Unbuilt New York- Part 2

[Gary Oswald]

Discuss this article by @Ottens here.

This was originally posted over here by our friends at Never Was. They have reposted this article from us by @SpanishSpy.

 

[RyanF]

"So do we have a plan to rehouse the people in these tenements after we knock down their homes to make way for our skyscrapers and parkways?"

"..."

 

[Alex Richards]

"So do we have a plan to rehouse the people in these tenements after we knock down their homes to make way for our skyscrapers and parkways?"

"..."

We're talking about Robert Moses and the 1920s urban developers here.

Forcing the black poor black people to move somewhere else was half the point.

 

[Alex Richards]

Actually, two further thoughts from this:

1. Spare a thought for the congregation of the Madison Square Presbyterian church. Their first building, constructed in Neo-Gothic style in 1853, was purchased by MetLife to make way for the famous clocktower in 1906. They were, however, very well compensated and moved to the other side of the road where they built the absolutely gorgeous little domed church you can see in this picture.


10 years later the congregation merged with the 5th Avenue and University Place churches and what had been one of the most expensive religious buildings in the city was demolished to make way for the unfinished North Building described here.

2. There's got to be an interesting study in the use of, specifically, 'the Empire State Building dwarfed by newer skyscrapers' in depictions of 'vague future New York'.

 

[RyanF]

We're talking about Robert Moses and the 1920s urban developers here.

Forcing the black poor black people to move somewhere else was half the point.

I imagine that's where the same logic was applied in "let's damn the Hudson River creating new land but we'd need to clear land to expand the Harlem River for all the water that's not now heading down the Hudson".