Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Architectural Colonialism 1

The city of Greater New York was created in 1898 when the cities of New York (and its existing absorbed suburbia in the Bronx) and Brooklyn, various towns in (the west half of the old) Queens County, and the farmland and villages of Richmond County merged. Even though Manhattan had less than half the total population, it was running the show, and local autonomy mostly disappeared never to return.

Brooklyn's city hall was renamed "Borough Hall" in a preliminary act of New York superiority. The real offense came later. The nineteenth-century city hall buildings were too small for modern bureaucracy and office buildings were built, first in Manhattan and then in Brooklyn.

Manhattan's Municipal Building, completed in 1915:


Brooklyn's Municipal Building, completed in 1924:

M to B: You get one just like ours, only smaller!

5 comments:

N__B said...

Uh...sure. Wait for my part 2...

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

well, since it is a similar building, for a similar use, built at a similar time, and likely conforming to the same setback regulations, and I wouldn't be surprised if the architect is the same, why wouldn't they look similar?

Instructions to the architect: "make it look just like Manhattan's"

Milwaukee's City Hall, recently restored to the tune of a cool 70 mil:

http://brewcitynewbie.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/milwaukee-cityhall_mr.jpg

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Instructions to the architect: "make it look just like Manhattan's"

But smaller, and weaker... MUHUHUHAHAHA!!

N__B said...

and I wouldn't be surprised if the architect is the same

Different architects, different administrations, different budgets...

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

you didn't know the right zombies.

plus, I believe the architects needed to have subcontractors who wouldn't fall off the building. And, there was a height limitation.