Wednesday, May 27, 2020 – The East River Drive Promenade
WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 2020
The 63rd Edition of From Our Archives
(c) ROOSEVELT ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
THE EAST RIVER DRIVE
ILLUSTRATIONS BY HUGH FERRIS
DEDICATION: JUNE 18, 1940
80 YEARS ON THE F.D.R.
Hugh Macomber Ferriss (July 12, 1889 – January 28, 1962) was an American architect, illustrator, and poet.[1][2] He was associated with exploring the psychological condition of modern urban life, a common cultural enquiry of the first decades of the twentieth century. After his death a colleague said he ‘influenced my generation of architects’ more than any other man.” Ferriss also influenced popular culture, for example Gotham City (the setting for Batman) and Kerry Conran’s Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
Early in his career, Ferriss began to specialize in creating architectural renderings for other architects’ work rather than designing buildings himself. As a delineator, his task was to create a perspective drawing of a building or project. This was done either as part of the sales process for a project, or, more commonly, to advertise or promote the project to a wider audience. Thus, his drawings were frequently destined for annual shows or advertisements. As a result of this, his works were often published (rather than just given to the architect’s client), and Ferriss acquired a reputation.
After he had set up as a free-lance artist, he found himself much sought after. In 1912, Ferriss arrived in New York City and was soon employed as a delineator for Cass Gilbert. Some of his earliest drawings are of Gilbert’s Woolworth Building; they reveal that Ferriss’s illustrations had not yet developed his signature dark, moody appearance. In 1915, with Gilbert’s blessing, he left the firm and set up shop as an independent architectural delineator.
In 1914, Ferriss married Dorothy Lapham, an editor and artist for Vanity Fair. Daily News Building, NYC By 1920, Ferriss had begun to develop his own style, frequently presenting the building at night, lit up by spotlights, or in a fog, as if photographed with a soft focus. The shadows cast by and on the building became almost as important as the revealed surfaces. His style elicited emotional responses from the viewer. His drawings were being regularly featured by such diverse publications as the Century Magazine, the Christian Science Monitor, Harper’s Magazine, and Vanity Fair. His writings also began to appear in various publications.
In 1916, New York City had passed landmark zoning laws that regulated and limited the massing of buildings according to a formula. The reason was to counteract the tendency for buildings to occupy the whole of their lot and go straight up as far as was possible. Since many architects were not sure exactly what these laws meant for their designs, in 1922 the skyscraper architect Harvey Wiley Corbett commissioned Ferriss to draw a series of four step-by-step perspectives demonstrating the architectural consequences of the zoning law. These four drawings would later be used in his 1929 book The Metropolis of Tomorrow.
This book illustrated many conte crayon sketches of tall buildings. Some of the sketches were theoretical studies of possible setback variations within the 1916 zoning laws. Some were renderings for other architect’s skyscrapers. And at the end of the book was a sequence of views in Manhattan emerged in an almost Babylonian guise. His writing in the book betrayed an ambivalence to the rapid urbanization of America: There are occasional mornings when, with an early fog not yet dispersed, one finds oneself, on stepping onto the parapet, the spectator of an even more nebulous panorama. Literally, there is nothing to be seen but mist; not a tower has yet been revealed below, and except for the immediate parapet rail . . . there is no suggestion of either locality or solidity for the coming scene.
To an imaginative spectator, it might seem that he is perched in some elevated stage box to witness some gigantic spectacle, some cyclopean drama of forms; and that the curtain has not yet risen . . . there could not fail to be at least a moment of wonder. What apocalypse is about to be revealed? What is its setting? And what will be the purport of this modern metropolitan drama? In 1955, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1960.
THIS IS A SMALL SELECTION OF THE IMAGES IN THE COMMEMORATIVE BOOK. THERE ARE MULTIPLE PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY. YOU CAN REQUEST TO SEE IT FROM THE R.I.H.S.
Drawing of Southbound Roadway in the Triple-Dec Section in the 80’s
North portal of only true tunnel in East River Drive. It fronts Gracie Mansion, preserving its ancient view of the river.
Architects’ rendering of new municipal asphalt plant to replace existing structure on 91st Street.
The successful Asphalt Green today
Drawing of north-bound roadway of triple deck section in the 80’s
2020
Ferris Rendering
From the Archives
Artist view of Grand to Montgomery Street link looking southward toward lower Manhattan.
Hugh Ferris drawings of the 81st Street portal during construction. The sketch shows the tower and northbound roadway.
81st Street Portal Today
Drawing looking south from 60th Street showing north and southbound roadways as they pass under Queensboro Bridge. Structure at left is new Department of Sanitation dump. The ramp to the dump is for Sanitation trucks.
East River Roundabout by Alyce Aycock
A drawing of the completed portal of the triple deck structure at 81st Street. The tower marks the juncture of the portion of the drive built on land with that built over water. The stairway joins the shore front drive at water level with the esplanade that is the third deck of the drive. Overpass leads to 81st Street.
Future concept of 91st Street redesign with Sanitation dump.
Chester Price drawing of new municipal ferry house at 78th Street. The roof of the ferry house will serve as a section tho the Drive’s pedestrian esplanade. Access to the ferry house from the west side of the Drive is by an overpass.
WEDNESDAY’S PHOTO OF THE DAY
What is this and where is it located
E-mail jbird134@aol.com
Win a trinket from Kiosk
TUESDAY’S PHOTO OF THE DAY
The Encampment tent construction to recreate the island history was constructed at Southpoint Park by artist Tom Sokolowski in the year………………
The winner is Liz Pirraglia
FROM 2007
The Encampment: Roosevelt Island’s Past, Illuminated
BY JEN CHUNG
This October, artist Thom Sokoloski will build 100 white tents on Roosevelt Island, and the public will be able to see the illuminated tents at night as well as explore what’s in them. The project is called The Encampment and here is a description the website: The Encampment is a large-scale public participatory art installation. 100 – 19th century luminous tents will be erected as a work of optical art on Roosevelt’s Island Southpoint. From 7pm to 7am each night, New Yorkers will be able to view the luminous symmetries of the tents from both sides of the East River, as well as visit the actual site and experience the installations in each of the tents. It proposes an archaeological dig as its metaphor; the search for artifacts is replaced by the search for a collective memory of Roosevelt Island. Sokoloski told Metro that Roosevelt Island’s past, filled with hospitals, lunatic asylum and other facilities, inspired him, “When you go deep the history is so fascinating. This will be a kind of digital archaeology, a model of exchange where the community will uncover the stories of the island’s past.” He also calls it “a metaphorical, archaeological dig into the history of mental health.”
EDITORIAL
Yesterday, my friend and I decided to walk from 81 Street to 60th Street along the FDR Promenade. I was eager to see the areas that have been improved by Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) and Rockefeller University.
I must say I was overwhelmed by noise. I am used to the calm at the Roosevelt Island promenade with the quiet drone in the background. Here the noise was in your head. Unfortunately, I did not have ear buds or a headset with me.
There was a steady flow of pedestrians, runners, bikers, dogs on leashes, and family groups. Most were masked and determined to enjoy their time out.
The area from 81st Street south to 69th Street was beat-up to say the least. Lots of patches, temporary fencing, missing pavers and weeds. You must be a romantic to walk here and luckily look out on the river and that beautiful island beyond. The area by HSS and Rockefeller are better with new paving, landscaping and a great effort made to break the noise with barriers The barriers cut the noise about 20 percent.
The area by Rockefeller is a real effort to make the area better. Beyond that is a park area and dog run where the paving is wider. The abandoned heliport (fomer Sanitation dump) sits as an omni-present eyesore with a sign indicating some far-in-the-future development.
We walked up the ramp to the park with the art piece East River Roundabout above it. The park has great single seats placed in all directions. It is sad to see a park just refurbished a year or two ago has peeling paint and a grassy area that seems to be full of rat holes.
It is better to look at if from afar or definitely from above.
We hiked up to the tram stopping at the former entrance to the Queensboro Bridge Pedestrian elevator and then onto the Tram. The elevator closed over 50 years ago. There was an elevator at 60th Street in Manhattan and one at Vernon Blvd. in Queens. (You walked on the Upper Level in those days).
My first trip to Manhattan in 10 weeks was over and back here, to peace and quiet.
Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c)
Roosevelt Island Historical Society
unless otherwise indicated
TEXT FROM THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPORE GRANTS
CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
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