Exhibition: The Rise of Wall Street

23 Wall Street, JP Morgan Building (built during the construction peak: 1928-1931)


Fortune Magazine, Wall Street 1930


Theodore Muller, New York et Brooklyn: Vue Prise au dessus de la batterie; c. 1850.


Skidmore Owings Merrill design project for Stock exchange high-rise, 2000




While downloading slowly The Wall Street:Money Never Sleeps, I came across the ongoing exhibition in Skyscraper Museum, New York, showing the historical development of New York's financial district.
In the introductory words you can find on the website it is said that: "The exhibit explores how high stakes in architecture paralleled financial speculation at the heart of the capital of capitalism." Enough said for those that are still questioning in which way Architecture is carrying the capitalism's torch. Speaking of which, this animation of Madelon Vriesendorp's illustrations for Delirious New York (Koolhaas' praise of Manhattan) may look less a statement and more a funny comment to it.
For those of us across the pond - the website displaying pictures of: models, drawings and documentary photos, is quite informative. However, the atmosphere of the uncertain '30s after the Great Crash is probably the best described again by building actions of constructing and deconstructing the towers of Manhattan.