page_title: Walter D. Binger
section_title: Preservationism
hierarchical_section_title: Walter D. Binger / Career / Preservationism
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking north at former Municipal Asphalt Plant of en:Ely Jacques Kahn in the Upper East Side on a sunny early afternoon
context_page_description: Walter D. Binger was a civil engineer and member of the historical preservationist movement in New York City.
context_section_description: During the 1940s, Binger used his technical expertise to oppose Robert Moses's sweeping plans to transform Lower Manhattan. In 1939 he and fellow civil engineer Ole Singstad were commissioned to analyze the cost and visual impact of Moses's proposal for a Brooklyn-Battery Bridge. Their report highlighted the extent to which the bridge would have obstructed views on both sides of the East River and proved Moses's initial cost projections to be vastly underestimated. Although the bridge proposal was later approved by the New York City Council, it was never built, and the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel now serves its intended purpose.
  Binger fought to save Castle Clinton, a historic fort in Battery Park, after Moses called for it to be demolished. Binger performed an inspection of the site and reported that Moses had been exaggerating when he described the fort's state of disrepair. He was part of a lawsuit brought against Moses to prevent the demolition order from being acted on, and his attorney, Frederick van Pelt Bryan, obtained an injunction against Moses just as the demolition was scheduled to begin. After a long legal battle, the community efforts to save Castle Clinton were ultimately successful, helped along by Binger's copious letters to the editor of the New York Times advocating for the preservationist cause. Castle Clinton was preserved as a National Historic Monument in 1950.
  Binger also clashed with Moses over the design of the Municipal Asphalt Plant at York Avenue and 91st Street. He was responsible for the building's commission and final modernist design by Ely Jacques Kahn and Robert Allan Jacobs, which Moses called "the most hideous waterfront structure ever inflicted on a city by a combination of architectural conceit and official bad taste." Binger defended it as "almost surely the most functional large building in the world" and was backed by the Museum of Modern Art, which selected the Municipal Asphalt Plant as one of the 47 best buildings constructed in the U.S. between 1932 and 1944. The iconic arched building, which is no longer in use for city works, is on the National Register of Historic Places.
caption: Municipal Asphalt Plant
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