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TRA(I)NSFORMATION
Online Talk by Carol Willis
Launching the Lecture Series
PARK AVENUE: PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE
Tuesday, May 19 at 6:00pm
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In conjunction with the Museum's current exhibition, The Invention of Park Avenue, the Skyscraper Museum has organized a "semester" of lectures and programs that will examine the catalytic connection of rail and real estate that has driven Park Avenue's successive eras of development. PARK AVENUE: PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE will launch on Tuesday, May 19th at 6pm, with an online lecture by Carol Willis, the Museum's director and the exhibition's curator. All other programs will be in person.
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Willis' talk will illustrate how the New York Central Railroad transformed its right of way into Manhattan via Fourth Avenue into a spectacularly successful infrastructure project that linked rail and real estate, not only as a revenue stream, but as what became an engine of urban development. This change happened in three eras. In its first phase, Park Avenue was a zone of posh hotels, clubs, and apartments. The "highest and best use" began to shift toward tall office buildings in the mid-1920s. In the postwar years, a boom in speculative office towers answered growing demand for modern, air-conditioned space. Soon, the iconic Lever House, Seagram, and Union Carbide buildings recast Park Avenue as an elite corporate corridor. In the 21st century, incentivized by the City's rezoning of East Midtown, new skyscrapers of even greater height and density have continued to redefine its trophy architecture and secure the future of Midtown's prestigious address. Join us for an historical overview that will set the stage for the programs that will follow.
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Additional programs featuring a range of historians, authors, architects, planners, and policy-makers planned for June and July can be viewed on the series page here.
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To register for this FREE program, click on the link above to RSVP. You will be redirected to Ticketstripe to reserve your seat. The Zoom room is limited to 100 people. If you can't enter the Zoom, you can watch the program live on our YouTube channel when it begins at 6pm. Museum members receive priority registration by emailing prog...@skyscraper.org. You do NOT need to register for the YouTube livestream.
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Image credits from left to right: Grand Central train yard looking north-west from 44th Street, 1904, courtesy of the National Museum of American History; 1915 Bromley Fire Insurance Map, overlaid on a diagram and map of Grand Central’s new track system. Aerial photograph of Park Avenue, Howard Sochurek, c. 1975. Howard Sochurek photographic archive, camh-dob-040405, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin. Courtesy of the Howard Sochurek Estate.
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The programs of The Skyscraper Museum are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
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The programs of The Skyscraper Museum are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
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