When New York looked like Ancient Rome

[Music] I'd like to thank Trade coffee for sponsoring this video for residents and visitors alike New York City means modern the latest restaurant the hot new show The Cutting Edge of architecture but in concept and design many aspects of the city that never sleeps are 2,000 years old directly inspired by Roman architecture and urban planning if you've ever looked down on New York from the observation decks of the Empire State Building or Rockefeller Center you've seen the neat Street grid that covers most of Manhattan that grid dates to the beginning of the 19th century when a commission appointed by the New York City Council proposed laying 12 parallel Avenues the length of Manhattan and Crossing them at 200t intervals with perpendicular streets besides making Manhattan pry prone to traffic jams this scheme placed New York in the tradition of classical City Planning there were New World precedents for gritted streets from Colonial Philadelphia to the planned cities of Spanish Mexico all of these however traced or claimed descent from the rectilinear streets of Roman camps and cities although the Commissioners who laid out New York's grid made no explicit reference to Antiquity they set aside land for the grand parade a large park for military drills in the manner of Rome's campus Marcus if the commissioner's plan referenced Roman City Planning implicitly the croen aqueduct completed in 1842 explicitly imitated the most famous products of Roman engineering running 40 M from the coton river in Westchester County to a Reservoir in Midtown Manhattan it was widely compared with the Roman aqueducts the design of the high bridge over the Harlem River with its spectacular Roman style arcade made the analogy clear the most obviously Roman components of New York's modern cityscape are neoclassical public buildings and monuments most of these date to a concentrated period in late 19th and early 20th centuries at the apogee of the city beautiful movement though rooted in a tradition of Civic Improvement measures the movement was catalyzed by the 1893 Colombian Exposition in Chicago the shimmering White City created for that World's Fair by a Consortium of prominent Architects inspired reformers Across America to imagine that impressive public places could alleviate a wide range of social problems the only architectural style suitable for such Grand Ambitions was neoclassicism classical architecture was assumed to en Noble Community through a visual language both Timeless And Timely when for example Congress de decided to apply City beautiful principles to the National Mall in Washington D.C a delegation of Architects was sent among other places to Adrian's Villa in tiv in search of suitable precedents although it inspired reimaginations of entire cities like the famous Burnham plan of Chicago the principles of the city beautiful movement were usually realized through individual buildings with neoclassical detailing and a Roman sense of grandeur in New York YK City the most distinguished such buildings were produced by The Firm of McKim me and white among the most recognizable McKim me and white commissions were a series of cultural institutions including the wings of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and two academic libraries one for Columbia University the other for a campus of NYU modeled on Rome's Pantheon The Firm was also responsible for the Manhattan municipal building a 40 story NE classical Leviathan entered through a Roman triumphal Arch and crowned by a choir of pediments and thoy adjacent fulley Square bounded by two other imposing neoclassical buildings of similar vintage suggests how much of New York might have looked if the city beautiful movement had lasted longer as it stands Foley square is New York's closest equivalent of a forum the Manhattan Bridge a short distance from Foley Square shares its neoclassical styling the colonade that bounds the approach Plaza on the Manhattan side was inspired by St Peter square and the Gateway through which traffic passes was modeled on the Arch of Titus in Rome impressive though the Manhattan municipal building and Manhattan Bridge are neither could compare with Penn Station arguably the most spectacular neoclassical structure ever built in America the main waiting room 2 city blocks long 150 ft tall and clad in Italian travertine was modeled on the bads of kacala the architect was so concerned with Fidelity to his model that he visited the bads with a team of workmen whom he posed among the ruins to gain a sense of scale it was in monuments however that the city beautiful movement found its purest Expressions the most famous example in New York is the Washington Square Arch another McKim Meen white design modeled on the Arch of Titus its decoration combines classical and American motifs to celebrate the Centenary of George Washington's inauguration only budg of constraints prevented the installation of a full-blown classical quadria on the attic the Washington Square Arch and Penn Station Mark the apogee of Roman influence on the cityscape of New York finished respectively in 1895 and 1910 they were products of an era in which New York was poised to overtake London as the largest and richest city on earth and America was assuming unprecedented prominence on the world stage neoclassical architecture universally recognized and respected expressed the confidence of the burgeoning metropolis and Nation but it also acknowledged cultural allegiance to the old world only with the skyscraper boom of the 1920s would New York City come to be associated with a distinctively American architectural style and begin to grow apart from the legacy of Imperial Rome for a more in-depth discussion of how classical architecture shaped New York check out my podcast interview with Professor Elizabeth MCCA which is linked on screen and in the video description today's video was sponsored by trade trade is a subscription service that delivers coffee right to your door when and how you want it their algorithm sorts through hundreds of flavor profiles to find the blend best suited to your preferences once you've selected a blend produced by one of the more than 55 local roters trade works with it's sent to your home this is my second bag of coffee from trade this time I received the bomb senso blend from Huckleberry Roasters of Denver the flavor is just like the bag says rich and full bodied with hints of chocolate a great nostalgic blend visit drink trade.com goldenstone or click the link in the description to sign up and save $15 on select plans and get your first bag of coffee free my new book in St Emperor's sunken cities and earthquake machines is now available as a paperback ebook and audio book you can buy your copy through Amazon Barnes & Noble or your local bookstore for more tollen Stone content check out my channels toen Stone footnotes and Scenic roots to the past which are linked in the the description please consider joining other 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Channel: toldinstone

Views: 493,478

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Id: 6kWo6rRvKqA

Length: 8min 17sec (497 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 12 2024