New York City City Planning And Architecture

In the early years of European settlement on Manhattan, the city expanded without planning or regulation. The maze of wooden structures that first grew up on Lower Manhattan left its mark on the irregular street plan still characteristic of the area. For a taste of old New York, visit Saint Paul’s Chapel , and the houses on Charlton St., Vandam St., and in the South Street Seaport area . Be sure to check out Old City Hall as well, built in 1802 .

During the Revolutionary War, two large fires burned swaths of the city to the ground. New York hastily rebuilt, but officials realized that greater order would have to be imposed. John Randel’s 1811 Randel Plan required undeveloped portions of Manhattan to be built according to a strict grid pattern—which explains why the cityscape changes so dramatically at 14th St. Between 1820 and 1850, Manhattan’s population quadrupled. To make room for the 843-acre Central Park, conceived as an effort to unite the stately elegance of Europe’s gardens with the democratic populism of America, the city had to drain uptown’s swamps and demolish the shantytowns of poor immigrants and African Americans that sprawled among them. In the 1930s, urban planner Robert Moses became New York’s most powerful official, creating 36 parks, a network of roads and highways to make them accessible to the public, 12 bridges and tunnels (including the enormous Triborough Bridge), Lincoln Center , Shea Stadium, and numerous housing projects.

Manhattan’s most memorable feature is its skyline. The modern skyscraper, made possible through the combination of steel-frame construction and the elevator, allowed the city to expand skyward, even when land had long since vanished. In 1889 an 11-story “tower” was called “idiotic”; in 1899, a 30-floor Park Row apartment building became the world’s tallest; and by 1913, the 60-floor Woolworth Building assumed this honor, dubbing itself the “Cathedral of Commerce.” The iconic Flatiron Building, with its triangular shape and limestone-and-terra-cotta facade, rose at Broadway and Fifth Ave. in 1902. The Chrysler Building’s stainless-steel spire, meant to resemble a radiator cap from a Chrysler car, rose in 1930. One year later, the Art Deco Empire State Building began its 42-year reign as the world’s tallest building, a title it held until the World Trade Center was completed in 1973. The Twin Towers were an integral part of the Lower Manhattan skyline until their destruction on 9/11.