Architects Say the Darndest Things - More West Side Railyards Saga

THE BUILDINGS ARE UGLY, the landscaping ridiculous, the park unusable . . . but the worst part is that architect Alex Krieger, former Chairman of the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard School of Design, tried to sell his plan for the railyards on the West Side of Manhattan as part of “the Jane Jacobs vision.”

As usual, Jacobs had a better idea. “The Harvard School of Design has never been much of a mentor of mine,” she told New York magazine. “They’ve never respected the city street or the vitality of cities. They got terribly fond of Le Corbusier" [responsible for destroying more European cities than the Luftwaffe], "and it’s never really worn off.”

Jacobs calls for traditional urban streets, with buildings pulled up to the street to shape them like outdoor rooms. She fought against the neo-Corbusier Manhattan projects that abandoned the street for towers in the park. If you think the design above looks like something she might like, I have the e-mail address of a Nigerian prince who has a can't miss business proposal for you.

There's another photo below. More links at Curbed, which has all the best stories recently.

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The view below makes me happy that the Mayor has pushed through the plan for the Jets.

The blocks around the stadium will be the only part of New York zoned for sex shops. As Curbed says, so much for the idea that there won't be any nightlife there.