Manhattan is filthy, inhospitable, and increasingly generic. So at those moments when you tumble into its glorious past it feels like a moment to savour. My appointment with my tax accountant today was at 570 Lexington Avenue, The General Electric Building, when that company represented a new exciting future powered by vacuum tubes and incandescent bulbs. Built in 1931, its classic Art Deco (but at the time was called "gothic" since Art Deco wasn't a term invented yet). Little stylistic details are dabbed all over the entrance and lobby and in the elevators. It raises the standard of your day, these places. Probably because our psyches are lined with old films set in New York, and artful photos and comic books that make this architecture a kind of archetype for urban life. When I enter the wood paneled elevator with its decorative accents or put my hand on a door handle that's a miniaturized work of art I step on a stage for second and the spotlight finds me.

That door pictured above leads to a high-end food court now but it once housed a majestic Chinese dining room called Mr. K's. My friend and I talked about going there for years for a special occasion. Then it closed. It's on my list of New York places I regret not getting to on time, which honestly isn't that long.