Being in Brooklyn Toggle navigation

New York City is surrounded mostly with water. It is home to many low-rise and high-rise buildings. These city buildings come in a variety of shapes, styles and colors thus enabling us to a very artistic view. Whether buildings are built for historical purposes or religious purposes, every building has a story. The term juxtaposition can relate to buildings across New York City.

            Juxtaposition is an adjective describing the positioning of objects. It is an instance of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effects. There are many examples displaying juxtaposition near my school, but these two buildings in particular caught my attention. They caught my attention because they both stood out very drastically.

            To understand how I stumbled upon these overlapping buildings, you have to know the location is around my school. First, you must make your way out of the school building. Second, you should make a right onto Jay Street. Third, you must cross the street and thus arriving at Johnson Avenue. After arriving at the cross section of Jay Street and Johnson Avenue, you have to look up diagonally. Consequently, you will find yourself looking at the two buildings that are describing the juxtaposition effect.

            The first building is extremely tall and is almost entirely made up of glass. It also contains many windows and is approximately forty stories tall. This building has many dimensions, meaning it has a lot of different curves. The color of the building is mostly grey and reflects the color of the sky. When I think about the positioning and thoughts surrounding this building, a quote comes to mind from the story “City Limits” from “The Colossus of New York” written by Colson Whitehead. The quote says “Our buildings still stand because we saw them, moved in and out of their long shadows, we are lucky enough to know them for a long time. They are a part of the city we carry around. It is hard to imagine that something will take their place, but at this very moment the people with the right credentials are considering how to fill the craters. The cement trucks will roll up and spin their bellies, the jackhammers will rattle, and after a while the postcards of the new skyline will be available for purchase.” This quote stood out to me because I feel like it describes the area of where these buildings are located. I feel that way because a lot of buildings around here are being remodeled and no matter how they remodel the buildings, people will always remember it how they first saw it. Another quote that reminds me of these buildings is also from the story “City Limits.”  “One day the city we built will be gone, and when it goes, we go. When the buildings fall, we topple, too. I chose this quote because I feel as if it also relates to the objects I chose. My thoughts are instead of breaking down the red building and erasing all of its significant values, they should try working on renovating the building instead. This would help to maintain not only historical value but also add a modern day twist to the pre-existing building. By doing this, you can represent a new city life that will come with the new building attached to the old.

            The second building is a lot shorter than the first. Physically, it is a red orange color. It is located directly in front of the first building. One similarity between the two buildings is that they both have a great amount of dimension. Moreover, they are weirdly shaped in the sense they both have all sorts of curves and pieces that are sticking out all around them.

            These two buildings I believe describe juxtaposition because they are overlapping and placed close together with a contrasting effect. The contrasting effect I see is the difference in height, one is tall and one is short. The color also has a contrasting effect. One reflects the color of the sky and one is red. Also, the short building has much more dimensions than the tall building. I chose these buildings because I feel they were the best examples displaying juxtaposition that I’ve seen so far. It was striking to me because the juxtaposition was very obvious. These two buildings stood out more than any other two objects.

            In conclusion, I have learned the meaning of the word juxtaposition, although it almost defines itself. I was able to visually see two buildings that I thought showed juxtaposition. I also learned to be more aware of objects around me and pay attention to things I didn’t before. There are a lot of things I want to know about the two buildings. Types of information such as: what are the historical values behind these two overlapping buildings, year built, possible purposes, and maybe even what it looked like before in earlier times.