Robert Moses

Squatters Colony, Red Hook Recreation Area, September 12, 1934, Courtesy of NYC Parks

February 26, 2020

Looking back at the Depression-era shanty towns in New York City parks

Today, New York City’s rising cost of living has made affordable housing one of the most pressing issues of our time. But long before our current housing crisis--and even before the advent of “affordable housing” itself--Depression-era New Yorkers created not only their own homes, but also their own functioning communities, on the city’s parkland. From Central Park to City Island, Redhook to Riverside Park, these tent cities, hard-luck towns, Hoovervilles, and boxcar colonies proliferated throughout New York. Ahead, see some amazing archival photos of these communities and learn the human side of their existence.
Lots more history and photos

History

10 things you might not know about Riverside Park

Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library. (1887 – 1964). Parks – Riverside Park – West 122nd Street; Via NYPL Digital Collections

February 12, 2019

10 things you might not know about Riverside Park

By Lucie Levine

Riverside Park is the place to be whether you want to bask in the sun at the 79th Street Boat Basin, pay respects at Grant's Tomb, or do your best T. Rex at Dinosaur Playground. Did you know that the park's history is as varied as its charms? From yachts to goats to cowboys, check out 10 things you might not know about Riverside Park!
Get all the details!

History

June 18, 2018

The 1936 ‘Summer of Pools’: When Robert Moses and the WPA cooled off NYC

By Lucie Levine

On June 24, 1936, thousands of Lower East Siders turned out for a spectacle the likes of which New York had never seen. They jammed Hamilton Fish Park, filled Pitt Street, and perched on surrounding fire-escapes and rooftops to get a glimpse. With great fanfare (and the swim stylings of the Jones Beach Water Troupe) Mayor La Guardia and Parks Commissioner Robert Moses officially opened Hamilton Fish Pool. The dedication kicked off New York’s “Summer of Pools.” One by one, for each week of the summer, 11 gleaming outdoor pools, financed and built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), opened in underserved neighborhoods across the city, providing recreation and relief to millions of heat-addled, Depression-strapped New Yorkers.
Learn more about the summer of 1936

History

June 8, 2018

From the ‘Queens Riviera’ to Robert Moses: The history of Rockaway Beach

By Lucie Levine

Eleven blocks of Rockaway Beach will be closed this summer due to erosion, but that’s just one setback in a long history of resilience on the peninsula. Four-and-a-half miles of the beach are open right now, with every block steeped in history. The Rockaways ushered Henry Hudson into the New World; Walt Whitman into paradise; Hog Island into oblivion; and the Transatlantic Flight into existence. As “the brightest jewel within the diadem of imperial Manhattan,” the pristine beaches of the “Queens Riviera” became the preferred summer locale for New York’s most illustrious citizens. Later, the “people’s beach” at Riis Park helped make the Rockaways accessible to more New Yorkers. From, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, to Patti Smith to Robert Mosses, everybody wanted to be at Rockaway Beach.
Get the full history here

History

Jane Jacobs’ NYC: The sites that inspired her work and preservation legacy

Washington Square Park via Wiki Commons; Jane Jacobs via Wiki Commons

May 4, 2018

Jane Jacobs’ NYC: The sites that inspired her work and preservation legacy

By Andrew Berman of Village Preservation

Jane Jacobs’ birthday on May 4 is marked throughout the world as an occasion to celebrate one’s own city -- its history, diversity, and continued vitality. “Jane’s Walks” are conducted across the country to encourage average citizens to appreciate and engage the complex and dazzling ecosystems which make up our cityscapes (Here in NYC, MAS is hosting 200+ free walks throughout the city from today through Sunday). But there’s no place better to appreciate all things Jane Jacobs than Greenwich Village, the neighborhood in which she lived and which so informed and inspired her writings and activism, in turn helping to save it from destruction.
Tour Jane Jacobs' NYC

April 13, 2018

A Buckminster Fuller dome almost kept the Dodgers in Brooklyn

By Michelle Cohen

With baseball season back in full swing, talk at some point turns to the heartbreak of losing the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles. Modern Mechanix informs us that team owner Walter O'Malley had championed a Brooklyn dome stadium designed by Buckminster Fuller–and how the result is yet another reason to blame Robert Moses. O'Malley took the team to Cali, if you'll remember, because he got a better deal on land for a stadium–better than he was able to get in the five boroughs. He had wanted to keep the team in Brooklyn, but Ebbets Field was looking down-at-the-heels by then and bad for morale. In 1955 O'Malley wrote dome-obsessed architect Buckminster Fuller requesting a domed stadium design.
So what happened?

May 25, 2017

Robert Moses’ former Yorkville home lists for $2M

By Michelle Cohen

"Master builder" Robert Moses–he of the 13 expressways that crisscross New York City–spent the 1970s living with his wife, Mary Grady Moses, in a three-bedroom co-op at 1 Gracie Terrace in Yorkville on Manhattan's Upper East Side (h/t NYPost). We can see how the home's sweeping river views would inspire the subject of Robert Caro’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York,” when pondering the conflicting issues of a complicated and changing city. The apartment is now for sale asking $1.95 million.
See more

May 3, 2017

VIDEO: Robert Moses talks about roads, parks and city traffic in 1953

By Rebecca Paul

Robert Moses, the "master builder," was arguably the most influential individual in the development of New York City's politics and physical structure. He's widely known for his hand in creating New York State's massive parkway network (he built 13 expressways through NYC) and erecting large public housing complexes in low-scale neighborhoods (many of which were segregated), and has therefore been named as the source of many of the city's gentrification and urban decline issues still present today. Regardless of this criticism, his breath of knowledge and experience was unparalleled (we can also thank him for Lincoln Center, Jones Beach, and countless public swimming pools) and is the subject of this 15-minute television program called Longines Chronoscope that aired in 1953, at the height of his heyday.
Watch the video here

History

April 26, 2017

New Jane Jacobs documentary spotlights her achievements in NYC and lessons to be carried forward

By Emily Nonko

One of the most iconic battles to decide the fate of New York City was waged, in the 1950s and '60s, by Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses. He, a Parks Commissioner turned power broker, was known for his aggressive urban renewal projects, tearing tenements down to build higher, denser housing. She, often dismissed as a housewife, emerged as his most vocal critic—not to mention a skilled organizer with the ability to stop some of Moses' most ambitious plans. A new documentary, Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, takes a close look at the groundbreaking work of Jane Jacobs and its importance in our urbanizing world today. Matt Tyrnauer, the director behind Valentino: The Last Emperor, compiled footage of both Jacobs and Moses alongside 1950s and '60s New York, which is paired with voiceovers of Marissa Tomei and Vincent D’Onofrio as the battling duo. Experts in urban planning—everyone from Paul Goldberger to Robert A.M. Stern—also discuss Jacobs’ massive influence on housing policy and urban planning, as the film makes a convincing argument that Jacobs' planning philosophies are needed now more than ever.
Read our review of the film

The history of NYC’s Quonset Huts, Robert Moses-era veterans housing

A row of Quonset huts in Canarsie, via Brooklyn Public Library

April 21, 2017

The history of NYC’s Quonset Huts, Robert Moses-era veterans housing

By Dana Schulz

When veterans returned to NYC from WWII, they were met with a Depression-era housing shortage that resulted from a nearly 15-year lack of new development. To immediately address the issue, "master builder" Robert Moses (who by this time was reigning over the city's public housing projects) proposed erecting Quonset huts on vacant land in Brooklyn and Queens. These curved, corrugated steel "shacks" were used in the Pacific as barracks and offices, as they were lightweight and quick and easy to assemble. As the Brownstone Detectives tell us, after much debate, the city agreed to use more than 500 Federal surplus huts as temporary public housing on land along the Belt Parkway in the South Brooklyn neighborhoods of Canarsie and Jamaica Bay, as well as in Jackson Heights, Middle Village, and Corona in Queens.
Get the whole history

History

12 experts suggest creative ways to handle 9 million future New Yorkers

By Michelle Cohen

With New York City's population on its way to nine million, the city's infrastructure may be impressive, but it has its limits–including red tape and resource shortages–that will make it difficult to withstand the projected surge. Reminding us of the transformative innovations of Robert Moses–he of the big ideas and ego to match–Crains invited 12 firms who make their living wrangling infrastructure to hit us with some big ideas. Ahead of the upcoming summit, "Getting Ready for 9 Million New Yorkers," they've shared these visions for future (bigger, better) New York from top architects, designers and real estate experts. Ideas include some that have already proven themselves (repurposing existing track beds) and some already in the works (Bushwick's Rheingold brewery project) to others that Robert Moses might not love (shrinking the city's highways).
Take a look at these futuristic ideas for moving the city forward.

August 2, 2016

New Interactive Subway Game Lets You Build the Transit System of Your Dreams

By Michelle Cohen

A new interactive New York City subway planning game created by electrical engineer Jason Wright gives you a chance to try your hand at building the subway system of your dreams. Though based on a similar idea to Dinosaur Polo Club's Mini Metro, the game goes further and gives players a lot more to work with. “Brand New Subway” lets players start from scratch or use current subway maps, modify historic maps dating as far back as the 1900s or use maps from the future (like the planned 2025 subway system map pictured above) (h/t DNAinfo).
Try your hand at playing god of the subways

They Paved Washington Square Park and Put Up a Parking Lot

Image via NYU Local

February 4, 2016

They Paved Washington Square Park and Put Up a Parking Lot

By Michelle Cohen

It's true: Washington Square Park was, in part, Washington Square parking lot. In the 1960s, at the peak of the nation's car culture fixation, the Greenwich Village park was put into use as a parking lot, until cars were finally banished altogether in the 1970s, when the large circular plaza around the fountain was added. Some say the parking lot was an effort to keep hippies from gathering in the beloved public space.
Find out more

September 10, 2015

Mapping the Never-Built Highways of NYC from Robert Moses and Others

By Dana Schulz

If there's one thing most people attribute to Robert Moses it's highways. The master planner built 13 expressways throughout New York, including the Cross Bronx Expressway, Brooklyn Queens Expressway, the FDR Drive, and the West Side Highway. Love him or hate him, this was a pretty profound feat of urban planning. But had he been granted free rein, Moses would've constructed even more highways. The two failed attempts that remain most notorious are the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would've cut east-west along the residential areas of Broome Street, as well as a Mid-Manhattan Expressway, a proposed six-lane elevated highway along 30th Street. After mapping these aforementioned Moses proposals, cartographer Andrew Lynch decided to take his project one step further and create a map series of all the never-built highways in NYC, both from Moses and others.
Check out the full-size maps here

Transit

June 1, 2015

Stonewall Inn Gets Closer to Landmarking; Robert Moses vs. Jane Jacobs in Opera Form

By Dana Schulz

Just in time for LGBT Pride Month, the Landmarks Preservation Commission is looking to designate the Stonewall Inn as a city landmark. [NYT] Looking back at the Theater District’s 1982 Broadway Massacre. [Ephemeral NY] A forthcoming, untitled opera will depict the feud between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs. [NYO] This map uses NYPD data to show […]

Uncategorized

May 12, 2015

If Robert Moses Visited NYC Today, Here’s Where We’d Take Him

By Dana Schulz

If you have even the slightest interest in architecture, urban planning, and NYC history, you know Robert Moses. Unforgettably profiled as the "Power Broker" by Robert Caro, Moses was the "master builder" of mid-20th century New York and its environs. He was a larger-than-life character who had very set ways of approaching urban design. He advocated for highways over public transportation (he built 13 expressways through NYC), dense housing towers over low-scale neighborhoods, and communities segregated by race and class over organic, mixed-demographic areas. Of course, there are plenty of much-loved aspects of the city that also came from Moses–Jones Beach, the United Nations, and ten public swimming pools like the one in McCarren Park. Regardless of your feelings on Robert Moses, though, we can all agree that the city would not be the same without him. But a lot has changed since he lost his post as director of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority in the mid 1960s and even more so since he passed away in 1981. So we can't help but wonder what he would think of our fair city in 2015. To have a little fun, we planned a present-day tour for the ghost of Robert Moses.
See where we'd take the Power Broker here

Loathed and Lauded Robert Moses Gets His Own Anti-Hero Graphic Novel

Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs squaring off

March 6, 2015

Loathed and Lauded Robert Moses Gets His Own Anti-Hero Graphic Novel

By Dana Schulz

Love him or hate him, Robert Moses left an indelible mark on New York City's urban infrastructure. Most of us formed our opinions on the city's master planner after reading Robert Caro's Pulitzer Prize-winning book "The Power Broker." But if you're looking for a lighter (in both senses of the word; Caro's book weighs 3.3 pounds) read on Mr. Moses, you may want to check out the new graphic novel "Robert Moses: The Master Builder of New York City." Created by French writer Pierre Christin and Chilean artist Olivier Balez, the "anti-hero comic" is the perfect dramatic portrayal of Moses, both celebrating and criticizing his contributions to the city.
READ MORE

<b>Towers in the Park: Le Corbusier’s Influence in NYC</b>

Stuyvesant Town Oval via Marianne O’Leary via photopin cc

November 19, 2014

Towers in the Park: Le Corbusier’s Influence in NYC

By Dana Schulz

Any architecture history student or design nerd knows about Le Corbusier (1887-1965), one of the founders of modern architecture and a truly one-of-a-kind urban planner. For those of you who aren't as familiar with Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris (his given name; he was French-Swiss), one of his most noteworthy urban ideas was concept of "towers in the park." Part of his Contemporary City plan (and later Radiant City plan) to house three million inhabitants as a way to deal with overcrowding and slums, towers in the park were skyscrapers set in large, rectangular tracts of lands with open space between the buildings. Whether they were consciously influenced by Le Corbusier or not, many projects in New York City mimic his vision of towers in the park, and we've decided to take a look at the most well known of this architectural crop, as well as some other ways the famous architect left his mark on NYC.
Take a look at NYC's towers in the park

Robert Moses

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