Paul Rudolph

The Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would link New Jersey to Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island via the Holland Tunnel and the Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges, was conceived of by the influential (and controversial) New York City urban planner Robert Moses in the 1940s. After years of public debate, in 1967 the Ford Foundation commissioned Rudolph to produce a speculative study of the proposed expressway. Designed to leave the city’s infrastructure intact, Rudolph’s proposed Y-shaped corridor suggested a new approach to city building, in which transportation networks could bind rather than divide communities. At key points in the transportation corridor are multilevel, stacking pedestrian plazas, people movers, and parking—all above and below existing bridge and rail systems. Tall, stepped-back residential buildings provide light, air, and views, flanking the corridor at these gateways.

At the time, Rudolph was particularly keen to explore how large, modular, prefabricated elements could serve as building units for the city. The iterative nature of his design for the Lower Manhattan Expressway proposal demonstrates how additional sections could be added as deemed necessary without disrupting the city’s existing fabric: Rudolph’s scheme appears to fit seamlessly around the Williamsburg Bridge (at center), and his illustration even accounts for atmospheric urban details like boats on the East River.