About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherColumbia University Press

ISBN-100231159900

ISBN-139780231159906

eBay Product ID (ePID)109260911

Product Key Features

Number of Pages224 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication NameGreatest Grid : the Master Plan of Manhattan, 1811-2011

Publication Year2012

SubjectUnited States / State & Local / Middle Atlantic (DC, De, Md, NJ, NY, Pa), Public Policy / City Planning & Urban Development, United States / General

TypeTextbook

Subject AreaPolitical Science, History

AuthorHilary Ballon

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height0.1 in

Item Weight45.5 Oz

Item Length1.2 in

Item Width0.9 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2011-037599

TitleLeadingThe

Dewey Edition23

Grade FromCollege Graduate Student

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal307.1821609747

SynopsisLaying out Manhattan's street grid and providing a rationale for the growth of New York was the city's first great civic enterprise, not to mention a brazenly ambitious project and major milestone in the history of city planning. The grid created the physical conditions for business and society to flourish and embodied the drive and discipline for which the city would come to be known. Published to coincide with an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York celebrating the bicentennial of the Commissioners' 1811 Plan of Manhattan, this volume does more than memorialize such a visionary effort, it serves as an enduring reference full of rare images and information. The Greatest Grid shares the history of the Commissioners' plan, incorporating archival photos and illustrations, primary documents and testimony, and magnificent maps with essential analysis. The text, written by leading historians of New York City, follows the grid's initial design, implementation, and evolution, and then speaks to its enduring influence. A foldout map, accompanied by explanatory notes, reproduces the Commissioners' original plan, and additional maps and prints chart the city's pre-1811 irregular growth patterns and local precedent for the grid's design. Constituting the first sustained examination of this subject, this text describes the social, political, and intellectual figures who were instrumental in remaking early New York, not in the image of old Europe but as a reflection of other American cities and a distinct New World sensibility. The grid reaffirmed old hierarchies while creating new opportunities for power and advancement, giving rise to the multicultural, highly networked landscape New Yorkers thrive in today.

LC Classification NumberHT168