Park Development Versus Preservation
While most Mission 66 projects were intended for infrastructure improvements and visitor services, some urban projects involved the creation of entirely new attractions at the expense of the urban landscape. The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial on the St. Louis, Missouri riverfront entailed the demolition of forty blocks of the city to create a new urban park at the feet of Gateway Arch. The old warehouse district had been targeted for demolition by the city to eradicate "urban blight", and the arch and its park were seen as a means to this end, which had been pursued since the 1930s. Ironically, much of the exploration and expansion the new project commemorated had originated from the demolished riverfront district.
In Philadelphia, the development of Independence National Historical Park involved the creation of Independence Mall. The mall was designed to provide a vista of Independence Hall, necessitating the demolition of numerous 19th-century buildings.
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Famous quotes containing the words park, development and/or preservation:
“Therefore awake! make haste, I say,
And let us, without staying,
All in our gowns of green so gay
Into the Park a-maying!”
—Unknown. Sister, Awake! (L. 9–12)
“I can see ... only one safe rule for the historian: that he should recognize in the development of human destinies the play of the contingent and the unforeseen.”
—H.A.L. (Herbert Albert Laurens)
“It is my hope to be able to prove that television is the greatest step forward we have yet made in the preservation of humanity. It will make of this Earth the paradise we have all envisioned, but have never seen.”
—Joseph O’Donnell. Clifford Sanforth. Professor James Houghland, Murder by Television, just before he demonstrates his new television device (1935)