Headquarters. 105 This sleek new tower was to make New York the capital of the world and represented a step towards a more modern city. Oscar Niemeyer’s design was deemed to have “a clean modern look” by The New York Times when the building began construction in 1947. 106 However the building represented much more than that; E. B. White called it “the greatest housing project of them all”, suggesting that it brought New York to the forefront as an iconic city, saving it from the decline which many other American cities suffered in the post war period. He goes on to suggest that the establishment of the UN in New York also kept America at the forefront of global politics and high up on the international stage, allowing New York to continue to be the most successful U.S. city. 107 This set the course for further development in this era as it was important that images of New York, endlessly reproduced and rebroadcast across the world, lived up to the expectations of greatness in a leading city. The UN development created a ripple effecting in building modern office blocks across Midtown Manhattan which became home to many headquarters for major corporations and upscale housing. 108 This, in turn, launched New York into a different kind of globalism than that already established by the cities many immigrant groups and strengthened its position as a global financial and business centre. Although many would see development of the city of as positive, some were critical of its effects. In her book, ‘ The Death and Life of Great American Cities’ , Jane Jacobs declared it an “attack” on
105 Beauregard, pp. 1-2. 106 Zipp, p. 35. 107 IBID, p. 34. 108 Themis Chronopoulos, Spatial Regulation in New York City , (New York: Routledge, 2011), p. 21.
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