Lower Manhattan used to be famous for its lack of vistas. The combination of very tall buildings, very little open space, and a seventeenth-century Dutch village street plan meant that you were lucky if you could see five or six blocks.
Changes came gradually, as a result of the 1960 zoning law encouraging plaza construction, and the demolition of small-scale industrial buildings along the rivers in favor of late-twentieth-century office towers.
The picture above is a view of our office from the New York Vietnam Veterans Plaza, formerly Jeanette Park, formerly Coentes Slip. The brick punchcard on the left is one of the awful New York Plaza buildings, the concrete grid on the right is 55 Water Street, and the brown building dead ahead is 85 Broad. The small old buildings are part of the Fraunces Tavern block.
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