The Rise and Fall of Manhattan's Densities
The New York Public Library's Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, the NYU Stern Urbanization Project and the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management present The Rise and Fall of Manhattan Densities: 1790 - 2010.
At this event, Dr. Shlomo Angel, author of the recent Planet of Cities, and his collaborator Patrick Lamson-Hall will introduce a new perspective on Manhattan's colorful history based on their rigorous measurement of the city's changing residential densities as neighborhoods were built and expanded over hundreds of years. Angel and Lamson-Hall used rare and newly digitized materials from NYPL's Map Division and the Library's collection of historical population data to study changes in Manhattan's built-up area and ward boundaries alongside census data for the city. In this multimedia presentation, they will discuss the history of Manhattan's densities together with the parallel histories of immigration, economic growth, transportation, and suburbanization. The presentation will illustrate how the built-up area of the island expanded northward from the time of the first U.S. census in 1790 filling up the island completely only in the early 1950s. Angel and Lamson-Hall will also show how the population densities of Manhattan's built-up neighborhoods increased significantly during the 19th century and then decreased dramatically throughout the 20th century, recovering only marginally in the last two decades. Their presentation will be followed by a question and answer session, and reception.