Laurel outlook., 1946-05-22
New York to
Get New Face
Series of Streamlining Plans
Under Consideration May
Change Looks of City.

NEW YORK.-The big city is
peering into a rose colored looking
glass these days-and primping
quite a bit.
Bedazzled by a series of stream
lining plans, the city is in the
position of a girl who has been
promised a mink coat, but who is
making the old cloth job do. And
even though plans alone can't make
the town look better, they do put
an eXpectant CLEAN in Gotham's
eye, says the Chicago Tribune.
For the most part, the CLEAN is
reflected in the eyes of the officials
of the Broadway association and
the erstwhile Sixth avenue, now
Avenue of the Americas ~associa-
ton. From the looks of things, it's
going to be a race to e which
street can put through the most
startling face fittings. Some of the
plans are very much on the future
list; some are fairly immediate and
revolutionary.
The Great White Way, for exam
pie, isn't going to be so bright in
the future. There's a good chance
that the glazing street lights o
on Broadway will be replaced with
softer lamps. The mammoth spec
tacular advertising signs in Times
square and vicinity are going to
glow with soft pastel tones pro-
duced by lights within plastics, in
stead of garish reds, green's and
blues.
Spectacular Signs.
The signs themselves will do
Broadway's complexion a world of
good, says Douglas Leigh, outdoor
advertising specialist.
Spectacular as these Jobs sound,
Leigh says they require no rebuild
ing-just refacing of buildings in
some cases. But the signs already
under way are minor projects COM
pared to Leigh's plans for the fu-
ture.
Others Watch Waistline.
Broadway's face also will be
heightened in the future, Leigh be-
lieves. "The amusement area now
reaches all the way up to Columbus
CIRCLE" he says, "where Hamlet
is playing in the old Park theater.
Other theaters and motion picture
houses are moving up into the fif-
ties, the crowds are being drawn
farther and farther north"
While Leigh speculates about
Broadway's visage, the Broadway
association is worrying about her
waistline and underpinnings. Re-
Gently, it was announced that the
street a lines would be replaced
with buses this year, and the street
repaved all along the line.
Although city planning commits
sion officials point out the difficulty
of getting all the land under one
ownership so that alterations could
be started, and mention the stag
gering bill for any such large scale
redoing, Col. V. Clement Jenkins,
president of the association, has an
idea for nearly every block from
Church street right up to Central
park.
White Collar Center.
He'd like to see the area from
Canal street to 18th remodeled into
a huge white collar residential CEN
ter. He wants a cultural center,
too, with several buildings to
bring together all the artists" a
school of the theater, opera and
all endowed, and an opera
house. The roofs of the houses .
would have enclosed Fairgrounds of
the solarium type, and movable
sections that can be taken out in
warm weather.
Jenkins is counting on the fash
on center mentioned some time
ago for the avenue between Oath
and 32nd streets on the east side
and wants to square it off or the
side with arcade buildings
housing all the florists now scat
cred in the upper twenties. There
be a couple of flower festi-
7als a year, he says.
From 36th to 38th he proposes an
lir line terminal with underground
unnel connections with other
means of transportation, and above
hat a sort of hotel of the Amer
cas-, with 81 stories dedicated to
he various Latin-American coun-
ries. Each story, he says, would
manned by nationals of that
ountry, and a night club on the
oof could feature floor shows rep
esenting each nation, each n to
un one month.