Midtown Manhattan is a  place that has redefined architecture . It is a place where  you are not looking for details and intricacies in a building design, but at the grandiosity of defying the  some of the logics we have about how high a building can be built. It has become a center of attraction for the world. It is city that represents the hopes and dreams that draw many people from around the world.  It represents the hope people bring with them when the move to this city. The hope of anything is possible. The dream of aiming for the stars. These buildings gives that hope in style and there presence. The show that this is a small island but the character of its buildings gives that hope people dream of when they move to this city. You can reach the stars.

The architecture  in NYC has created it’s own artistic language that defies the ways we view architecture of previous time. The architecture is there to show that we are grand and we can do anything. Like a famous song “New York the place where dreams are made” of is showcased in the architecture.

The tour of Downtown Brooklyn brought insight into the massive change that was brought about by increasing gentrification in this area. This area connected to Manhattan by the Brooklyn bridge. Houses were moved and dismantled to make this area in to a residential and commercial area which place. A place with courts and public offices, residential housing that is affordable to people of high socioeconomic status. However, this area was able to maintain some of the original architecture. It has a range of Romanesque, Greek, Italian, and Dutch designs in the buildings.

New York City (NYC) is one of the most diverse places in the world. We see how people travelled from around the world in the early times of it’s establishment and how people are still moving to NYC. The buildings in this city captures the culture of these people and the style the brought with them from there foreign country.

As we walked the streets of Lower Manhattan, observing the buildings and learning about their styles and era built. We see as a modern city, we capture designs from ancient time in our buildings. Looking at the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse located on 40 Centre Street, we see a style of modernism with the use of Greek designs. We see that the building provides a place for communal gathering as did the Greek, when the built a building like this. This building is placed in a location where there is other buildings that offers governmental services to the residents of NYC. They building in this location was design as a gathering place for people to come and do business.

The style of the building so prominent was designed to show case power, dominance and authority that the court brings to society. It’s massive columns welcomes you with warmth and worry at the same time.

Tenement housing in New York City in the 1800s I think people living in these housing would describe it as, unsafe, unhealthy, overcrowded, inhumane, high death rate, high crime rates. These are some of the struggles the early immigrants had to face looking for a better life. They were running from famine in Ireland or revolution in Germany to have a better life in the United States.

These tenement were constructed because of the growing population in NYC. These houses were constructed in the lower east side where the wealthiest were moving more up north. These houses were for about two to three families, but with the demand for housing so high, they were divided into smaller quarters. These smaller quarters were holding more people than the entire house was designed for. The access to a clean and safe toilet was not part of the deal here. These tenement dwellers shared a toilet that might not have been flushed everytime they used it or every week.

There were no laws that governed these living conditions. However, in the late 1800s, people started to react and fight for there rights to basic amenities. By Early 1900 some of these laws were implemented and enforced, which improved the living standards of tenement dwellers. These laws helped to improve the living standards. Adding to healthier and safer life for people who reside in tenements.

In 1825, the gates for rapid economic and population growth opened to New York City (NYC). The Erie Canal, considered one of the world’s great wonder, connected NYC to the rest of the Continent starting a growth faster to the city than it has seen in over 200 years. The land was fertile, the ground was solid for construction, there were animals for food, but there were not an easy way to export and import goods from other parts of the continent.

The Erie Canal was not built without opposition, even though it was one of the longest man made canal of its time, the fastest and cheapest to build and the least amount of experienced workers; there were people who opposed this venture, because of the increase of taxes and the possibility that it will fail to serve its purpose. Even though risky Governor DeWitt Clinton persisted with his vision and influence to construct this canal.

At this time in NYC history, the city was prosperous with a population of 165,000 and an available capital in the banks of $25 million. When the canal was completed the cost of shipping goods were reduced by 95% and the population growth in five years after the canal was 202,589 and in the next thirty years it quadrupled. The canal promoted the fast pace growth of NYC and encouraged immigrants from Europe.

This Canal almost 200 years after its completion serves the purpose it was designed for, bringing goods to New York State and taking out to the world. It has influenced the growth of the city economically and population. Today this city is one of the most desired cities in the world and has developed to one of the most powerful places in the world. The population in NYC has grown from 160,000 in 1825 to 8.3 million. From small Wooden houses to Buildings that stretch beyond the surface.  From an opposed vision to an accepted change, The Erie Canal has changed the way people view NYC.

New York has been a place I always wanted to visit. A few years ago, I was given the opportunity to live in New York. The first time I visited the city it was an exciting feeling, I was amazed by the under ground infrastructure, it seem as though there’s a whole world happening below the street level. There were trains, businesses, people lives were happening below the earth’s surface.

Then I got out of the trains and the world above ground, was really above ground! The buildings were taller than the tallest building I knew. To see where the buildings ended I had to rotate my head at least 90 degrees to see the top. I was fascinated by the design, construction and aesthetics that these buildings presented to an individual. I started to take pictures and walk around the city exploring the different areas in NYC. I toured from lower to upper Manhattan, just to take in this authoritative or bold feel New York city’s high rise provided. The majestic feel that the infrastructure, provides still remains the same with me today, But something changed.

My View of the people and living conditions. My first few visits, I saw the city for it’s beauty and was blinded by that, it was what I wanted to see. As I visited the city more often I began to see slums, litter on the streets and on the train tracks. I saw people cramped in small places the call home. I saw rundown buildings and sadness. People going places in a rush, people faces are stressed with bags under their eyes, the reality of NYC is stressful. The people I saw the happiest in the city are the ones who came to take in the brilliance and beauty of the city and then the leave after a week.

New York City even with it’s internal problems that can be fixed, remains one of the places that show forth the brilliance of the people and the greatness of the nation. It is a place where people from every walks of life can come and survive as long as you have a dream and passion to fulfill that dream.