Karl Fischer, Powerhouse

A defender of Karl Fischer says (in the comments for my recent post on Karl in The Showerhead) that "The Powerhouse is an very tasteful conversion."

I hated the Powerhouse the second I noticed the sun bouncing off its plastic Coppertone top, long before I knew it was one of Karl's.  In fact I thought it might be a Donald Trump enterprise, because of the tacky casino faux-class of its round castle towers and metallic color.  As I said in the comments, "If I worked at the U.N., right across the river, I would sue for degradation of view."

See the Powerhouse's copper top sitting to the right in front of the U.N. above?  Even now it's hard to believe it's sitting on the brick base; you could merge the two-tone building in front of the base into the Powerhouse and it would make more sense than it does now, with the non-existent relationship between plastic top and base.


At least other plastic tops, like the domes on the Greenpoint bank above left, and the Sixth Ave. store above right, fit the form of their perch.  The Powerhouse looks like Karl took the model from a canceled freeway hotel-casino project and dropped it on top.