Multiple Perspectives

The wild crisscross of street patterns in Lower Manhattan created many triangularly shaped urban spaces. As city features go, right-angle intersection crossings cannot compare with triangles for sheer drama and romance. Gansevoort Street, with its multiple perspectives, perhaps has even influenced its residents to embrace radical points of view. And besides, to walk in the center of a triangular urban space is thrilling. It seems to elevate the importance of the individual.

Gustave Caillebotte, a late 19th century French painter, understood this truth and loved the spirit of wide-open urban panoramas. As an Impressionist painter, with a unique vision, he was enthralled with deep space, complex compositions, and the illusion of perspective. He painted a great number of canvases of Parisian sidewalks and cityscapes and would have felt right at home on this site on Ganesvoort Street. 1

The Meat Market District and its busy club scene has long been a destination for gays, transvestites, and high fashion models, who regularly cross paths with meatpacking workers in the wee hours. Residents, including artists and commercial proprietors, have for years occupied these spaces inexpensively due to the sight and smell of meat processing, the wild nightlife, and late-night truck deliveries. Those who loved both the chaotic mix and the architectural integrity fought successfully for the preservation of the recently declared Ganesvoort Market Historic District. Thankfully, this designation saves the architecture, but not necessarily the meat industry. Preservation often makes an area even more attractive and rapidly leads to the conversion of commercial property into residential.

The history of meat processing industry in New York City is one of frequent relocation from ever-encroaching residential populations. We are losing sight of the reason for cities in the first place. They were designed to be marketplaces of enormous variety that sustain multiple perspectives and serve the collective good.

1 "Rue de Paris; Temps de Pluie" by Gustave Caillebotte, which may well be the world's most famous painting of an urban scene, is on display at The Art Institute of Chicago.