The street, the plaza and the calendar
Walk out of the front doors and the outside is its own world: a street that runs 200 feet each way, a park across it, a garage underneath, and a building that changes its decorations with the date. The date today is October 28, so the pumpkins are out.
The street is a separate world on the same canvas as the building. Its coordinates match the floor plan, so the lift in the garage, the front doors and the facade line up with the floors above them.
The street and the park
The street runs east and west in front of the building and is 34 feet wide. A parking lane takes 8 feet at each curb, and the two travel lanes meet at a double yellow line. Traffic keeps right. A crosswalk sits west of the building, with a signal on a 44 second cycle: green for 24 seconds, yellow for 4, red for 16, and the walk light on for the first 12 seconds of the red. The cars obey it. A car that would reach the stop bar on red stops there, and the cars behind it queue a gap apart. Cars enter at one end and leave at the other, a little past the edge of the world. A few more stand parked at the curb.
Across the street is a far sidewalk, then a park that runs back 134 feet to a hedge. A path leads from the crosswalk up to a round plaza 52 feet across, with a fountain 16 feet across at its centre. The fountain runs a 75 second show on every quarter hour after dark and a quiet preview in between. Two benches stand by it. A third bench at the west end of the park faces the building, and if you stand behind it you are looking at the observatory dome over the parapet. The bench is there for that view.
The plaza round the building has trees in round planters that you walk round, long low planters either side of the entrance, street lights along both curbs, a hydrant and a few bins. The park has a gap in its west hedge with brick piers, which is the way to the campus. A gap in the north hedge, in line with the plaza, leads to Ironfall Park. The mall has its own doors, and you reach them from the street.
People, traffic and the garage
The people outside keep street hours: every day from 8:00 to 23:00 New York time, wider than the office’s 10:00 to 14:00 on weekdays. After 23:00 the people go home, and the pigeons roost.
Who is out there:
- A doorman under the canopy, east of the doors, who nods to anyone within 10 feet.
- A street performer on the wide sidewalk west of the doors, with a stool and an open case in front.
- A hot dog cart on the plaza, west of the fountain, with its umbrella and its steam.
- A green newsstand on the east side of the plaza, with its racks facing the fountain.
- Taco Orbit, a taco truck at the curb west of the crosswalk, with a queue at the window.
- A dog walker on a slow ring round the plaza, 36 feet out from the fountain, who stops now and then to sniff.
- Thirteen pigeons. Two perch on the fountain rim. Walk within 8 feet of the rest and they fly up and land 10 to 16 feet away.
When it rains, the people out in the open put their umbrellas up. The weather is New York’s current weather, and it also darkens the sky, wets the street and puts droplets on the office glass. A storm brings lightning.
The garage is two decks under the plaza, B and C, one floor apart. A trench beside the building runs down from the apron, east of the doors, to deck B. A barrier arm and a ticket booth with an attendant stand at the top, and a ticket machine stands beside the barrier. A ramp down the west side joins the two decks. Cars stand in the bays, and a valet works on B, walking a loop from a key podium past one parked car. The lift reaches the garage too. Shift+B and Shift+C in the car change deck, and a floor key takes you back up.
The building dresses itself by the calendar
The date is New York time. The decorations are built only for the seasons that are up, so a Halloween pumpkin does not exist in March, not even hidden. Out of season, nothing is made.
| Season | From | To |
|---|---|---|
| Halloween | October 15 | October 31 |
| Thanksgiving | November 1 | Fourth Thursday of November |
| Winter | Day after Thanksgiving | January 1 |
| New Year | December 31 | January 1 |
| Valentine’s Day | February 7 | February 14 |
| St Patrick’s Day | March 10 | March 17 |
| Fourth of July | June 28 | July 4 |
Right now it is Halloween. Carved pumpkins stand by the doors and along both planters, and the faces glow after dark. A scarecrow stands on the west lawn of the park, facing the street. Beside the revolving door a hay bale carries a straw figure, with gourds next to it. The lobby and the church are dressed too.
Thanksgiving swaps these for hay bales, pumpkins, pots of mums and corn stalks. Winter brings wreaths on the door and the band over the glass, snow, a menorah in a third-floor window, and lights on the canopy and on seven of the trees. Valentine’s Day puts hearts on the doors, St Patrick’s Day shamrocks, and the Fourth of July bunting along the canopy.
Fireworks and the rest of the clock
The fireworks follow the same calendar.
- Fridays: a 150 second show on the hour and the half hour from sunset to midnight. A 40 second burst goes off at 14:00 when the office closes.
- July 4: the same evening shows, on any day.
- January 1: a 12 minute show from midnight, with a 40 second finale.
There are four kinds of shell: a peony, a ring, a willow that droops in slow gold, and a crackle of flickering white. FlameNet orange comes first. Every shell’s launch time, place and colour comes from its index, so the show looks the same from wherever you stand, and the booms arrive late by the time sound takes to travel.
Two lots flank the building and keep their own hours. The west one is a complex with a pocket garden, a farmers’ market on Saturdays from 8:00 to 1:00, courts and a lawn cinema that plays after dark. The east one, past the garage ramp, is a stadium. It has a practice on Monday and Wednesday from 10:00 to 14:00, a sound check at the same hours on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, a concert on Friday and Saturday evenings, and a match on Sunday afternoon.