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HOME WTC UPDATE Brutal NYC East Side Access History Favorites Twenty Exchange Madison Square Garden 1879 - 1968 Historic Glass Plate Photographs Aerial Views NYC Comptroller: Remove Cars From BQE Before the Flatiron: 1900 Store Store Home Photography Maps and Drawings

Maps and Drawings Aerial View of New York, 1879

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Aerial View of New York, 1879

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Aerial View of New York, 1879

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One Times Square, the most expensive billboard and most viewed building in the world, is undergoing a transformation, allowing us to see the 1960s facade for the first time in decades. The Times Tower's owner, Jamestown, is in the process of redeveloping the building with new billboards including a 350-foot LED screen and has floated the idea of adding an observatory for prime New Year's Eve ball-drop views.
The Times Tower at One Times Square is drastically different today than when it was first constructed in 1904. Originally known as Longacre Square, the intersection of 7th Avenue and #Broadway at #42ndStreet was renamed Times Square after The New York Times relocated there in 1904, building their headquarters – the Times Tower – at One Times Square. Crowds have congregated in #TimesSquare for news and collective celebrations since then when a fireworks display inaugurated the Times Tower followed by the first NYE ball drop from the Tower in 1907.
In 1963 the building was sold to the Allied Chemical Corporation, who stripped the terra cotta facade and replaced with a modern marble and glass exterior, now visible for the first time in decades. Today the ad space on the historic #skyscraper is more expensive per square foot than the office space inside, leaving the interior space has been empty with the exception of the Walgreens on the ground floor.

The shops, restaurants, and the Vessel at Hudson Yards open at noon today.

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio has revealed a plan to protect Manhattan's shoreline from flooding that includes flood barriers in the harbor as tall as 500 feet. "The plan we’re announcing will invest a half-billion dollars to fortify most of Lower Manhattan with grassy berms in parks and removable barriers than can be anchored in place as storms approach. But there’s one part of this area that will prove more complex, and more costly, to defend than all the others combined.

South Street Seaport and the Financial District, along the eastern edge of Lower Manhattan, sit so close to sea level — just eight feet above the waterline — and are so crowded with utilities, sewers, and subway lines that we can’t build flood protection on the land. So we’ll have to build more land itself.

Over the coming years, we will push out the Lower Manhattan coastline as much as 500 feet, or up to two city blocks, into the East River, from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Battery. The new land will be higher than the current coast, protecting the neighborhoods from future storms and the higher tides that will threaten its survival in the decades to come.

When we complete the coastal extension, which could cost $10 billion, Lower Manhattan will be secure from rising seas through 2100." -Mayor de Blasio

NYC Comptroller: Remove Cars From BQE
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NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer has proposed a radical solution to the crumbling Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The plan calls for removing all cars between the Battery Tunnel and Navy Yard, which make up the large majority of the traffic on the roadway. With the cars removed, the roadway would not need to be completely rebuilt, saving money and time.

Details of the plan: -Deck over the entrenched BQE along Hicks Street in #CobbleHill and Carroll Gardens and construct a linear park on top. -Below the deck, two lanes would be devoted to trucks (one in each direction) and select bus service. The truck lanes would merge into the lowest level of the 3-tired section north of Atlantic Ave and would require decking over Furman Street. -The park above would continue onto the middle level of the three-tiered section, below the promenade and above the new truck route. -This would mean only one level has to be rebuilt, saving time and money and reconnecting the neighborhoods with the waterfront. -Cars will be forced to take the Battery Tunnel, Queens-Midtown Tunnel, or Belt Parkway.
What do you think of Scott Stringer’s proposal?

THE TUNNEL TO NOWHERE 🚇

Yesterday we launched our story on the East Side Access project (link in bio) with maps from the 1968 Transit transit expansion program that proposed constructing a tunnel under the East River to bring the Long Island Railroad to Midtown. Construction started on the tunnel in 1969, and half a century later the tunnel hasn't seen a single LIRR train. Here's the story of the Tunnel to Nowhere.

The '69 expansion plan called for a double-decked tunnel – a four-track immersed tube under the East River and Roosevelt Island. The tunnel’s top level would be used by the IND 63rd Street subway line (today’s F and Q) and the bottom for the new LIRR East Midtown connection. With funding secured, construction on began in October 1969.

While construction on the tunnel progressed, the MTA was planning a Third Avenue LIRR terminal, dubbed the Metropolitan Transportation Center (more on that tomorrow). Disagreements over the Transportation Center and an emerging fiscal crisis delayed the construction of the tunnel, which took over two decades to complete. By 1980, it was reported that the lower level tracks in the tunnel would never see a LIRR train. The New York Times referred to this as a “dead-end to nowhere:” In 1989, twenty years after construction started, the 63rd Street tunnel opened with F train subway service and a new station on Roosevelt Island. But with two vacant tracks below, terminating at 29th Street in Long Island City and 63rd Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan, the lower level would lay dormant for the next three decades...
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Visit our website to read about the entire history of East Side Access, get an update the status of construction, and see recent construction photos, and an illustrated description of the concourse and tracks 150 feet below #GrandCentralTerminal.

Stay tuned for more on East Side Access all week! Visit our website (link in bio) to read the whole story.

#MapMondays - 1968 East Side Access maps

Today we launched our story on East Side Access (link in bio) - East Side Access is a megaproject that connects the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) to Grand Central Terminal via more than 8 miles of new tunnels and a new eight-track train terminal 150 feet below Grand Central.

These maps are from the MTA’s ambitious transit expansion program in 1969 that first called for a #LongIslandRailroad terminal in East Midtown. The proposal included a new East River tunnel at 63rd Street connecting to a terminal on Third Ave and 48th Street that would be constructed with an office tower on top. The ‘69 expansion plan also included a proposal for constructing the #SecondAvenueSubway, which would have provided subway connections to the new LIRR terminal. By the end of the year, construction had started on the 63rd Street Tunnel... (More to come tomorrow!) Visit our website to read about the entire history of East Side Access, get an update the status of construction, and see recent construction photos, and an illustrated description of the concourse and tracks 150 feet below #GrandCentralTerminal.

Stay tuned for more on East Side Access all week! Follow @eastsideaccess for daily updates on the project.

#MapMonday #EastSideAccess #mtacapitalconstruction #mta #lirr #publictransit #nychistory #urbanism #midtown #grandcentral #haroldinterlocking #sunnysideyards #transithistory #nyctransit #nycsubway #subway

The Midtown skyline from Welfare Island, 1950s.

Subway to Coney Island, 1981

Who loved looking out of the front window in the subway when you were a kid? We still do- although the newer cars make it harder to see. 🚇 📸Raymond Depardon

nycurbanism@gmail.com

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