STL DPB IN NEW YORK - INSIDE THE OCULUS

First off, I found that I have been misspelling the name of this building for the last couple of posts. One C, not two.

The view is from a balcony, symmetrical to the one in the background. It feels like you are inside of a space ship-cathedral, or possibly within Moby Dick's rib cage. It was a cloudy day and the upper reaches were a cool gray. There are two levels of shops beneath, whose interior lights send a warm glow. The far background leads to a transit hub with several subway lines and the PATH trains (Port Authority Trans Hudson) trains to New Jersey.          

Oculus

One dictionary defines oculus as a circular or oval window or a circular opening at the top of a dome.  I do not know how this new building at the World Trade Center got its name.  It has ribs that flare in like a cathedral ceiling and then back out like wings. The general shape, seen from above, is something like a football; maybe sort of oval. The eye reference may be that it contains a major transit hub, completely reformed after the tragedy of September 11, 2001. Then throw in an upscale shopping mall (there are Apple, Kate Spade and Hugo Boss stores). The name doesn't exactly work, other than it is memorable.

But it is such an eyeful! Every angle, every view has something uniquely interesting. Sometimes, like in the second picture, you get the tower of One World Trade Center in the frame.   

On High

Working through more New York pix pending new local material (but I have to work today). The top photo features One World Trade Center, now the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. On the left is the Oculus, the new shopping center and transit hub in the WTC.

The bottom picture is the Brooklyn Bridge, taken from the observation deck on the 102nd floor of One WTC.