oldest House'

Exactly what I though! I finished Control about a week ago so it's still fresh in my mind. (great game tho)

You barely get to see the outside of "The Oldest House" in that game. But the interior spaces designed in that game are something else. It's almost entirely white light on concrete, but the mileage they get out of that is amazing.

It was the Snowden leak that confirmed it was an nsa site.

To be fair, there are a lot of NSA sites. This one just looks impressive.

i actually was in that building to meet a friend one time (he was working at ATT labs at the time).

the spinning door into the lobby is the most intensely rugged/durable looking thing i've ever seen, and every door was electronic lock access only.

lack of windows aside, a neat space!

See also One Wilshire Blvd, in downtown LA, which has been widely known as a CIA listening point for the entire Oceania/Pacific region for years ..

Isn’t there another one of these in Hell’s Kitchen area? I used to live right next to it.

Man, I'd love to have a tour.

A video all about this building was in my recommended YouTube yesterday. Deja vu.

Deja Vu is the feeling that a current event is identical to an event from memory.

This is actually a Baader Meinhoff moment for you.

Literally it is correct - 'already seen'

I just watched a similar (possibly the same) video 10 minutes ago. Imagine my surprise seeing it here :)

Or actually, there's a good chance it was posted here because someone was recommended the same video and watched it.

Totally. Makes you realize how simple it is to get ideas planted into your mind by others.

>SKIDROWE

As someone who always struggles coming up with names, this acronym(?) is awesome.

> The building has also been described as the likely location of a National Security Agency (NSA) mass surveillance hub codenamed TITANPOINTE.

Of course it is…