TRA(I)NSFORMATION

In the century-plus since Grand Central Terminal opened in 1913, after more than a decade of massive construction, the blocks from 42nd to 53rd Street were transformed from a noxious, impassable railyard into one of Manhattan’s most desirable and prestigious addresses: Park Avenue. In conjunction with the Museum's current exhibition The Invention of Park Avenue, we will present a series of lectures and programs that examine the catalytic connection of rail and real estate that drove the street's three major eras of development. In its first phase, Park Avenue was a zone of posh hotels, clubs, and apartments. The "highest and best use" began to shift toward tall office buildings in the mid-1920s. In the postwar years, a boom in speculative office towers answered growing demand for modern, air-conditioned space. Soon, the iconic Lever House, Seagram, and Union Carbide buildings recast Park Avenue as an elite corporate corridor. In the 21st century, incentivized by the City’s rezoning of East Midtown, shiny new skyscrapers of even greater height and density have continued to redefine its trophy architecture. A range of historians, authors, architects, planners, and policy-makers will examine and discuss the evolving history and identity of the avenue that was created out of thin air and has become the engine and anchor of modern Midtown.