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January 22, 2007
Robert Moses's Vision of New York
NY Sun
By Francis Morrone
In 2007, the world regards New York as a major urban success story. Five years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, with construction booming all around the city, and with large-scale development projects such as the Atlantic Yards in the works, a re-evaluation of Moses's legacy seems in order. And that's just what we're getting at the month's end when the Museum of the City of New York, Columbia University, and the Queens Museum team up for a major exhibition, " Robert Moses and the Modern City."
One of Brooklyn's preeminent architectural historians has a second look at the legacy of Robert Moses and tips his hat to the masterbuilder's waterfront plan:
Nowadays a New Yorker can take the R train to Bay Ridge, enjoy a lovely dinner in one of that neighborhood's many good restaurants, then sit dreamily on a Shore Road bench watching the lights of the [Verrazano] bridge twinkle in the dusk. That perfect New York evening is ours in part by way of Robert Moses.
NoLandGrab: Despite Moses's intention to turn the south side of Long Island into a destination for public recreation, the BQE and Belt Parkway separate many neighborhoods from direct access.
During Moses's time, planning was centered around automobile infrastructure — today new construction and large projects are focused on building more housing, where, surprisingly, many of Moses mistakes are being recreated, as exemplified by the Atlantic Yards superblocks. The planned condos at the entrance of the Brooklyn Bridge Park in many ways are a throwback to the highways and parkways built by Moses that separate waterfront recreation from adjacent neighborhoods.
Posted by lumi at January 22, 2007 7:40 AM