Events

Municipal Art Society Course: The Evolution of the Urban Grid: New York City

Understanding NYC's Medieval and Baroque Precedents in European and American Urban Capital Cities

By Aaron Donovan

8:34 PM EST on January 28, 2007

Understanding NYC’s Medieval and Baroque Precedents in European and American Urban Capital Cities

Fourteenth Street in Manhattan is the divide between a rationally-planned streetscape to the north and an organic maze of medieval streets to the south. This course will examine the evolution of both types of urban planning in European and American urban capitals in order to understand the history and principals of New York City’s development, as well as to point out the innovations and differences that Gotham has to offer.

Taught by Professor Carl Riobo of Barnard College, the class will meet on three successive Tuesday evenings to discuss the following topics:

February 6 – Introduction. European cities, including Rome, Madrid and Paris, with nods to London, Barcelona and early Hellenic cities.
February 13 – American cities. Primarily Washington D.C. and Philadelphia with brief mention of Boston, Baltimore and New Haven.
February 20 – New York City.

Aaron Donovan

Before he began blogging about land use and transportation, Aaron Donovan wrote The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund's annual fundraising appeal for three years and earned a master's degree in urban planning from Columbia. Since then, he has worked for nonprofit organizations devoted to New York City economic development. He lives and works in the Financial District, and sees New York's pre-automobile built form as an asset that makes New York unique in the United States, and as a strategic advantage that should be capitalized upon.

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