Friday, September 9, 2016

ARCHITECTURE: OLD MANHATTANVILLE

This view of Old Broadway just north of 125th Street alway reminds us of the major transformations that have happened in Harlem's former industrial village over the past 100 years every time we walk by.  There used to be a lot of low rise buildings from the 19th century at this residential intersection of Manhattanville but only a handful remain today since they were demolished to make way for massive public housing towers.  Those buildings that went up in the mid century are actually to the immediate right of the photo but we cropped out the image to see get a feel of the original architecture in the neighborhood.

Further west on Broadway, one can now see the finished science building of the new Columbia Manhattanvill campus which speeds things up to the future.  Since the skyline of this section of West Harlem has been dominated by the projects for so long, this new addition actually brings in more of a balance between structures in the surrounding block.  Big changes are happening every half century in the Harlem and Manhattanville will definitely look a lot different in the next 10 years.

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