The symbolic significance of the completion of One World Trade Center (f.k.a. the Freedom Tower), cannot be overstated. After nearly a decade and a half of controversy surround the sprawling construction site (an easy metaphor for a scar), the shiny new David Childs-designed tower will stand as a monument of rebirth and a landmark of remembrance. In addition to the historical importance of the building, there is also a neighborhood down there, and the new development at WTC and the 9/11 Memorial promises to breathe new life into the Financial District and downtown Manhattan.
All images courtesy The New Yorker.
The new neighborhood is getting a different kind of clientele that mixes media-types, creatives, and technologists in with the bankers and financiers. One of the more high-profile tenants of WTC is media giant Condé Nast, who are in the process of moving their rank and file — some 3,400 editors, writers, and advertising executives across 18 magazines — to FiDi from Times Square. That means that the offices of The New Yorker will be headquartered at WTC 1, and long-time New Yorker cartoonist and now cartoon editor Bob Mankoff took the opportunity to reflect on his new office.
In his ongoing web series “The Cartoon Lounge,” Mankoff takes us through the history of New Yorker cartoons. For this week’s episode, we take a trip through all the skyscrapers in the New Yorker cartoons, starting in the heyday of New York’s skyscraper craze, the 1920’s. Cartoons about iconic tall buildings include the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building while they were competing for the title of World’s tallest.
Each cartoon expresses the signature wit of New Yorker cartoons, and gives us a glimpse of how people regarded developments of yore much like they see new building projects today. Here, Mankoff narrates a journey through the history of skyscraper development, and even ends with an interesting insight on the WTC in the larger history of Manhattan:
