Will There Be Homes and a High Line-Style Park Over the Prospect Expressway?
A park above the highway is one of the ideas suggested in a new study initiated by Eric Adams and conducted by NYU urban planning graduate students.
The Red Hook Houses: Housing Brooklynites During the Great Depression
When NYCHA was founded in 1934, one of their first proposals for Brooklyn was a housing project in Red Hook.
As the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge Turns 53, See It Under Construction in Vintage Photos
While mention of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge today might stir up grumbles about tolls and traffic, when it first opened 53 years ago this month it was an engineering marvel predicted to transform transportation between boroughs.
Kidding Around in the Prospect Park Playgrounds (Photos)
Relive the days when you swung with abandon and dug enthusiastically in sandboxes with a glance through vintage photos of kids at play.
Hated, Beloved and Highly Used: The Past, Present and Future of the Brooklyn-Transforming BQE
The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway radically changed Brooklyn in the 20th century. Here's a look at its history and the ever-evolving proposals for repairing and rethinking it in the 21st.
How Master Builder Robert Moses Transformed Brooklyn as We Know It
More than anyone else in recent history, Robert Moses shaped the physical infrastructure of Brooklyn. We drive on his roads, stroll through his parks, live in his housing developments and are surrounded by his influence at every turn. From the 1920s through the late ’60s, Moses molded New York City like clay, creating a legacy of projects that are greatly used, while being loved, hated and controversial, even today.
QueensNYC event highlight: Robert Moses Bike Tour of the Rockaways
Image source: Neotint on Flickr
Take advantage of the last official days of summer with this bike tour of the Rockaways (here’s the starting point – GMAP), focusing on the area’s history, especially the contributions by Robert Moses. Sponsored by the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance, the ride will last 1-3pm, and run 10 miles along the Rockaway boardwalk east to Jacob Riis Park and the Marine Parkway Bridge. Although bikes are available for loan, they’re on a first-come-first-serve basis, so be sure to RSVP beforehand.
Robert Moses Bike Tour of the Rockaways
Walkabout: Taking the Waters, Part 3
Read Part 1 and Part 2 of this story.
During the lean years of the Great Depression, New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses set out an ambitious goal to build swimming pools to relieve the summer heat for New York’s overheated masses. Armed with funds from the Works Progress Administration, a federally funded New Deal infrastructure program, Moses took on the herculean task of building a record number of pools and recreation centers, all to be ready by the summer of 1936.
In Brooklyn, four centers opened: McCarren Park, in Greenpoint, Red Hook Recreation Center in Red Hook, Sunset Park Center, Sunset Park, and the Betsy Head Center in Brownsville. All of the swimming pools in these centers were enormous, the largest being the McCarren pool, which could hold 6,800 people. They were all state of the art facilities, designed by famed architect Aymar Embury II, and landscape architect Gilmore D. Clarke.
