Northwest Bronx Neighborhood Tour
sponsored by AIA Bronx and The Bronx County Historical Society
DATE: Saturday, October, 22, 2022
TIME: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
VENUE: DeWitt Clinton H.S., 100 West Mosholu Parkway South, Bronx, NY 10468 (Please wear comfortable shoes)
CREDITS: 2 AIA PDH
PRICE: AIA member $20 / Associate member $20 / Non-member $30 (Session Capacity 20)
Description:
The AIA and The Bronx County Historical Society will lead a walking tour of the Northwest Bronx neighborhood to review the architecture of its schools, housing, retail, and parks. The tour will begin at Dewitt Clinton High School on Mosholu Parkway, a major East/West Park Greenway, making stops at Lehman College, the Bronx High School of Science, the Fordham Business Center, the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage, and the upper Grand Concourse. Highlighted will be the impact of the “Garden City” and “City Beautiful” Movements in this portion of this successful mixed-use neighborhood. With the Bronx growing quickly after the WWI and the development of the IRT Jerome elevated Line and later the 1930’s the IND subway Line (Concourse Line), both fostered public and private development on and around the Grand Concourse area, on Fordham Road, the historic business center of the Bronx, and north to the Mosholu Parkway. The tour will focus on the work of the Architect William H. Gompert; who designed many high schools in the city. Dewitt Clinton High School, completed in 1929 in the Lombard Romanesque style, is one of Gompert’s most admired for its siting, open play areas, landscaping, and architecture. The group will then stop at the Bronx High School of Science to review the architecture and history of one of the Bronx’s new schools, then move to the Gothic and Modern architecture found at Lehman College. As the tour proceeds, the architectural history of apartment buildings in the area will be examined, with a particular focus on Art-Deco buildings and The Bronx’s apartment building boom between the 1920’s to today while discussing building regulations and the old and current zoning and life safety code and egress requirements. The group will proceed to Fordham Road and discuss the history of the commercial heart of The Bronx. Next, the group will walk north on the Grand Concourse to Edgar Allan Poe Cottage, the last permanent home of the famed American writer, a historic jewel of the borough, built in 1812 and the last example of a 19th century clapboard farmhouse, one of several that dotted Fordham village in the 19th century, but the last of its kind today. Included will be specific information about the design/construction of school buildings, parks, and the architecture as the neighborhoods evolved. The upper Grand Concourse residential buildings focusing on “luxury” Art-Deco designs as well as the many middle income apartment buildings, almost all constructed as semi fireproof masonry 5-6 story high elevator building. The tour will conclude as the AIA group will explore architect Paul Rudolph’s reinforced concrete high-rise modern building, the Tracey Towers, adjacent to Mosholu Parkway and Dewitt Clinton High School.