But the feeling that private interests are dominating the circle was reinforced Friday when a photographer for The New York Times, Nancy Siesel, was taking pictures for this column. Although she was on the sidewalk in front of the Time Warner Center, she said two security guards, neither of whom would identify himself, insisted that she stop.

"You're not allowed to photograph the structure of the building," Ms. Siesel quoted the first guard as telling her. She showed them her press identification card, issued by the Police Department, and insisted that she was within her rights to photograph a building from the public way on assignment. But she said the second guard told her, "If you persist, I'm going to call the police." Pressed, he backed down from this threat.

Though unfamiliar with the particulars of the encounter, Mr. Himmel said, "If someone on our security force stopped a photographer from a newspaper from photographing the building, they probably overstepped."

"There should be no restrictions in terms of the public's ability to photograph the building from the outside," he said, "because it's a public space."