Cross Bronx + World Fair of 1939 Team

Group Members:

  1. Christian T.- Highways gutted American cities. So why did they build them? https://www.vox.com/2015/5/14/8605917/highways-interstate-cities-history   https://youtu.be/odF4GSX1y3c
  2. Tinin B.- Destroy a Freeway, Save a City https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/23/opinion/destroy-a-freeway-save-a-city.html
  3. Zoey Y.-
  4. Citlalli M.- “The Designers Go to the Fair II: Norman Bel Geddes, The General Motors ‘Futurama,” and the Visit to the Factory  https://www.dropbox.com/s/6uhfr7k3ymxur4x/The%20designers%20go%20to%20the%20fair.pdf?dl=0

Annotated Bibliography presented in order of team members

Christian T:

Stromberg, Joseph. “Highways Gutted American Cities. So Why Did They Build Them?” Vox, 14

May 2015, https://www.vox.com/2015/5/14/8605917/highways-interstate-cities-history.

The author Joseph Stromberg uses historical images, analytics, and mapping of designs that were proposed for construction. He goes over the reasons why people decided to help promote the construction that soon lead to the decimation to many communities. He answers multiple reasons which involved the mix of self-industry groups, designs which were picked by 3rd parties, the lack of municipal foresight, and the blatant institutional racism which occurred. He finds out through research, locations that were destroyed were mostly disenfranchised neighborhoods whereas in most cases neighborhoods with rich and influential people had enough influence to stop any plans of urban highway construction towards their neighborhoods. He concluded that plans made for highways were very selective based on certain communities.

Tinin B.:

Destroy a Freeway, Save a City. August 23, 2001, Section A, page 19.New York Times.

In “Destroy a Freeway, Save a City”, the author Charles Lockwood explores the project of highways construction across the country. The reasons for the program was the need of  important freeways in order to make communication and transportation much easier between communities across the country, especially where freeways were not in good conditions or were over capacity of heavy traffic and poor maintenance. In addition, Charles Lockwood states that the vision of this project is to rebuild the existing highways systems. Furthermore, Lockwood illustrated in his research the impact of the project on the communities with the relocations of families, in other words this project divided communities across the USA. The construction of highways is the result of today’s image of our communities in terms of transportation infrastructure.

Zoey Y.: Moses, R. (1945, January 01). Slums and City Planning. Retrieved October 23, 2020, from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/01/slums-and-city-planning/306544/

In 1945, Robert Moses had a proposal to the slum clearance project’s opinion, such as lower interest rates and reliable sponsors for high rental housing. Therefore, for the low rental subsidized housing for those removed in clearance projects, but in endless wrangling over the methods to be employed, over jurisdiction, over constitutional and legalistic interpretations. The wrangling which creates a stalemate with perfectionists on one side and realists on the other. Realism believes that it is necessary to remove the abandonment of the old cities, the creation of satellite towns, decentralization under any name, and other revolutionary plans which means demolishing the city and rebuilding the city on a different scale. The perfectionist does not want old buildings made sanitary and fireproof without changing their essential character, and this process is so expensive and a waste of time. Another reason is after completing the project, who are tossed out into the streets to make way for the new public and semi-public housing projects, they might not eligible or enough income to move in. However, slum clearance is a difficult task. There are not right and wrong between the realists and the perfectionists, the only thing they need to consider is listing the opinions of both parties, and try to create the city planning and slums for New York City, and do something to prevent future slums.

Citlalli M.:

“The Designers Go to the Fair II: Norman Bel Geddes, The General Motors ‘Futurama,” and the Visit to the Factory https://www.dropbox.com/s/6uhfr7k3ymxur4x/The%20designers%20go%20to%20the%20fair.pdf?dl=0

            Before the world knew about Norman Bel Geddes and his legendary Futurama exhibit for General Motors, a man by the name Walter Dorwin Teague was a well-known industrial designer for corporate exhibitions. He participated in the 1933-34 Chicago WF, the 1936 Dallas WF, and the 1939 Queens WF. Before the 1939 Queens WF, Walter D. Teague worked for major corporates like Bausch & Lomb, Eastman Kodak, Ford Motor Company, DuPont, and Texas Co. making him one of the most recognized designers. That is until Norman B. Geddes who recently transitioned from theater designer into the industrial designers, in his first ever corporate fair exhibit for General Motors, exploded with his vision of the future. Futurama a serious approach compared to the prototype he constructed merely a year before. The article goes on to explain his journey to the top and how futurama help shape their future and our current state.