Robert Caro’s massive tome, which served as a sort-of living tombstone for Robert Moses (who lived another seven years after its publication), seemed downright prophetic at the time: in 1975, New York City was on the brink of bankruptcy two years later came the power-Blackout, and by the time the affable Ed Koch took over for Abe Beam, New York was considered “ungovernable”.Īnd for a 1,200-page book, Caro produced a real page-turner. At one time he held something like nine office positions of power. The creepy part about all of this is not so much that Moses had no real background in engineering or architecture (which is indeed strange), nor did he ever have a driver’s license (which is downright bizarre for a man who built every major thoroughfare in New York), but he never held elected office: ALL of his very real power was by appointment. New York State is book-ended by a “Robert Moses Parkway” in his native Long Island, and, 450 miles away, a “Robert Moses Parkway” in Niagara Falls, NY.
Robert Moses built more roads, bridges, tunnels, parks, buildings, beaches, parkways, playgrounds, causeways, power-stations, pools, stadia, concert-halls, a couple of World-Fairs, and if the judges are in a generous mood, “low-income-housing” than anyone else ever. Next to Robert Moses, Ramesses of Egypt, Albert Speer, and pretty much every other architect, engineer, and megalomaniac pale in comparison. Robert Caro penned the definitive, staggeringly-researched biography on the world’s greatest builder. Moses vis-à-vis Robert Caro’s massive biography of the builder of New York City and State, which celebrates its 40th birthday this year : Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. Someone once wondered aloud, “I wonder how quickly Robert Moses would have re-built those Twin Towers?” And it’s a good time to revisit the legacy of Dr. And, depending on your aesthetic sensibilities, the 1,776-foot WTC replacement is either the worst form of architectural-kitsch (“Get it?! 1776!”) or the best-of-the-worst result that a committee could come up with: neither beautiful, nor particularly tall, nor all that inspiring. Problem is: it took over a decade to build anything. There was even a beautiful book published by Rizzoli entitled Imagining Ground Zero: The Official and Unofficial Proposals for the World Trade Center Site (2004) which captured pretty much every conceivable replacement for the World Trade Center, including re-building the Towers in a safer, more re-enforced iteration. Caro’s massive biography of Robert Moses, “The Power Broker,” four decades after its publication.Īfter the initial enormity of the 9-11 attacks had sunk in-that the Twin Towers were no more-round after round of “Town-Hall” meetings began about what, exactly, should replace the iconic World Trade Center.
Kevin Di Camillo considers the legacy of Robert A.
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