Robert Mosesand the Modern City: The Transformation of New York

摘要

'Robert Moses (1881-1981) had a greater impact on the physical character of New York City than any other individual, and given how the process of city building has changed since his time, it is unlikely anyone in the future will match him.' (p. 65) So state Hilary Ballon and Kenneth T Jackson in the introduction to their publication Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Transformation of New York, released to coincide with a series of three exhibitions: Remaking the Metropolis, at The Museum of the City of New York, Slum Clearance and the Super Block Solution, at the Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, and The Road to Recreation, held at The Queens Museum of Art, New York. As a totality, this work is directed toward both marking and celebrating the achievement of Moses, New York city bureaucrat and planner, while equally raising questions as to what it means to build in the city today. As such, the texts constituting the publication claim for themselves a territory of revision as a corrective gesture; a wriggling out from under the burden of mythology surrounding Moses.