I mean SERIOUSLY, if I told you a 3 1/2 tour with an historian/architect was INTERESTING, would you think I'm crazy or I'm a nerd? But our tour Friday was fascinating. I want to look into more about exactly who our guide guy was, but am certain he must be a college professor who LOVES his job as tour guide on Fridays. He has been doing it for 35 years!! And he didn't want to stop!! It was a tour of Grand Central Terminal (NOT Station!) and surrounding buildings. He was passionate about architecture/history/philosophy and it was INFECTIOUS. Basically, he told us all the decorations on the buildings were the "building talking to us". For example, we went to a bank building (you wouldn't believe how grand it was), and he told us about the symbolism in the carvings around the door - the Owl -- you would want to invest your money with smart people, right? The Squirrel - represented the whole story about saving up. He showed us a huge marble table in the bank, and said that was the origin of the saying "cold hard cash". In Grand Central, he crawled on the floor to show us that the size of the floor tiles were based on the human measurements of your arm and leg. The floor where you enter the main terminal, is built on an incline-- the architect designed it that way because is that your body reacts with your head looking "up" - so that you see the beautiful custom painted soaring ceiling......No way can I condense 210 minutes of theatrics and history here, but just let me say, if you're in NY on a Friday, his tour is a "must do". Plus it is free!
Later, I did "google" Justin Ferate. Sure enough, he is "architectural historian extraordinaire". He is quite famous, a leader in the NY Architectural Society and has studied in Europe.
