One of the world’s major centres of contemporary culture and finance, New York is a fast-paced, creative and colourful city that attracts people from all over the world. Seen from feng shui principles, this is no surprise: “At the tip of Manhattan, you get interplay from yin (feminine) energy coming in from the sea, and yang (masculine) energy coming down Manhattan. You don’t get many of those sites on a planet like ours. So ‘fantastic’ is how I’d describe the feng shui of that spot,” Coxon says. A hotspot it always was. A group of Dutch explorers first settled the tip of the island in 1624, purchasing “Manahatta” from native Americans for an alleged $24. George Washington, the first U.S. president, was inaugurated here in 1789. And the New York Stock Exchange and the city’s administration benefit from their present placement just steps away.

In greater New York, the Bronx is probably the roughest, most “masculine” area, but a person or business starting here may often succeed and move south to Manhattan. Energy from the entire system is retained by Brooklyn’s and Staten Island’s landmasses, says Coxon, adding that positive energy also pools in upper Manhattan’s Central Park and feeds into the midtown area illustrated here. “This is probably why you’ve got corporate headquarters situated here,” he says. Midtown Manhattan is indeed a concentration of corporate skyscrapers and the location of the United Nations headquarters, all built on a grid work of rectilinear streets. “This creates creates stability for the economy,” Coxon says. Roosevelt Island, a strip of land between Midtown Manhattan and Queens, also improves the flow of intelligent energy to midtown, but its sharp southern point shoots aggressively toward the East Village and Lower East Side, acting as a “poison arrow” and preventing these areas from accumulating the wealth of those on the western parts of Lower Manhattan, such as Greenwich Village.

Coxon and Diep moved the United Nations building from its current position on the East River to join the forest of skyscrapers that already benefit from their placement. Not seeing much room for improvement, the two embellished the area’s edge with five structures that would amplify the general positivity. The futuristic buildings could be placed approximately where Rockefeller Centre presently stands, a positive site already.

ST. PATRICK’S CATHEDRAL AND
MET LIFE BUILDING-GRAND CENTRAL STATION: Already auspiciously placed buildings, enhancing the power and intelligence of the area. The former is the largest Gothic-style Catholic church in the United States and the seat of the New York archdiocese; the latter is a complex of transport and commerce.
CHRYSLER BUILDING: Due to its pencil-like shape, the Art-Deco Chrysler Building, built in 1930, has a beneficial influence on all the buildings around it by increasing their occupants’ mental capacities. It also benefits the United Nations building, attracting intelligent employees.
UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS, STATUS QUO: With the East River behind it and tall apartments buildings in front, the United Nations headquarters building, the first International Style skyscraper in New York, has only limited opportunities to truly progress. SUGGESTION: A 180° rotation and move toward the rest of the skyscrapers increases power.
EMPIRE STATE BUILDING: Built in 1931, it has similar beneficial effects as the Chrysler building.
FENG SHUI REVAMP OF ROCKEFELLER CENTRE: These futuristic buildings echo a rare, beneficial landform configuration with fire to the south, metal to the west, wood to the east, water to the north and earth in the centre. The (admittedly overly colourful) arrangement enhances the beneficial effects present throughout midtown from a site that is already well placed.