the empire state building reflected in the sidewalk to sky ceilings along 42nd street
my old office, atleast when i was in new york city between trips to europe and asia for work was in this fabled and foibled building...notice the gargoyles on the corners just below the art deco triangles start arching up to the spire...my office was an upper corner and the gargoyles were amazing when it rained! on occasion i was told they could be seen struck by lightening in a storm. i never was in that office for lightening, thankfully. i do recall that when it rained, because we were so high up there was nothing to be seen, sometimes even on an overcast day, the view was totally whited (or grayed) out.
of course, one of the most beautiful buildings to walk around, inside or out has to be grand central station. most people will never know her secrets, but i used to work across the street when i was at LaSalle Partners (now Jones Lang LaSalle), the 3rd largest corporate real estate company on the planet. the group i worked in (tenant representation, or t.r.g.) refurbished the interior of grand central, which included the removal of old guilt leaf on the ceiling and the revelation of the original gold leafed night sky with all the constellations outlined. during this time, we would do regular walk throughs of the space just to make sure work was going as expected, and that meant walking between the windows -- every giant arched windown all the way around is 4 stories tall which you can't tell, you can just see they're huge. when you're privy to the back office and have access, there are iron catwalks all the way around the interior of the building and you can literally walk right across the top, middle and lower quarter of the window. often you'll see a tourist catch a glimpse of you walking thru, and they always do a double take because you obviously can't really be walking up there....or can you? 
and this is the view i'm talking about...if you look closely, you can make out the catwalks here....
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