Real-estate interests in Manhattan want to cover a glorious old building in glass. The venerable General Motors building, near Columbus Circle, is a survivor of what was called “Automobile Row.”

The 26-story tower was part of a 1 1/2-mile stretch of Manhattan, much of which was dedicated to the automobile industry from the 1940s to the ’70s. The area housed car and tire companies as well as dealerships. Baronial showrooms on their ground levels sold the likes of Hupmobiles, Loziers and Speedwells.

Any Sunbelt city would be thrilled to have this classic 1927 building, with its series of setbacks and three-story Ionic columns at the base. Its architects, Shreve & Lamb, later designed the Empire State Building.

But the current owner, the Moinian Group, seems determined to take an architectural delight that is unique to New York (and a few other Eastern cities) and turn it into a cheap-looking glass-wall skyscraper that would be right at home in Phoenix or Houston. The architectural firm Gensler would be responsible for the desecration.

The owner hopes to make a pile selling the “new” building’s naming rights. A highly visible sign for CNN currently sits at the top.

Writing in his blog on The New York Times Web site, David Dunlap laments that the old General Motors Building will soon be gone, “another quirk of Manhattan that has been scrubbed, smoothed, polished, branded and lost.” What a depressing thing this is.