New York

For the uninitiated New York is where the World Trade Centre once stood. The great news is that in spite of the terrorist attacks belief of American people in their greatness has not wavered, and like the proverbial phoenix, the World Trade Centre will rise again from the same place.

Being in New York for the first time in my life, I was, however, searching for the Seagram Building (by Mies van De Rohe). It is ironic that this building, designed by Mies in its rectilinear steel columns & beams was faithfully copied by many, as the new icon of capitalistic America, forgetting that it is not the building but its public plaza in the centre of Manhattan was the single-most important contribution of Mies to the city of New York.

Walking through the wall street earlier, it was difficult to see the sky for the tallest buildings of the world concentrated on that one square mile of Manhattan. The city awed the spectators, but did not give them space to relax. Earlier, when I had only seen these buildings in photographs, it was easy to picture yourself tilting back to see the top, what I was not prepared for was the pain in the neck in doing so.

Mies' building was a study in contrast. The plaza with its two water bodies and the fountains, was just about 18" from road level, giving a comfortable edge to sit on. And obviously I was not the only one who found out that it was so - I could see people sitting around the edges, though not exactly in the fashion of the India Habitat Centre, but enough to justify the creation of the space in the middle of the sky-scrapers.

Lately, this realisation that a city at this scale needs to cater to the pedestrians, has brought out a big change in the centre of Manhattan. The New York Municipal Corporation has decided to pedestrianise Broadway near the Times square, where thousands gather in the evenings. When we went there in the evening, half of the road was closed for the vehicles, and chairs were placed on the street. (A sign-board announced that this was a temporary measure and in another month or so, permanent furniture would be place there) Not only that, a huge staircase was constructed on the street, which would look towards the Times square and people enjoyed sitting on the steps. The view, of course was cluttered with the electronic boards of all varieties-but that is what people would like to see in a place like New York anyway. The important thing was to create a space for people in the city given over entirely to vehicles earlier.

Coming in from Bombay, where each & every square inch of the side-walks in the main city is converted into an imprompteau street market, I was glad to observe that something similar was also happening here. Here & there, I could see an entire street lined with vendors of every description. Near wall street, on the street leading to Battery park, I could see singers on the street corners, with a makeshift sound system, trying to lure people in buying their albums and the overall effect was that of D. N. Road in Fort. In the battery park itself, there were impromptu shows, asking for contribution after the show ('I do not want charity' the leader said-only dollars) and the scene was complete. After all, what is a city without people?