Posted Jun 27, 2022, 12:02 AM
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Brooklyn, NYC/Polanco, DF
Posts: 30,497
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I'd say all those 70's-towers were pretty anti-urban relative to their context. Yeah, RenCen is an outlier, but Detroit is/was an outlier.
Also, RenCen is really a mid-late-70's development, the urban fortress era. WTC, Sears Tower were more projects from the 1960's-era or immediate aftermath. You could even argue WTC was a 1950's development (in terms of its planning scope). WTC took about 20 years from idea to completion.
In say, 1968, there was still huge optimism about the state of American cities. That was the era of Washington Metro, BART, plans for massive MTA subway expansion. By 1974 or so, the gestalt was radically different. Cities were burning, wealth flight had eviscerated municipal budgets. Riots, Vietnam, federal retrenchment, white flight, the end of the Great Society and Model Cities funding era.
Just look at famous NYC movies of the era up to about 1968 or so, and then famous NYC movies of the next 10 years. Taxi Driver, Death Wish, Midnight Cowboy and the Warriors vs. Breakfast at Tiffanys, Funny Girl, Barefoot in the Park, Sunday in New York.
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