The Greatest Grid the Master Plan of Manhattan 1811–2011 Edited by Hilary Ballon
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THE GREATEST GRID The Master Plan of Manhattan 1811–2011 Edited by Hilary Ballon Museum of the City of New York and Columbia University Press Contents Preface 9 The Greatest Grid The Master Plan of Manhattan, 1811–2011 E ditor’s Acknowledgments 11 Introduction 13 Edited by Hilary Ballon Co-Published by 1. Before the Grid 17 Reflection: Michael R. Bloomberg 2. The Commissioners’ Plan of 1811 27 The Museum of the City of New York 3. Surveying the City 57 4. Opening Streets 73 Reflection: James Traub 5. Selling Lots: From Land to Real Estate 87 Columbia University Press Reflection: Rafael Viñoly Graphic Design: Thumb 6. The Public Realm: Squares, Parks and Avenues 103 ©Copyright 2011, Museum of the City of New York 7. The Development of the East Side 127 All rights reserved. Reflection: Alexander Garvin Printed and bound in the United States. 8. Improving the West Side 141 9. Counterpoint: Broadway 155 All reasonable attempts have been made to identify owners of copyright. Errors or omissions will be corrected in future 10. Rethinking the Grid Above 155th Street 169 volumes. No part of this volume may be reproduced without Reflection: Wendy Evans Joseph the written permission of the publisher, except in the context of reviews. 11. Modern Reforms 179 Reflection: Amanda M. Burden Individuals who do not use conventional print may contact the publisher to obtain this publication in an alternate format. 12. Moving on the Grid 195 Reflection: Edward Glaeser Distributed by Columbia University Press 61 West 62nd Street 13. Urban Paradigm: The Grid in Contemporary Thought 211 New York, NY 10023 212.459.0600 Contributors 219 First Edition, 2011 Selected Bibliography 220 ISBN: 978-0-231-15990-6 Please contact the publisher for Library of Congress Index 222 catalog-in-publication information. About the Museum of the City of New York 224 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 THE GREATEST GRID The Master Plan of Manhattan 1811–2011 Honorary Chairs The exhibition is supported Additional support has by generous grants from: been received from: Amanda M. Burden Chair, City Planning Commission and Director, Dyson Foundation American Continental Group, Inc. New York City Department of City Planning ConEdison AvalonBay Communities, Inc. Benchmark Builders, Inc. Scott M. Stringer The Durst Organization Suzanne Davis and Rolf Ohlhausen Manhattan Borough President Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Inc. Cooper Joseph Studio The 42nd Street Fund Gardiner & Theobald Co-chairs New York Building Foundation Major sponsorship is also The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation Richard T. Anderson provided by: Robert Derector Associates President, New York Building Congress Jill and John Chalsty Silverstein Properties Jill Chalsty The Solow Art and Architecture Foundation Structure Tone, Inc. Founder and Chairman, Community Todd DeGarmo/STUDIOS Architecture Taconic Charitable Foundation for Education Foundation Nixon Peabody LLP VVA Project Managers & Consultants Todd DeGarmo Weidlinger Associates, Inc. CEO, STUDIOS Architecture Ronay and Richard L. Menschel The exhibition is also made Ronay Menschel Vornado Realty Trust possible with funds from: Chairman, Phipps Houses Manhattan Delegation, New York City Council New York Council for the Humanities Mitchell S. Steir Chairman and CEO, Studley, Inc. The companion book is supported by: Furthermore: A Program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund < Detail of The Commissioners’ Plan of 1811, Figure 8 6E TH GREATEST GRID E ditor’s Acknowledgments Birthdays come and go, but I am grateful that Susan Henshaw The authors of the catalog entries are indicated by the initials Jones and Sarah Henry were persuaded that this one should be listed below. noted. I thank the team at the Museum of the City of New York for their commitment to this project, most especially to Susan, whose KA Kate Ascher dynamic leadership has made the Museum of the City of New York HB Hilary Ballon as exciting as its namesake city; to Sarah, whose incisive intellect MH Marguerite Holloway and story-telling mastery make her, as far as I am concerned, an ideal BH Bill Hubbard Jr. thought partner; and to Autumn Nyiri, whose organizational skills were WEJ Wendy Evans Joseph indispensable to the realization of this project. Ever since working MK Matthew Knutzen with Wendy Evans Joseph on an exhibition about Frank Lloyd Wright’s GK Gerard Koeppel towers more than a decade ago, I dreamed of working with her on JMS Joanna Merwood-Salisbury another project as the exhibition designer. She asks questions about MM Michael Miscione how to exhibit objects that reveal new perspectives and expand MP Max Page the ways to understand the subject. In designing the book and the AR Andrea Renner exhibition graphics, Luke Bulman and Jessica Young of Thumb were JR Jeffrey Ribeiro especially thoughtful about the play between abstract and concrete RR Reuben Rose-Redwood qualities of the Manhattan grid. Jeffrey Ribeiro, an urban planner in ES Eric Sanderson the making, was the effective editorial assistant on the book. CS Caleb Smith My gratitude to Carolyn Yerkes and Andrea Renner, the assistant CW Carol Willis curator of The Greatest Grid, is commingled with intense pride and CY Carolyn Yerkes affection. As this book was completed, these two extraordinary former students of mine completed their PhDs and launched their professional careers. Carolyn demonstrated her amazing range and insight as she effortlessly moved from the early modern period, her primary field of research, into modern urban theory in her contribu- tions to this book. From the beginning of this project, Andrea infused it with her rigor, creative research, attentiveness to each object, and nuanced interpretations. The Greatest Grid could not have been com- pleted without Andrea, whose intelligence touches every part of it. I relish the chance to thank those I love and whose love sustained me during a challenging time: Elizabeth Easton, Sarah McPhee, and Mariët Westermann for their precious gift of abiding friendship; my devoted, unstinting mother Harriet Ballon Lucks of indomitable spirit; Orin Kramer, my resolute husband with invincible powers of reason- ing that bring clarity and calm, and our beloved children Sophie and Charles, a miraculous trio that gave me what no medicine could, a profound sense of connection, enveloping love, and strength. Like the grid, this book was enriched by multiple voices. New York has attracted a community of outstanding scholars and urban thinkers. I am grateful that so many were willing to participate in this project and contribute reflections, mini-essays, and catalog entries. Marguerite Holloway, author of a forthcoming book on John Randel, < Detail of The Commissioners’ Plan of 1811, Figure 8 Jr. was especially generous and assisted with the Randel materials. 10E TH GREATEST GRID 11 34 The Commissioners’ Plan of 1811 36 Figure 17. Figure 18. Figure 19. credited Morris with running the street com- to his vast, mostly inherited landholdings; headstrong visionary Morris and the skilled Precedents and Context this was part of the site’s appeal. The Spanish The street grid of Lima is known as the The gridiron plan was modeled in part on 19. Philadelphia mission, which presumably chose a vision of at his death he was said to be the state’s surveyor De Witt dominating the decision- often located their cities on indigenous settle- “damero de Pizarro” (Pizarro’s draftboard) the example of ancient Roman outpost cities, Thomas Holme, “A portraiture of the order and regularity he had for Manhattan, largest landowner. He served briefly in the making. 18. Law of the Indies ments in order to establish dominion over the because he personally helped mark off the where the grid became a symbol of rational city of Philadelphia in the province of but we have no evidence. He never detailed New Jersey General Assembly and repre- Some contemporaries, prompted by the Joseph Mulder, view of Lima, in Francisco de population and to take advantage of existing lines of the streets with a ruler and cord. order imposed on a subjugated population. Pennsylvania in America,” 1683. The the commission’s work in either public or per- sented the state in the United States Senate vagaries of cursive and pronunciation, mis- Echave y Assu, La Estrella de Lima convertida infrastructure. The regular street grid formed The original grid had square blocks, 400 In the 1570s Viceroy Francisco de Toledo Athenaeum of Philadelphia sonal documents. The explanatory remarks (1790–98), resigning during his second term takenly spelled his name Rutherford, which en sol sobre sus tres coronas. (Amberes: J.B. a crucial part of their strategy: it effaced pre- feet per side, arranged thirteen blocks by launched a campaign to build reducciones, In 1681 King Charles II granted William released with the commissioners’ plan in to retire, as an obituary put it, “to the more later generations of the family, perhaps with Verdussen, 1688). Public domain vious organizational systems and divided the nine blocks with 40-foot-wide streets. In this gridiron settlement towns, throughout the Penn a huge tract of land fronting on the 1811 are written with Morris’s elegance and agreeable pursuits of private life.” It seems a sigh, eventually adopted. GK Gridiron plans were an essential feature land into even plots that could be quickly reas- view, an open square with a fountain in the region. The use of the grid marked the exten- Delaware River. A year later, Penn arrived clarity but no individual authorship was possible that he was tapped for the street of Spanish colonial settlements in the New signed to new settlers. middle is visible near the bridge across the sion of colonial power and administration in his new colony and devised a plan for the claimed and no early drafts have emerged commission through the influence of fel- World, where the conquistadors, and later the In designing the plan of Lima, Pizarro fol- river.