Historic Skywalks in NYC (Again)

[Boron Elgar]

You've my memory to back that up. When Jane Jacobs pushed for low density scatter housing in the far West Village in the late 60sthe eventual design (and they are some of the ugliest buildings in a much, much lovelier part of the Village) was limited to 5 stories (didn't it used to be storeys?) to keep the costs from going up with elevator requirements.

I lived smack in the middle of the development area at that time.

Boron

[bill van]

Wiki on downtown Calgary's walkways:

The Plus 15 or +15 Skyway network in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is the world's most extensive pedestrian skywalk system with a total length of

16 kilometers (10 mi) and 59 bridges.[1] The system is so named because the skywalks are approximately 15 feet (approximately 5 metres) above street level. (Some Plus 15 skywalks are dual-level, with higher levels being referred to as +30's and +45's.)

They were starting to be built in the early 1970s when I still lived there. There was a big building boom on at the time. There usually is in Calgary, but in this one, they tore down many of the one-to-four-storey buildings that comprised much of the downtown when it was a commercial and financial centre for surrounding ranching and farming communities.

Many office towers were under construction at the same time, and with some regulatory guidance from city hall, a lot of the walkways were designed in to the projects. The reasons were convenience year-round, and not having to go outside when it's 40 below.

[Greg Goss]

Providing a way to enclose pedestrians moving between buildings at +1 floor from ground level or one floor underground, allows traffic and pedestrians to cross easily while keeping the cars outside and the pedestrians indoors. I see a high walkway (you had a few of those) to be quite different for some reason from one as close to ground as practical while still separate from traffic (most of your examples).

Another famous modern "walkway" would be the "Grand Arche" at La Defense.

[Don K]

Ordinarily, I'd say you were right, except for the fact that the guy in the window looks like my Uncle Charlie, the paperhanger. That would definitely date the photo in the 1920's.

Why my uncle was hanging paper on the outside of the building remains a mystery.

Don

[Nick Spalding]

Don K wrote, in on Tue, 7 Oct 2008 20:44:52 -0400:

>

Moonlighting as a window cleaner. That's a squeegee he's holding.

[Charles Wm. Dimmick]

Coming late to this thread, but I'm delighted by the increase in second-story walkways in both downtown St. Paul and downtown Lexington, allowing one to take multi-block strolls without any need to interact with traffic or worry about the weather.

Charles

[bill van]

There's an argument in Calgary that too many walkways have helped spoil downtown street life. Street-level retail suffers, people don't sit in cafes watching the world go by, the streets feel a bit empty and unwelcoming. You have to go to a bit outside the downtown -- 17th Avenue S.W., Kensington -- to find vibrant street life, and Calgarians tend to flock there because of it.

[Don K]

> >

My Uncle Charlie used his squeegee to squeeze out the paste and make the wallpaper hang flat.

Don