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Terminales EurosHomework, due October 2, 2019Geography Homework – NYC, a global cityDoc. 1 – BBC correspondent Nick Bryant in NYC, August 16, 2013From its bridges to the airports, the infrastructure has fallen a long way behind the mega-cities of Asia. No longer can it boast the planet's tallest skyscrapers - it does not even have a building in the global top three. Noticeably, one of the biggest billboards on Times Squares is rented not by one of the US networks, but by China's Xinhua News agency.?Doc. 2 – The World’s 10 tallest completed buildings, in , 2018Doc. 3 – Article excerpted from the website of the American TV channel CNBC, 2010Google’s purchase of a Manhattan building, estimated to cost $2 billion, and the largest US real estate transaction this year for a single building, is a vote of confidence in New York City.The 15-story structure houses Google’s second-largest engineering presence outside of the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.It covers a full city block and has nearly three million square feet — valued at about $600 per square foot. Google itself occupies 500,000 square feet of the building, which accommodates some 2,000 employees.The building is chock full of engineers and designers, along with lots of free food for Google employees. It features a casual working atmosphere — something Google is known for — that encourages creativity and innovation.Homework 1, correction – NYC, a global cityIntroductionPresentation of the topicNew York City, targeted by dangerous aliens in Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day (1996), hit by a glacial storm in Roland Emmerich’s The Day after tomorrow (2004), New York City, where the giant monster King Kong is tracked down in 2005 Peter Jackson’s movie (a remake of the 1933 M.C. Cooper’s and E.B. Schoedsack’s King Kong film), is the most famous city in the World. Its landscapes are present in so many movies and series that they sound familiar to all of us. The “city that never sleeps” is the most relevant example of a Global City. The latter expression was coined by Saskia Sassen in 1991; it designates a couple of cities, like NYC, Tokyo, London or Hong-Kong, which have a World-wide influence, are highly connected to the rest of the World and gather the whole World. These major cities are the main impulse centers of Globalization. Presentation of the documentsDoc. 1 is an excerpt written by the BBC correspondent in NYC, Nick Bryant, dating back to August 2013, which deals with the competition that NYC is witnessing from the Asian megacities, regarding skyscrapers. Doc. 2 is a drawing comparing the World’s tallest buildings; as it dates back to 2018. Doc. 3 is an excerpt taken from the website of the American TV channel CNBC, which describes Google’s purchase of a Manhattan building that occurred in 2010. Key questionIs NYC’s still exercising its domination over the other Global cities of the World Archipelago? OutlineI – NYC’s World-wide economic and financial weightA – The heart of Globalization…From the very beginning of its history, NYC was established by European immigrants who wanted to fulfil the American Dream and make a fortune thanks to trade. Today, NYC remains the economic capital of the USA. Doc. 3 relates Google’s purchase of a building in Manhattan. Google, a major American corporation, did not hesitate to disburse about $2 billion to buy the biggest building outside its historical headquarters in the Silicon Valley!! The transaction took place in 2010. Google paid $600 per square foot, i.e. $6500 per square meter), to get this new location. Having the headquarters in NYC contributes to the prestige of a company. It also shows how attractive and influential NYC remains. This economic effervescence favours the huge dynamism of the city. Google’s arrival in NYC brought the second largest engineering presence outside the Silicon Valley: NYC becomes a center of innovation, design, creation, engineering, i.e. very valuables activities. Recently, NY Metropolitan Area, and more precisely its central borough Manhattan, has even been nicknamed Silicon Alley to designate the numerous high tech activities (including the Internet, media, telecommunications, software development, game design, financial technology, etc.) which, like Google in doc. 3, are “invading” the Eastern megacity. B – … Which shapes the skyline of the citySkyscrapers were created at the end of the 19th century in Chicago and NYC. One of the first ever erected was the Flatiron Building, which comprises only 22 floors. They characterise Manhattan’s Central Business District (CBD), made of Downtown and Midtown. The Freedom Tower was built where the World Trade Center used to stand, and is, since its completion in 2013, higher than the 1931 Empire State Building (which was the top building after the collapse of the Twin Towers in 2001). Its architecture is more original than the cubic shape of the Twin Towers, with two inclined triangular glass facades. II – Could NYC be challenged in its leading position? A – The competition of Asian megacitiesDoc. 2 pictures the 10 tallest buildings in the World, and New York skyscrapers are nowhere to be seen before the 6th rank. The five first skyscrapers are in Asia: Dubai, China, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. More, five out of the ten towers are located in China and Hong Kong, mostly built very recently and after the collapse of the Twin Towers. This illustrates how important the competition with China is: the country is the second economic power of the World, and appears as a threatening emerging country. Nick Bryant, in doc. 1, goes further: he shows that Asian activities are “invading” the USA, with the example of Times Square biggest billboard which is rented by a Chinese agency. Let’s not forget that 40% of the people living in NYC are foreign-born, and that the Chinese community is numerous. But this billboard also shows how much NYC is actually a World city, welcoming people, actors and companies from all over the World. The Chinese company Nick Bryant is talking about probably paid a lot to get this very visible billboard, to have such a valuable place in NYC, the World’s most famous city. Why? Because NYC is the place to be! NYC is a showcase to the rest of the World.B – Did the pupils outdo / surpass the master? Regarding the skyscrapers’ architecture, all follow the international / modern style, even if there are more original than basic cubes made of glass and concrete. For instance, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa gets narrower at the top. In that way, NYC is no longer the avant-garde in architecture: its Asian pupils outdid the master, they surpassed the city where the skyscrapers started being erected at the very beginning of the 20th century. Like Nick Bryant says in doc. 1, “NYC’s infrastructure has fallen a long way behind the mega-cities of Asia”.But let’s not forget that the international style was born in the USA after World War II, and it spread around the World. So the fact that many megacities in the World adopted this international style, with the building of CBDs following the American model, shows the soft power of the USA and of NYC. ConclusionFrank Sinatra, in 1979, was singing: “Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today, I want to be a part of it, New York, New York”: NYC is a global city because of its extreme attractiveness that the singer already underlined almost 40 years ago. It is a fascinating place, World-wide known. The documents mostly concentrate on the economic and financial weight of the city, but many other aspects (political, cultural, diplomatic, etc.) could be studied to show that NYC remains the most relevant example of what a global city is. ................
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