Skyscraper Museum | Times Square Remade
On October 24, 2023 at 6:00 p.m., I watched a talk hosted by Skyscraper Museum focused on the book Times Square Remade: The Dynamics of Urban Change by Dr. Lynne Sagalyn, published by MIT Press a few days ago. Sagalyn is a professor emerita and founding director of Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate at Columbia Business School. Her latest book is a sequel to Times Square Roulette: Remaking the City Icon published by MIT Press 20 years ago in 2003. Joining Sagalyn were Carol Willis, the founder and director of the Skyscraper Museum, and Alison Isenberg, a history professor in the Department of History at Princeton University and fellow author who specializes in urban architecture. Willis opened and closed the webinar, while Isenberg acted as a moderator during the conversational second half.
Sagalyn began the webinar with a presentation covering the history of Times Square from the 1890s to the present. The area was originally called Longacre Square and served as a space for horse and carriage trade, along with livery stables. Near the turn of the century, the area entered a period of formative growth. The first theater appeared in 1893. Two years later, in 1895, Oscar Hammerstein I built the $2 million Olympia Theatre on 44th Street and Broadway, as this area had just received electric lights. Unfortunately, this theater lasted only three years and went bankrupt in 1898. Not to be deterred, Hammerstein built the much more successful Victoria Theatre the next year in 1899.
Hammerstein started a trend. By 1908, the area had eight live theaters. In 1920, fifty-five theaters lined the streets, and in 1928, the number increased to seventy-seven theaters. Other wealthy investors created their own massive buildings. Before this time, the Astor family had owned major landed estate on the island of Manhattan for three generations. They would maintain enormous farms and lease parcels of land through twenty-one year agreements. Rival hotel developers and cousins, William Astor and John “Jack” Jacob Astor IV, built hotels near Times Square. William Astor opened the business and conventions focused Hotel Astor in 1904, while Jack Astor opened the celebrity-focused Knickerbocker Hotel in 1906, which still operates today. This competition to build theaters and hotels led to wild land speculation. Between 1905 and 1930, the value of land increased by at least 211% and as high as 720%. The most expensive block was between 44th and 43rd Street, and between 8th and 7th Ave, where the Paramount Building stands today.
The Great Depression brought a steep decline to the real estate market in Times Square and the rest of Manhattan. No one built theaters in the area for forty-five years. Nightlife collapse, and the surviving theaters offered wartime news during World War II. Nighttime blackouts of Times Square, when the famous neon signs were turned off, were mandated over feature of aerial bombings. On August 14, 1945, New Yorkers gathered in Times Square to celebrate the surrender of Japan at the end of the war. The area was no longer considered elite and instead offered honky-tonk attractions through the 1950s and 1960s. Families moved to the suburbs as drug culture arose.
Times Square hit its low point during the 1970s and 1980s, as the area became an adult entertainment district and a hotspot for runaway kids. During this time, communities like Clinton, also known as Hell’s Kitchen, banded together to protect their homes from high density development. The community received $25 million from the city and state governments to support their community. They used the money for legal services to protect themselves against displacement, buy buildings for low-income housing, and outfit tenements with full bathrooms to qualify for further housing subsidies. This was the first time activists changed the outcome of urban planning in New York City.
Public renewal began in 1990, as the city and state acquired legal rights to take the title of ⅔rds of the properties in a 42nd Street project. The real estate market had collapsed earlier that year, making their project even more difficult. Planning for the project had begun back in 1981, not long after the city had almost gone bankrupt. The city launched a controversial plan: have developers pay for condemning and demolishing buildings, and the city would pay them back through rent credits, leases, and property tax abatements. This plan spawned fifty-one lawsuits, but construction went forward.
Today, four office towers stand at the crossroads near Times Square, creating what Sagalyn called an “economic engine” for future development. Both locals and tourists frequently visit the area to view the iconic signage, shop, and take pictures with costumed characters. Besides the massive office towers, nineteen residential towers each with 1,000 units create a new skyline and contribute to the gentrification of Hell’s Kitchen.
This webinar was perfectly paced, with exactly half the time led by Sagalyn showing photographs and maps of historic Times Square, and the other half as a conversation between Sagalyn and Isenberg. I am familiar with the history of New York City, but this talk added to my knowledge. Sagalyn’s chronological slides were engaging and easy to follow. Isenberg asked thoughtful questions so Sagalyn could elaborate on points previously discussed in the main talk. As always, the Skyscraper Museum offered an excellent talk, and I look forward to future online events with them.
Past events with the Skyscraper Museum found on this blog:
Watch the full talk here: