Mike Reyes
Prof. Montgomery
9/7/19

Week 1: Comparison of Manhattan/ Brooklyn urban developments

A foundation or a principle when it comes to the further development of a society in this case a city is to have in mind the future and the potential it could have. Therefore, that’s exactly the thought process that occurred while developing Manhattan. One of the key factors in the design of Manhattan’s urban development was and is the grid. The way the grid was constructed allowed for skyscrapers to be constructed for a future reference. The lots created by the grid enhanced flexibility and this allowed for optimization of land use. This allows us to understand the reasoning of why NYC is such a high-profile end city where the cost of living reaches heights and sacrifice to meet. Since a grid is obviously in a rectilinear format, this means that the rural areas that didn’t follow this rectilinear form in the 19th century eventually would morph into something rectangular or squared to integrate with the grid. As Manhattan progressed in architectural growth; they mainly focused on industrial and commercial buildings. The area was going through a boost in their economy where people/owners felt the need to somehow show off with the architecture used.

One of the distinct differences we may notice about Brooklyn’s architecture in their neighborhoods such as: Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens and Bay Ridge is the Dutch influence. We can see influences highly in churches and civic buildings around the borough. One great characteristic is the symmetrical profile always being focused on the center of the building; interiors are more ornamented than the exteriors. A key factor the grid development in Brooklyn is that Brooklyn was composed by six towns and each of them developed their own system allowing room for error misconception once Brooklyn became the county we know today. This is also one of the major differences Brooklyn from Manhattan since Manhattan had a steady and effective system while in Brooklyn you may how an Avenue goes on for so long and then gets cut off by another street instead of being nearly infinite as in Manhattan. Breuckelen which was the name the Dutch had at the time had water bodies above ground that we no longer are capable of seeing from a plan view since all the water streams we re-directed and re-constructed to work and be effective underground.