West 43rd St, Midtown

West 43rd starts its run through midtown at 5th avenue with a bank building that has an enormous visible vault and the Century Club which is a highly exclusive club for people in the artistic and literary fields. It only has a couple thousand members which pretty small considering how many New Yorkers are in that field. Next door to the Century Club is the alumni association for both Yale and Columbia Universities in the same building. Next door to that is a lovely Beau Arts building that was the home to the New Yorker until the '90's. It has something really boring in it now that probably doesn't deserve the architecture. There are a lot of old buildings here that used to house really interesting things like the Royalton Hotel where literary types stayed . . and the Hippodrome. It's now a commercial building but it use to house a massive arena where Harry Houdini and various carnival acts performed. Man, I wish that was still around. What a weird concept. There's not much in the way of food, drinks or a neighborhood feel on this block, but there's not really any of that in this neighborhood so it's not a surprise.
The next block is more in the vein of the Hippodrome in that it has a lot of theatres and seedy hotels that used to be seedier hotels. Town Hall is in the middle of the block and I've seen a lot of great shows here. Margaret Singer was arrested here for lecturing on birth control. But, it's not quite as political as it used to be. . . unless you consider Ben Folds political. I really like the venue, though. As the block runs towards Broadway it gets more and more Times Square with food chains such as Dallas BBQ and Heartland Brewery (I actually like Heartland as far as chains go). I prefer the seedier, eastern side of the block because of all the history. Woody Guthrie wrote This Land is Your Land in a hotel that used to be right across from Town Hall. It's very old timey on the Eastern Side and once you get to Broadway, you end the run with the Conde Naste building which houses magazines like Vogue and Vanity Fair and Times Square Plaza which hosts the yearly New Years Eve countdown.
I would never live on West 43rd in midtown because it's bumping up right on Times Square which I consider to be hell on Earth. There's nothing in the way of a neighborhood feel and no good bars or restaurants. It's running right into a tourist trap so people are everywhere. But, there are some good theatres and the like so it's hard to avoid if you're into the arts.