[In-person tour] Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the “Juror’s Guide to Lower Manhattan” (1984) by Virginia Dajani, which initially featured five (later seven) walking tours full of maps, photographs and drawings, and “filled with the history, architecture, and lore of the little-known but fascinating neighborhoods within walking distance of the courts,” and compare what the guide described as worthy of preservation, and what developments have occurred in the subsequent four decades. Published by The Municipal Art Society of New York with support from The J.M. Kaplan Fund and its late great president, Joan Kaplan Davidson, 42,000 copies were distributed for free that year, with the guide’s intent “to enhance the juror’s visit to this part of town, and to encourage New Yorkers to explore the splendors of these streets.” In 1984, the TriBeCa tour noted that the neighborhood “is like SoHo, newly residential, sprung up in a 19th-century commercial and light manufacturing district. The name TriBeCa was invented in the 1960s by artists who carved studios out of what was then cheap loft space with high ceilings. Now, like the Village and SoHo, TriBeCa is expensive, and lofts are snapped up by developers for remodeling into co-ops. When artists move in, rents inevitably rise. Meanwhile the artists’ old haunts are being replaced with chic restaurants and galleries. There are few remnants of the old days. Join architectural historian James Russiello as he retraces the guidebook’s 1984 descriptions, and updates entries to include excluded histories and subsequent developments. This will be the second of six walking tours tracing the historic guidebook.
Thursday, July 18
6:00 PM
In-person tour (meeting location delivered in registration confirmation email)
Tickets:
Member: $25
Non-member: $35