Where does the grid begin, and why does it start where it does? The most common answers are: “Houston Street,” and “that’s where the city was built up to at the time.” They are partially correct answers to very different questions.
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built environment, Manhattan Unlocked 2025, Manhattan Unlocked 2026
Croton Water, the Famine Irish, New York’s Inflection Point and the Creation of New York City
30
Apr
Apr
The graph above shows Manhattan’s population growth over 120 years between 1790 and 1910, from 33,000 to 2.3 million, its peak. Population growth on a linear graph shows the number (mass) of people. The “bump” seen in 1860 marks the concluding decade of the massive Irish and German immigrant waves between 1845-1855. It would take 55 […]
16
Jun
Jun
Pearl street derives its name from the shell middens left by Manhattan’s original Lenape inhabitants at the island’s southern tip. Initially, it spanned a single block between State Street and Broadway.
10
Apr
Apr
Beyond “reading” the facade elevation (or side) of a building as a palimpsest, how does read a blockfront?…
05
Apr
Apr
Following on the post: The Vortex and the Palimpsest: Seeing the City through Time and Space, this post explores the concept of the palimpsest as a way of decoding the city.
22
Mar
Mar
It helps to think about the city using analogy and metaphor for how it developed through time and space: the vortex and the palimpsest. Use the idea of the vortex to think about the city’s uptown growth through time. The Vortex If Manhattan were stripped of its towering skyscrapers and scaled back to a human […]
16
Mar
Mar
This is the last in the relaunch series of posts that lay out in broad strokes the blueprint for building New York City on the Island of Manhattan […]
06
Mar
Mar
Beginning in the 1850s, the finest shops, theaters and hotels were relocating up Broadway to today’s SoHo. In the other three directions from City Hall, the city began to develop in different ways, differently. Development in every other direction from City Hall fulfilled the needs of business, and particularly the business of shipping: financing, labor […]
Manhattan Unlocked, Relaunch posts
4. How Business Overran the “City” II: Manhattan’s Two-Part Skyline
12
Feb
Feb
Manhattan’s downtown cluster of skyscrapers rose in the early 20th century, notably in the Art Deco style, while Midtown rose decades later, especially in the Modern style
02
Feb
Feb
This is part I of how business districts repeatedly overran both the “city,” and the residential community that preceded it. Blue collar manufacturing and wholesale trade, and white-collar office towers, came to Madison Square separately, and left in different directions. Similar to how shopping and theater districts resolve into upper and middle class location-markets, business […]
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