From Althouse:New York spent $2 billion to demolish 98 acres of 19th century buildings, displacing 9,000 human beings, in order to build a sickeningly ugly collection of government buildings. Is there a worse architectural crime in the history of the world? I'm sure there must be, but...
... it destroyed a neighborhood, isolated downtown from Center Square and created a stark mall that is lightly used and segregated from city life....
Pure evil.
10 comments:
I grew up in Albany. I wouldn't say its lightly used. There are festivities, concerts, fireworks, holiday events etc etc. I would say this plaza is highly used especially in the summer months. This is a gross picture that doesn't depict the plaza's true beauty and usefulness.
Why don't you click the link and view the other photos? And were the 98 acres of townhouses also not beautiful and useful?
Yeah, its a brutalistic mess, but this was done everywhere in the 1960s and 70s in every aging downtown across america. That doesn't make it right, it's just what everyone did. As for the greatest architectuarl demolition crime of the millenium-- the winner is teh old Penn Station in Manhattan. A true crime.
This was done 40 years ago. Why are we talking about it now? What about Lincoln Center, the UN, the World Trade Center? There's a million other examples we can point to. We know government has abused eminent domain. But instead of pining for the past, we should be focused on stopping future abuses.
But instead of pining for the past, we should be focused on stopping future abuses.
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Because if we dont learn from our past, we will go blind into the future.
Take a look at the new sterility in this city - E 86th St in Manhattan, Hunters Point in LIC and its cousin, Newport in Jersy City.
The problem is places like Pratt and the rest of the planning community ignore these things and not only churn out study after study in favor or garbage like this, but now talk about using cemetaries for parks, and highway overpasses for housing.
You ain't seen nothing yet.
The U.N land was owned by the Rockafellers and donated.
It's highway overpasses for parks and cemeteries for housing.
In Berlin, the East Zone Commies tore down the Kaiser's Victorian-era Schloss (castle) and erected a Stalinist era atrociously-designed Palace of the Republic (replete with a public bowling alley and catering hall). Now that's been torn down and they're thinking of reconstructing the Kaiser's Palace. I kid you not.
Check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadtschloss,_Berlin
I lived nearby about 10 years ago and walked through here to get to work. I can also report that most of the entrances are chained off in the winter - apparently, it's too much of a hassle to shovel and salt the whole thing, or even half of it, so they make up for it by restricting access.
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