Nicholas Calcott

Progress

2022

Robert Moses kept a vision of a city as yet unbuilt in the Model Room at the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority headquarters on Randall's Island.

In 1968, when Moses lost power and the TBTA was absorbed into the MTA, the offices on Randal's Island were cleared and the models themselves were put into storage.

They remained in a room within the Triborough Bridge itself until the 90s, when they were excavated and moved to an office overlooking what would have been the approach ramps to the Brooklyn-Battery Bridge.

Project Details

Many thanks to the Metropolitan Transit Authority's Office of Special Archives and especially to Archivists Nellie Hankins and Mary Hedge for their generosity of time and knowledge and their care of an invaluable reference.

 

We have definitive maker info for only one of these four models - that of the Brooklyn-Battery Bridge, made by J.J. Werner around 1939.

Eames Ranch

Eames Institute

Architecture & Interiors, Reportage

2021