Back to the Future City

By Oliver E. Allen
POSTED NOVEMBER 2, 2007

Ceaselessly growing and expanding, New York City has always provoked visions of the future. And at no time were such forecasts more popular than in the early years of the 20th Century, when ultra-tall skyscrapers were first jutting up from Manhattan’s bedrock. The drama and seeming promise of these tall towers appeared to forecast a more dramatic—and possibly even better—way of life for the city’s residents. Some of these long-ago imaginings are featured in a provocative exhibition entitled “New York Modern,” on view through next March at The Skyscraper Museum, 39 Battery Place in Battery Park City.

The artists who claimed to see the future so clearly, especially those who sketched their ideas around the turn of the century, did not hesitate to think big. After all, it was a time of great confidence. It did not matter that both the automobile and the airplane were in their infancy; the artists were saying they would change our lives—which of course they actually did. In these views mammoth towers jostle each other for space, airships clutter the sky, cars and trucks clog the broad avenues and multiple bridges not only connect Manhattan to its sister boroughs but leap between the high-rise towers themselves. It’s a heady, noisy world.

A generation later, in the 1920s, architects and planners were more concerned with the problems created by such headlong growth, especially congestion and overbuilding. So they set about recommending ways to control the traffic, separate the tall towers, open up the waterfront and provide more liveable housing. If some of their proposals look foolhardy today—who would want live in an apartment house lined up with others on the roadway of a bridge?—at least the planners were doing their best to keep the city from choking itself to death.

And the irony about many of these glimpses into the future is the extent to which what they predicted actually came true. The city of broad avenues and high rises has come to pass. If you have any doubt, just step outside and look around.

[Home][Back][Search] [Advertise][Contact]
The Tribeca Trib · 401 Broadway, 5th Floor · New York, NY · 10013 · 212.219.9709