Street Smarts: Learning to Read the City WNY 306

Instructor: Anthony Robins ‘72

An on-the-ground introduction to the great American metropolis – the physical city – as it has evolved over the past three centuries. Libraries are overflowing with accounts of New York ’s history, architecture, and neighborhoods, but the city is best learned on the streets. In walks throughout New York we will learn how to read the cityscape – visiting such major monuments as Rockefeller Center , Central Park , and Grand Central Terminal, and such disparate neighborhoods as Times Square and SoHo , the Lower East Side and Jackson Heights . We will study skyscrapers and Broadway theaters, tenements and planned suburbs. We will examine the various forces that created these places and caused them to evolve over time. We will discuss the impact of modern monuments, historic preservation, speculative development, and public and private plans – and consider their various intended and unintended consequences.The course will be conducted entirely on the city’s streets. Each student will be responsible for assigned readings, a journal with entries on each walk, a mid-term presentation on an assigned topic, and a final paper on the same topic. Students will be graded on their attendance, journals, mid-term presentation, and final paper.