Re: mentalities: Moses v/s Jacob [New York] (exhibits)

Robert Moses and the Modern City: Remaking the Metropolis focuses on the 
extensive physical transformation of New York City guided by Robert 
Moses from 1934 to 1968. Believing that “the city must be saved,” Moses 
built a network of roads and bridges, including the Triborough Bridge, 
to bring people to the city, initiated attractions such as Lincoln 
Center, and revitalized city parks, including Central Park. At the same 
time, his projects disrupted neighborhoods and increased the city’s 
dependence on the automobile. The exhibition explores the controversial 
vision of this important force in planning and development and considers 
his legacy in the context of the urban issues of his time. Documents, 
photographs, publicity brochures, and never before exhibited three 
dimensional models of Moses’ projects – both realized and failed – trace 
the complicated history of this complicated figure.


The exhibition is complemented by concurrent exhibitions: Robert Moses 
and the Modern City: The Road to Recreation at the Queens Museum of Art 
and Robert Moses and the Modern City: Slum Clearance and the Superblock 
Solution at the Wallach Gallery of Columbia University. A related book 
co-edited by curator Hilary Ballon and Kenneth T. Jackson is published 
by W.W. Norton (2007).

official site: http://www.mcny.org/exhibitions/current/466.html

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ROBERT MOSES RECONSIDERED:
BLIGHT IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
A noted urban thinker reminds us what was lost when Robert Moses deemed 
areas 'slums' and tore them down. The third in a series of essays on an 
ambitious three-part museum exhibit. > By Roberta Brandes Gratz


“Everybody, it would seem, is for the rebuilding of our cities…But this 
is not the same as liking cities…most of the rebuilding under way and in 
prospect is being designed by people who don’t like cities. They do not 
merely dislike the noise and the dirt and the congestion. They dislike 
the city’s variety and concentration, its tension, its hustle and 
bustle. The new redevelopment projects will be physically in the city, 
but in spirit they deny it – and the values that since the beginning of 
civilization have always been at the heart of great cities.”
These thoughts were written half a century ago by William H. Whyte Jr., 
best known for his championing of the activities in public spaces that 
define urban vitality. The part about "not liking cities," along with 
other pointed quotes from Jane Jacobs, Charles Abrams and Robert Caro, 
is included in the exhibit “Slum Clearance and the Superblock Solution” 
at Columbia University's Wallach Gallery, one of the three museum 
re-examinations of Robert Moses now on view in New York City.

The inclusion of such quotes – amid a great assortment of photographs, 
planning maps, brochures and historical information – is significant...

cont'd: 
http://www.citylimits.org/content/articles/viewarticle.cfm?article_id=3301&content_type=1&media_type=3