Does Manhattan have a future as a great metropolis?  If you hope the answer is yes, you will be disheartened by the City Planning Department’s decision to chop off 200 feet from the top of a proposed tower next door to the Museum of Modern Art on 53rd Street in Manhattan.  Designed by Jean Nouvel, the building would have been as tall as the Empire State Building minus its antenna, a fact that probably made planners tremble...more.