40 Years on 40th Street

"palimpsest" - something with many layers that are visible beneath the surface.

Cities are great palimpsests - people building upon building - the new mixing with the old to create an ever-changing cityscape that is both familiar and fresh. Yet, we all too often go about our daily routines, only dimly aware of the multiple strata (both physical and empeheral) that are literally the framework for our lives - gifts, as they are, from previous generations.

So it is with 40th Street - a palimpsest of time, memory and place - as these photographs attest. The layering of time and space is apparent as we contrast photographs taken in 1964 by the eminent architect and planner, Denise Scott Brown, with those from 2004 shot by architecture student Matt Conti. Ms. Scott Brown was a young city planning professor at Penn in 1964 and she photographed the street for a planning studio entitled, "Form, Forces & Function."

Come enter the past and see how it has merged with the present.

Looking East: Corner of 40th Street and Market

Looking West - Corner of 40th Street and Market

Looking East - Corner of 40th Street and Market

Looking West: Corner of 40th Street and Market

Looking South - 40th Street Just North of Market

South East Corner of 40th Street and Market