1966: Projected cost of World Trade Center climbs
A flurry of press surrounded the Port Authority’s announcement of plans for the World Trade Center. Groundbreaking on the site occurred in August, but in December the Port Authority divulged that the project would cost at least $575 million, up from the $525 million it had projected in 1965 — already a sharp increase from the Authority’s original estimate, $270 million. Critics of the project quoted in a December 29 Times article, “Estimate Raised for Trade Center,” charged that it was out of scale and would never turn a profit. “They couldn’t build it for $525 million; they can’t build it for $575 million, and they won’t be able to build it for $625 million. On that basis, they’ll never be able to make it run at a profit, and it will be a drain on their resources,” said a spokesman for the Committee for a Reasonable World Trade Center. A Times editorial on December 24 stated, “New York has been steadily losing ground to other ports. A trade center, as well as more advanced port facilities, is desirable. But the Port Authority has a public obligation to demonstrate that its plans and costs are realistic and its rental commitments solid.” When the trade center was completed during 1972 and 1973, the cost of the project was pegged at around $1.5 billion.
1941: St. John the Divine’s nave completed
On December 1, the Times devoted two pages to the dedication of St. John the Divine’s nave, which occurred during the prior morning’s Sunday services. A crowd of 10,000 assembled for the event, which marked the Morningside Heights cathedral as the largest in North America. The article on the ceremony noted, “In recognition of the importance of the occasion — ranked by competent judges as the greatest in the history of religious architecture in several hundred years — a crowd far larger than the cathedral could contain at one time turned out for the ceremony.” Construction on the edifice began in 1892 and proceeded in fits and starts; upon the death in 1907 of George L. Heins, one of the cathedral’s original architects, a new architect, Ralph Adams Cram, was commissioned to design the massive house of worship. The cathedral had frequently faced funding shortages throughout the building process. Although construction on the church was still unfinished when the nave was opened in 1941, it was the first time the expanse from the cathedral’s door’s to its altar was clear. President Roosevelt, who had been a trustee of the cathedral for 30 years, was quoted as saying that the nave’s opening was “a fortunate circumstance” at “this time of world crisis.” A week later, Pearl Harbor was bombed, and further construction on the cathedral was halted during the war and thereafter until 1972. At present, St. John the Divine remains unfinished.
1936: First section of Henry Hudson Parkway is opened; Robert Moses’ vision lauded
On December 12, the first section of the Henry Hudson Parkway was opened. Spanning 4.25 miles and including the Henry Hudson Bridge, which connects Inwood in Manhattan and Spuyten Duyvil in the Bronx, the parkway design and construction was spearheaded by legendary urban planner Robert Moses. For decades Moses had envisioned a “great highway that went uptown along the water,” and when it was completed the parkway spanned from West 72nd Street to the Bronx-Westchester border. Commenting on Moses’ role in the project, a Times editorial on December 12 said, “The object was to place in the hands of one man, known to have both vision and capacity, the job of creating a unified park, parkway and arterial highway system for the entire city. In this instance the end has gloriously justified the means.”
1916: First major zoning law and an effort to “Save New York”
As the year came to a close, perhaps the most important topic in New York real estate was the city zoning law passed by the Board of Estimate in July. The Zoning and Building Heights act was the first far-reaching zoning ordinance in the country. A December 31 Times article entitled “Review of the 1916 Realty Market” noted, “the new zoning law has added stability to the market.” Its main function was to regulate the frenzied pace of skyscraper development and to set height limitations on new buildings.
The secondary purpose of the law was to carve out residential districts untrammeled by manufacturing concerns. The December 31 issue of the Times also ran an extensive editorial by J.H. Burton, chairman of the Save New York Committee, an alliance of private citizens and Fifth and Madison Avenue shop owners that had received wide coverage in the city’s dailies before the passage of the zoning ordinance. The law prohibited industrial buildings from 22nd through 59th streets between Third and Seventh avenues. In his editorial, Burton said, “The zoning of the city is probably the most valuable work that has been done by any city administration for many years…The parade of workers from the garment factories on the sidewalks between 12 and 2 o’clock is enough to kill real estate values in any neighborhood.” The clothing factories eventually clustered in what is now the Garment District.
Compiled by Gabby Warshawer