July 2009
1 post
June 2009
10 posts
5 tags
3: A Question Of Sensibility
Caro spends thankfully little time on Moses’ early years, which are generally the worst part of any biography. What little he does say, however, really highlights the case for picking your own biographer. Now, in theory I am all in favor of historically significant people opening up their archives to allow broad scholarly access, and to not put in place limiting copyright restrictions that...
4 tags
On High, a Fresh Outlook →
Nicolai Ouroussoff:
But as mesmerizing as the design is, it is the height of the High Line that makes it so magical, and that has such a profound effect on how you view the city. Lifted just three stories above the ground, you are suddenly able to perceive, with remarkable clarity, aspects of the city’s character you would never glean from an office window. At some points, billboards and parking...
Several ways to think about a fifth floor walk-up
magicmolly:
A fifth floor fire escape yields the perfect people-watching vantage. You can discern the pattern on a guy’s shirt but not the stains on it; you can observe the fact that a woman is wearing toenail polish without parsing her bunions.
The front seat contents of cars are visible, and interesting parts of conversations are often audible. Pleasant cooking smells make their way up but...
6 tags
Site Visit: Owl's Head Park
Owl’s Head Park was originally private land, purchased by the city in 1930. Moses remade it in 1934 along with several other parks, including Fort Greene, McCarren, and the Prospect Park Zoo. Geographically, it was the pivot point of Moses’ Circumferential Parkway plan. For several years, the BQE did not connect to any of the southern expressways; it wasn’t until the...
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Site Visit: Harlem River Drive
Triborough Bridge. Image: Rodney McCay Morgan. 1941.
We took the train to Washington Heights on Saturday, and since we didn’t feel like spending two hours getting back, we took a car instead. Going down the Harlem River Drive to the FDR very late at night, as I have done many times now, I looked out the window at the widest stretch of river to see the Triborough—now...
3 tags
Battle Between Budget and Beauty, Which Budget Won →
Nicolai Ourousoff:
The recent news that the developer Forest City Ratner had scrapped Frank Gehry’s design for a Nets arena in central Brooklyn is not just a blow to the art of architecture. It is a shameful betrayal of the public trust, one that should enrage all those who care about this city.
Whatever you may have felt about Mr. Gehry’s design — too big, too flamboyant — there is little...
4 tags
2: The New York Machine
Caro’s introduction is an absolute masterpiece, a showstopper of a thing that bears down upon his subject to give us a 21-page distillation of Moses’ absolute essance, and it’s perhaps the best piece of writing I’ve been exposed to in a good couple years. Bracingly, lyricaly, and relentlessly, he catalogues Moses’ incredible acheivements, laid out in my previous...
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1: Introduction
This is my last summer in New York City.
I moved here on July 4, 2001 to start a new job. I left again on July 30, 2007 in order to enter a master’s program upstate. Now that I have my degree, I have a few months to kill before my PhD program in Seattle starts in the fall, and so am staying with my girlfriend in Park Slope. Ideally I would get a job at some point this summer, but in this...