The Times Gets Renzo Piano's Glassy Shimmer

Forget Hearst. Dedicated workers have begun putting up the 52-story "shimmering" glass curtain that will bedeck Renzo Piano's new beauty for The New York Times. Eventually it will soar shimmeringly over Eighth Avenue between 40th and 41st streets--bashful developer Bruce Ratner promises this will make for "an unmistakable part of Manhattan's skyline."

There will be color: A "lacy screen of ceramic rods" (under which the glass curtain sits) will bounce angular sunrays into a pretty Times rainbow. "It will seem as if the building is changing colors," gushes a press release.

Because rainbows are tricky to interpret metaphorically, Mr. Piano has also pointed out that his clear glass reinforces the two-way link between the journalists inside and their dedicated real-world clientele. (No more need for the Public Editor?)

Thankfully, Annie Leibovitz will be around, documenting the shimmering construction "on behalf" of Mr. Ratner. We hope she gets shots of those "automatically dimmable florescent lights."

-Max Abelson