Although the building isn't finished yet, I was invited to do a shoot on the roof. I went up on the afternoon of November 5 - the same day that I shot the Main/Ward traffic island demolition in the morning. Since that was still going on, I could shoot that also from 6 floors up.
I climbed up the wall ladder on 5 to the hatch that I had seen workers pop out of for months and hit the roof.
Here's what I shot:
1. The roof is shaped somewhere in between a U and a V. This is an old image I found on Google Maps that shows the shape.
2. This image shows the apartments at 40 Passaic St, the First Presbyterian Church's steeple, High-rise Row and part of 389 Main (State St side).
3, 4. I know that #4 shows vents from laundry room dryers and I assume that #3 does too.
5. This is the northeast corner piece that seems to adorn the corners of EVERY new building in town. Future historians won't have a problem identifying the buildings from this time period because they all look the same (how about some variety in the next Hackensack Renaissance's buildings, huh?). In this pic, you can see the Hackensack River and the Anderson St bridge through the openings.
6. Getting close to the southeast corner.
7. Back at the northeast corner, I'm flat on my stomach in one of the openings mentioned at the end of #5, shooting the Main/Ward traffic island demolition (I got a lucky two-fer this day).
8. From the same location, shooting down Main St
9. Looking up Ward St
10. Turning slightly to the right, I got a rare shot of the 435 Main project in white and seemingly wearing a Holy Trinity Church beanie.
11. This shows a lot of the equipment on both roof segments.
12, 13. These two photos show some of the damage done by fish crows to pipe insulation. They REALLY have to find a way to stop that.
Interspersed among all these images, I did a series of photo stitches - some better than others.
14. This one came out well. It shows the river from north of the Anderson St bridge to beyond Kipps Bend and Foschini Park.
15. This rather ambitious stitch begins beyond Sears (I think I see a Continental Plaza building behind it), goes WAY down Main St, around to the hospital and the high-rises and ends up somewhere in the vicinity of Union and Ward, picking up parts of the 389 Main building I'm on, both on the Main St side and the State St side. That's gotta be at least 3/4 of a circle.
16. I like this one. There's a little bit of river, the YMCA looks great, there's a hint of visible NYC, and it goes down Main St as far as can be seen from this location.
17. It's not glitch-free, but this was the best I could get of both legs of the building and the Passaic St side. I don't know if I'd want to be sitting on one of these balconies and have a view that consists of fellow tenants sitting across the lot in their balcony.
18. This one is FAR from perfect (it shows half a car almost right in the middle), but it goes from Sears to Berry St and shows the one-day-only view of the Main/Ward traffic island demolition.
19. This stitch was just WAY too ambitious - especially hand-held - but where else are you ever gonna see the YMCA on Main St, Passaic St, 210 Main AND Hackensack Hospital to the south, the high-rises, Ward St, buildings on State St AND Union St to the west.................and then end up at 417 Main - two blocks NORTH of the Y?
20. I'm done. This is the 5th floor hallway by the elevator. See ya.
Click to enlarge................ESPECIALLY the stitches (some of which you'll need to scroll from left to right to see the whole thing).