Cesar Pelli sculpts a dramatic skyline.

• Author: Ruprecht, Gustavo
• Position: Argentine architect of the Winter Garden, in the World Financial Center, Battery Park, Manhattan

ALL OF THE WORLD'S seaside cities have a special physiognomy. Barcelona, Hong Kong, Lisbon, San Francisco, Cartagena and Rio de Janeiro, among others, offer to those who approach them from the water, a unique and particular perspecitve with their hills, rivers or bays that mark or reflect the ebb of their naval history, and with buildings and monuments constructed by successive generations. When, as in the case of Venice, there are no natural elevations to bring out the profile of the city, there are lagoons or deltas that create a harbor of beauty and harmony.

New York is a more distinctive port city because the borough of Manhattan is considered an island. This isle-city embraced by two rivers that open directly into the Atlantic--the Hudson and its cousin, the East River--has been converted into a vertical mass of steel and cement. In spite of the fact that water is so close, New York is clearly different from other port cities because the presence of the ocean is not so prevalent: one does not see, hear, or smell the Atlantic. Moreover, its naval history is less noteworthy than its history as a port of entry for an unending flow of immigrants and tourists.

When this observer first arrived in New York in 1969, the city boasted Herculean legs, fabulous torsos and massive shoulders on which rested glorious heads. Among dozens of famous heads. Among dozens of famous skyscrapers were the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and the Woolworth Tower. But New York was missing eyes that would smile out over the sea. It needed an enticing wink--something to seduce travellers and sailors other than the magnetism of the dollar.

That was until the late 1980s when Cesar Pelli, an Argentine architect, gave New York its sparkling eyes in the form of a beautiful glass plaza called the Winter Garden. This architectural gem, which is part of an extraordinary complex known as the World Financial Center, is located on the edge of Manhattan in Battery Park, just in front of the famous Wall Street district at the very entryway to the city.

Unveiled in October, 1988, Winter Garden measures an impressive 127 feet in height, 120 feet in width, and 200 feet in length. The garden, full of palm trees and exotic plants, has created an open space protected by a canopy of luminous glass and is, according to the New York Times, "the best achieved public building since the construction of Grand Central Station, the masterpiece of architectural classicism in...