Well, the first amazing thing about the internship is how conveniently close it is to Fordham's Lincoln Center campus. About a five minute walk away, maybe 7, if I'm wearing heels. All I do is hop on the RamVan at Rose Hill, relax during the 30 minute ride, get off at Lincoln Center, and walk those few blocks.
For Martha I had to take a 20 minute Metro North ride, take the subway to Times Square, then transfer to the 1 train to 28th St., then walk two blocks South and one Avenue East.
So commuting to GH is a breeze! And free! Fordham gives me free RamVan passes since I'm using the van to get to an internship.
So, besides the amazing commute, I also am completely in love with the Hearst Building. It is so beautiful. Today I made sure to take some pictures of the outside of it.
This is standing on the north corner of 57th and 8th Ave, looking south. That white arrow is the entrance to the Hearst Building. It was originally completed in 1928 as a six floor International Magazine Building. Hence the brownish cast stone base.
Later, the diagonal grid structure of glass and steel were added, making the building soar to 46 stories high. The first and second floors are used for mail and I think technical purposes. The third floor is the amazing lobby, and the fourth through 46th are all offices of the Hearst Corporation. That includes almost 200 magazines (Cosmopolitan, Oprah Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Veranda, etc), daily newspapers (Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle, etc), television stations (Lifetime, A&E, History, ESPN, etc), business publishing, internet businesses, tv production, and real estate. Whooo! This is a busy place!
Here's my view of it! All that glass makes for such a beautiful view of the city on every floor! Good Housekeeping has offices on the 27th, 28th, and 29th floor.
The 28th floor is where I'll be at most of the time. The 29th floor is where the GH Research Institute is located. The Research floor consists entirely of separate, temperature controlled rooms where machines, toys, and all sorts of products are repeatedly tested. As well as where the kitchens are located!
I tried to locate my floor, but it's hard to tell from the outside.
You can walk around the entire perimeter of the 28th floor and have a consistent view of the city! Central Park and the Hudson! All the walls are entirely glass, so it truly is bright and beautiful up there. There are light censors that control the amount of artificial light on each floor, based on how much natural light is coming in. No fluorescent lighting here!
This is the first thing I see when I walk in. That's a waterfall behind the escalators. According to the pamphlet I picked up, the waterfall circulates filtered rainwater that's been collected on the roof of the building. The waterfall actually helps cool the building in the summer and humidifies it in the winter!
No one can get to the escalators unless they have an ID card. Since I don't have one yet, I've had to check in at security each time I've gone. They check my state ID, call up to my supervisor to make sure that I'm expected, and then issue me a visitor's pass. I hand that to one of the two security guards, who swipes me in.
At the top of the escalators is the beautiful third floor lobby. There's a cafe with 380 seats and tables spread out along the glass walls, a 168 seat theater where they premiere Hearst productions, and about fifteen or so elevators.
At the entrance to the elevators is keypad and security personnel. You tell security what floor you're going to, they type it in and then tell you what elevator to go to (they're all labeled alphabetically). Intense!
Once at the 28th floor, I exit the elevator and am in an enclosed glass area. The doors to my left are for Good Housekeeping, and the doors to my right are to Veranda magazine. Employees swipe their ID card to open the GH doors, but I have to use a small phone outside the doors to call my supervisor, who then walks over to open the doors for me.
The entire floor consists of cubicles, where all the editors, writers, designers, etc., sit in front of Mac computer screens. There are conference rooms along the perimeter of the floor. The walls to the conference rooms are glass, so you can see right through them to the city below. I have a nice little cubicle all to myself.
We have a great little kitchen area, where I can have free tea (or coffee) to my heart's content. Also, there is a counter where all the free stuff is at, that anyone is welcome to. Books, plants, and other random products.
I am quite in love with the entire building, especially my floor. It's very different from Martha. Everything is so quiet in the Hearst Building, especially on my floor. At Martha there were always TV's going, people running around, walkie talkies squawking, and phones ringing. At GH, everyone is sitting quietly at their desks with headphones, or speaking quietly into their phones. I guess that's the difference between a magazine and a daily tv program.
Anyways, my first day was quite exciting because they were filming. Unfortunately I missed the off-set filming, which was down in SoHo, with the host of Shear Talent (Bravo). I did get to help out with the filming on the 29th floor. At the end of the segment I ended up taking the elevator back down with another intern and the editor of Good Housekeeping! She was incredibly nice!
Also, the October issue features Jamie Lee Curtis, who was in the office on Tuesday, the day before I started. I won't be seeing as many celebrities as I did at Martha, but I will see a few.
I'm looking forward to learning as much as I can about Good Housekeeping, Hearst, and what it takes to run a magazine!
Check out these websites!
The Hearst Website - has a great video of the building.
What I'm doing at Good Housekeeping!
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