Kenneth T. Jackson
KENNETH T. JACKSON is a professor of history at Columbia University, author and expert on New York City. He is a frequent guest on television and an often quoted subject of documentary films. In this web exclusive for Architecture World, Professor Jackson talks to us about a range of architecture and related topics. From his analysis of the iconic struggles over urban planning, to his observations on how popular shows such as Sex and the City popularize the modern urban experience. His observations on the American way of life and how it finds expression in the architecture of both city and suburb provides informed and expert views. Please check back frequently as new videos, links and artcles are added.
ABOUT THE FILMS
Kenneth T. Jackson’s work is known to millions of readers and television viewers. His celebrated work Empire City is a must-read for those interested in the history and background of New York City. As a professor, his much sought after courses at Columbia University have provided incisive analysis of history and how past events influence present realities.
In this series of web exclusive videos for ArchitectureWorld.tv Professor Jackson speaks about architecture’s struggle with development and preservation as in the classic case of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs as well as topics pulled from today’s media and newspapers. The TV show Sex and the City provide a common ground for discussing the role that media plays in public perceptions of the urban environment.
Jackson’s take on architecture, buildings and the urban evironment is a far reaching one that is intertwined with history and the media driven flow of information that shapes our viewpoints. The Professor speaks about how this mega-structure has an ability to join people together from separate groups, give people a sense of place and reward them with a sense of belonging to a vibrant culture.
The city as a place to live, with its blend of architecture and buildings provides for a diverse population to come together in a small geographic space by providing a range of rent prices and different sized living spaces. This in turn creates a social dynamic that can create revitalize an neglected urban area. His contrast between suburbs and cities helps to explain the sense of alienation that pervades much of the American architectural landscape. Strip malls, housing developments and the need for a car limits human interaction by virtue of the built environment. The architecture itself creates social isolation by imposing a dynamic of separation and an ethos of impermanence. Kenneth T. Jackson discusses how common human interactions are aided by the architecture of cities whereas most suburbs encourage lives unattached to place.
The master architect and builder Robert Moses whose work created bridges, highways, airports and more colossal public works projects than any other man in post war America, became the focal point of a historic architecture battle. In the video, Kenneth T. Jackson admits the imperial style of Robert Moses wreaked havoc as he tore entire neighborhoods apart. But he also notes that many of the places needed to be destroyed as the buildings that stood in the way of “Urban Renewal” schemes had been built as slum dwellings 100 years earlier and had become even worse slums with the passage of time.
The concept of urban preservation grew out of the Robert Moses’s plan to construct a super highway through Greenwich Village. A longtime New Yorker Jane Jacobs, who recognized the importance of the historic buildings and street life took on Moses, then the most powerful man in New York State. Through community action and grass roots organizing Jane Jacobs led a crusade to save the Village. Her victory proved to be the launching pad for saving historic cities worldwide that were being “Modernized”. This battle royale has become the centerpiece of many books, Ph.D. dissertations and a rallying cry against unwarranted development.