A Century Downtown: A Visual History of Lower Manhattan

Showcasing an unprecedented array of photographs, paintings, renderings, drawings, and other images culled from dozens of archives and individual collections worldwide, A Century Downtown ensures that no one will ever forget the vast and varied history of this famous part of New York City.   Catchphrases like “urban renewal” have a nice ring to them, but none measure up to the tectonic, often brutal metamorphoses that have remade Lower Manhattan over the last century. Downtown’s defining cataclysmic event is undeniably 9/11. Yet we often forget that the original World Trade Center grew out of the wholesale demolition of an entire neighborhood, home to more than 300 electronics businesses employing some 30,000 workers. We forget that the first “worst terrorist attack in American history”—the Wall Street bombing of 1920—claimed 38 lives and triggered a tsunami of anti-immigrant sentiment that swept Warren G. Harding into the White House. We forget that Washington Street was once home to the biggest Arab-American community in the country, known as Little Syria, eventually displaced by the transportation appetite of a burgeoning suburbia.   A Century Downtown raises these and other pivotal events—some mere footnotes to the city’s official history—into sharp relief. It’s a remarkable visual journey guided by a fascinating historical narrative that sheds new light on the evolution of Lower Manhattan over the past hundred years.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • 1919-1974
  • THE RISE OF WALL STREET
  • BLOODY THURSDAY
  • RADIO ROW: TINKERERS’ PARADISE
  • MOTHER COLONY: L ITTLE SYRI A
  • BLACK TUESDAY
  • THE R ISE AND FALL OF NEWSPAPER ROW
  • PRESIDENT VS . POWER BROKER
  • WASHINGTON MARKET
  • CANYON OF HEROES
  • THE CURB MARKET
  • THE BANKERS CLUB
  • THE BROTHERS ROCKEFELLER
  • RADIO PARADISE LOST
  • FULTON F ISH MARKET
  • MONUMENTAL DEMOLITION
  • TWI N TOWERS: CITIES I N THE SKY
  • THE END OF MILLER HIGHWAY
  • 1975-1919
  • THE DAREDEVILS
  • LANDFILL CITY: RIVIERA ON THE HUDSON
  • THE BIDDING WAR
  • WITNESS: THREE DAYS AT GROUND ZERO
  • THE MISSING
  • THE PAINTER
  • MASTER PLAN
  • THE ULTIMATE PRIZE
  • MEMORIAL V ISIONS
  • REFLECTING ABSENCE
  • THE OCULUS
  • OCCUPY WALL STREET
  • 21ST CENTURY TOWERS
  • RESURRECTION
  • SCULPTURE IN THE SKY
  • GRAFFITI ON HIGH
  • DOWNTOWN ICON
  • OFFICE OF TOMORROW
  • TRIANGLE BELOW CANAL
  • IMAGINING THE FUTURE

  • ISBN

    9781576879443
  • Title

    A Century Downtown: A Visual History of Lower Manhattan
  • Author

    Matt Kapp, designed by Chris Mueller
  • Publisher

    powerHouse Books
  • Publication year

    2020
  • Binding

    Hardcover
  • Language

    English

A Century Downtown: A Visual History of Lower Manhattan

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Cite: "A Century Downtown: A Visual History of Lower Manhattan" 24 Jan 2020. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/932500/a-century-downtown-a-visual-history-of-lower-manhattan> ISSN 0719-8884

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