Ghost City: Vanished New York

Ghost City

Every city is also a map of what it tore down, and New York more than most. Beneath the glass towers are the footprints of buildings so loved that their demolition changed the law. This is a short walk through the New York that is no longer there.

Why it still hurts

The loss of Penn Station was so total and so public that it shamed the city into action. Two years later New York passed its landmarks law, too late for the station but in time to save Grand Central.

🏛️🚧🕯️01.01.1929 – 01.01.1968

01.01.1929The original Waldorf Astoria comes down to make room for the Empire State Building.

01.01.1929

01.10.1963Pennsylvania Station is demolished. Architects picket the site and the public is appalled.

01.10.1963

01.04.1965New York passes the Landmarks Preservation Law in direct response.

01.04.1965

01.01.1968The Singer Building falls, still the tallest building ever peacefully demolished.

01.01.1968

"
We will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have allowed to be destroyed.
"
Ada Louise Huxtable · architecture critic

4landmarks lost before the law arrived