Sunday, December 02, 2018

The campus that wasn't

We like to say that the merger between Parsons and the New School was something neither party would ever have expected, and that is certainly true. The merger's impact took a long time to be felt, too, especially on the New School end. Now it seems destined, even visionary. Our imagination of the pasts of both schools is distorted by retrospect.

Reconstructing where the two schools thought they were heading at the time is a fun challenge. Here's an image of a New School future that wasn't: replacing the buildings between the New School and Sixth Avenue with a Center for Creative and Performing Arts (!), with a dedicated home for the Center for New York City Affairs planned, too!