Walks & Talks 2021: Fort Washington with Andrew Dolkart

Join Columbia University Professor of Historic Preservation Andrew Dolkart and explore the architecture and landscapes of the Fort Washington neighborhood in northern Manhattan. Fort Washington, the northwestern section of Washington Heights, developed relatively late in New York City’s history, in the 1920s and 1930s when mass transit lines reached the area. The neighborhood is anchored by Fort Tryon Park, designed by Olmsted Brothers in 1930 at the behest of John D. Rockefeller Jr. With its spectacular views of the Hudson River and Palisades, this is one of Olmsted Brothers great designs.

The Walk & Talk will explore the southern end of the park, including the magnificent Heather Garden, the Linden Terrace, the Cloisters, and other features. The tour will then continue through the neighborhood, with its speculatively-built middle-class, Art Deco apartment buildings from the late 1930s. It will end with an examination of two of the great apartment complexes of the city; Hudson View Gardens is a Tudor-inspired complex, built in 1923-24, around extensive gardens, to create a suburban environment in the city, and Castle Village, dating from 1939, is, perhaps, the earliest tower-in-the-park housing project in America.