Untapped Event: City on a Grid How New York Became New York at MCNY

We’re honored to be a co-sponsor for the upcoming talk City on a Grid: How New York Became New York at the Museum of the City of New York on November 10th at 6:30pm. Untapped Cities readers get a special discount using code MCBC1 for $10 tickets (regularly $16).

When it was conceived in 1811, New York City’s street grid was supposed to end the chaos of “old New York” spreading unplanned from Manhattan’s southern tip. This vast project of physical and social engineering turned the rocky hills and swampy valleys into the city we know today; the thousands of rectangular blocks, lots, and eventually buildings that the grid produced lent a sense of stability and purpose to a young city evolving into greatness. Join Gerard Koeppel, author of City on a Grid: How New York Became New York (Da Capo, 2015), for a conversation with Hilary Ballon, curator of the Museum’s 2011-12 exhibition, The Greatest Grid, about a plan that “defined the urbanism of a rising city and nation.”

Get your tickets here. Next, read about 13 fun facts about New York City’s street grid system.