All of the construction in the neighborhood is a pain in the rear, and yet it also affords opportunities to marvel at what human beings can achieve—especially if you have a fantastic vantage point, as Akiba Saeedi does, from which to admire the work at the World Trade Center Transportation Hub and 30 Park Place.

First up, Santiago Calatrava’s WTC hub. The first photo is from last fall; the second two are from last week.

It looks like an armadillo!

On to 30 Park Place, a.k.a. the Four Seasons Hotel and Haven for Foreign Cash, designed by Robert A. M. Stern. Here’s what Akiba wrote in an email to me: “I’m amazed how they work near the edge with no barriers (just this week I noticed a safety net added), walk on the spaced out boards a floor up (you can see in first and last one, they could easily fall through!) and have these makeshift alcoves (first and third pic) to put cement around the wood columns. I have a new respect for people who work on these skyscrapers after seeing it close up. And there are things you would never think of like when it snowed they had to shovel off the top each time into a bin and the crane would lift it out.”

Two of them are a bit blurry—all the more reason to click on them to see them much larger.

Update: Comments have been turned off due to spam. To have them turned back on, email tribecacitizen@gmail.com.