VISTA: THAMES STREET
22 Thames Street between Greenwich Street and Trinity Place
FEBRUARY 15, 1938. ABBOTT FILE 282

Thames Street, one block long and more alley than street, was wedged between the tenements of the Lower West Side and the skyscrapers of the financial district. Abbott captured the street's transitional character in this skyward "vista," formed by looking over low structures toward the majestic crowns of the twin U.S. Realty and Trinity Buildings (1906). Undeterred by the site's extreme darkness and narrowness, she converted technical obstacles into expressive gains.

Today, large buildings on both sides of Thames Street--designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill for New York University's Graduate School of Business Administration--have transformed the vista into a sliver of light, revealing only one corner of the Trinity Building. Thames Street's remaining storefronts, like those in Abbott's photograph, are still inexpensive restaurants.

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