Nelson Rockefeller the governor of New York City at the time desired to redevelop Battery Park city as a comprehensive community, he wanted it to include housing, social infrastructure and light industry. At the time there was a person named Jane Jacobs that evaluated architecture from a social perspective therefore she brought back certain principles that were being lost even when the Lincoln center was constructed these principles consist of public ground with streets blocks that should define edges nicely and buildings should look at the public. Battery Park city turned out to be what is known as new urbanism. Prior to this master plan which demonstrated how it connected the new with the rest of lower Manhattan there was a late 60s plan, which was very idiosyncratic. Architect Alex Cooper criticized the old plan just as Jane Jacobs did. The ideology of a successful street is when strangers’ behavior all functioning together to fulfill goals yet coexisting without knowing each other. The principles for Battery Park city were 1) Battery Park should not be self-contained. 2) It should be delivered as an extension of lower Manhattan in grid and blocks. 3) It should embrace the waterfront entity. 4) Should not be idiosyncratic. 5) Circulation should emphasize ground level. 6) Reproduce and improve what’s great about New York City neighborhoods. 7) Commercial center should be the focal point of the activity around the neighborhood.  8) Land use should be flexible for future improvisation.

 

As Jane Jacobs explains her principles and observations as the performance of a successful neighborhood it leads me to the reasoning as why NYC is one of those cities that doesn’t embrace the car culture rather the social culture. NYC streets were made for people to be their own way of transportation like this people were able to gather and create a healthy social neighborhood.

 

Battery Park City is very much the complete opposite to what Lincoln Center stood for. Meanwhile Lincoln Center was made for the upscale, it was a plot of land that isolated itself from the rest of the city and despite it’s beautiful aesthetic in architecture they were buildings that were created for the awe or the reaction of people rather than the functionality and organization of society.