Jul 04 2011 11:08 pm
Posted by jennifer.yu1 under Uncategorized
Residential architecture of Paris and NYC
This is an early 20th century postcard.
In the 1900s, Paris was full of wealthy people traveling in and out, artistic innovations, and jazzy music. Reflective of this freedom and movement of the city, architects built buildings with angular shapes that resembled new cruise ships. This movement was given the name, Art Deco. After World War II hit, the city adopted less flamboyant styles with a mixture of the old and new styles. Paris experienced a housing boom where empty spaces were filled with government sponsored housing projects built of brick. The new housing was influenced by Art Deco with decorative brickworks. Paris mostly brought it’s bricks from its own limestone bedrock which is why most of their building carried the same color tone.
Similarly, there was a residential boom in NYC in the early 1900s. The beautiful residential buildings on central park east and central park west were built then. The city also provided public housing which dramatically changed the city’s appearance. New high rise buildings were built in an effort for urban renewal. In many cases they were considered as failures due to the poor maintenance and high crime rates. One of the distinctive features of NYC that can still be seen today are the roof mounted water towers. These were built during the early 1900s with the high rise buildings that were over six floors because these buildings needed too much of a high water pressure to deliver water to the upper levels. Lastly, unlike Paris, NYC drew its stones from different quarries which allowed a variety of textures and hues of stone in the buildings.
3 Responses to “Residential architecture of Paris and NYC”
Mendo on 06 Jul 2011 at 4:21 pm #
Just as Jennifer mentioned about 20th century, an initiation of constructing buildings in the city and it’s movement that started changing cities’ appearance; I would also like to add how an architectures played a vital role on changing city’s shape and form that influenced not only social action but also a reflection of society’s values and culture.The belief that brought not only physical or environmental determinism but also on realizing an effect of environment,values, and behavior.So, it was like an art movement or influence that changed the concept of building’s structure and surrounding. The famous architectures like Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier,Henry Wright etc who contributed a lot on shaping the city into the real city by making an imagination possible in real world. Despite the Great Depression, the movement of construction still continued in the New
York City as an influence and hope to the people.
auvee.bhattacharjya on 07 Jul 2011 at 1:08 am #
I found this post particularly interesting since it concerns a place outside of the United States, something very few people (myself included) ventured to discuss. I agree that the wealth of individuals had a lot to do with the growth and adaptation of certain cultural and social aspects. The influx of wealthy individuals presumably had a great deal of involvement in the building of various buildings as well as the strides made in the “urban renewal” efforts. Regardless of the anguish caused by the great depression, the growth of the wealthy and “well off” can certainly be attributed to the growth of cities, especially New York and Paris.