Lower Manhattan Expressway Project, New York, New York (Perspective to the East)

Paul Rudolph

1972

An ink and graphite architectural perspective by Paul Rudolph proposing a monumental, bifurcated megastructure for the Lower Manhattan Expressway that attempts to combine housing, circulation, and public space into a single engineered urban spine.

It reads like a towering cathedral of concrete on paper—two symmetrical, staggered walls of cantilevered volumes funnel the eye along a sunken central avenue toward a distant tower, rendered with precise hatching that makes light, shadow, and scale palpably dramatic.

The drawing distills 1970s megastructure and Brutalist ideas into a provocative urban proposal, illustrating how architects used bold sectional and perspectival visions to debate infrastructure, density, and the social ambitions and risks of large-scale urban renewal.

Palette

Art Terms

Brutalist Architecture Architecture Architectural drawing Drawing Ink Graphite Perspective Built environment

Exhibitions

Architecture in the New York Area

1952

Architecture in Government Housing

1936

Architectural Models from the Collection

1974

Work in Progress: Architecture by Philip Johnson, Kevin Roche, Paul...

1970