Paul Rudolph "Lower Manhattan Expressway"
Cooper Union (7 E 7th Street)
This event has ended.
The Drawing Center presents Paul Rudolph: Lower Manhattan Expressway, organized in collaboration with The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union. The Lower Manhattan Expressway (LME) was first conceived by "master builder" Robert Moses in the late 1930s as an expressway running across Lower Manhattan. The idea was revisited by architect Paul Rudolph in 1967 when the Ford Foundation commissioned a study of the project. Had it been constructed, this major urban design plan would have transformed New York City’s topography and infrastructure. In this exhibition, approximately 30 full-scale reproductions of drawings, prints, and photographs dated from 1967–1972 will be on public view for the first time. These works from the Paul Rudolph Archive at the Library of Congress will be shown together with a reconstruction of Rudolph’s model of the LME project created by architecture students at The Cooper Union in conjunction with Rawlings Architects PC. Presenting the only records of Rudolph’s visionary proposal, this exhibition illuminates Rudolph’s unique approach to architectural drawing and highlights the fundamental importance of drawing in his overall practice. Co-curated by Jim Walrod and Ed Rawlings, Principal, Rawlings Architects PC.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Saturday, October 2, 2:00pm
Houghton Gallery, The Cooper Union
Guided walk-through with exhibition curators Jim Walrod and Ed Rawlings
Saturday, October 23, 2:00pm
Ian Volner, writer, critic, and publicist, will lead a walking tour that follows the route of the never-completed Lower Manhattan Expressway. Tying together major figures from the 1960s including Mayor Lindsay, community activist Jane Jacobs, and Paul Rudolph, the hour-long tour will begin at the southwest corner of Canal Street and Bowery at 2:00pm and will conclude at the steps of The Cooper Union in the East Village.
Thursday, November 4, 6:30pm
The Great Hall, The Cooper Union
Presented with the Forum for Urban Design and the Paul Rudolph Foundation, panelists Donald H. Elliott, Alexander Garvin, Ed Rawlings, and Jaquelin T. Robertson, will reflect on the socio-political climate that fueled what would have been the largest intervention into Manhattan in a generation.
Media
Schedule
from October 01, 2010 to November 14, 2010
Opening Reception on 2010-09-30 from 18:00 to 20:00