Red City

Third Avenue

"New York is a red city—the color of blood and life. Everything in it arouses both enthusiasm and disgust; it reflects God and the Devil."
Le Corbusier, quoted in The New Yorker Book of the 40s

New Times

One World Trade Center

"New York is a vertical city, under the sign of the new times. It is a catastrophe with which a too hasty destiny has overwhelmed courageous and confident people, though a beautiful and worthy catastrophe."

Le Corbusier, quoted in Paradigm Islands

Provisional City

East 23rd

"A considerable part of New York is nothing more than a provisional city. A city which will be replaced by another city."
Le Corbusier, When the Cathedrals Were White

Seat of Grace

"The George Washington Bridge over the Hudson is the most beautiful bridge in the world. Made of cables and steel beams, it gleams in the sky like a reversed arch. It is blessed. It is the only seat of grace in the disordered city."
Le Corbusier, When the Cathedrals Were White

Jewels

"New York standing up above Manhattan is like a rose-colored stone in the blue of a maritime sky; New York at night is like a limitless cluster of jewels."
Le Corbusier, When the Cathedrals Were White

The Right to Become a New Yorker

Dumbo

"I myself have the right to become a New Yorker, if I am strong enough to cut a furrow in New York. I should not thereby become an American."
Le Corbusier, When the Cathedrals Were White

Great Diamond

Diamond District

"New York is a great diamond, hard and dry, sparkling, triumphant."
Le Corbusier, When the Cathedrals Were White

Courage and Enthusiasm

Broadway

"New York has such courage and enthusiasm that everything can be begun again, sent back to the building yard and made into something still greater, something mastered!"
Le Corbusier, When the Cathedrals Were White

Beautiful Catastrophe

Morningside Heights

"A hundred times I have thought: New York is a catastrophe, and fifty times: it is a beautiful catastrophe."
Le Corbusier, When the Cathedrals Were White