Billy Shebar

In 1989, the abandoned rail yards on the Hudson River between W. 59th and W. 72nd Streets were one of the last prime tracts of undeveloped real estate in Manhattan.  At the entrance to a train tunnel that runs under Riverside Park, squatters built makeshift homes out of scrap wood and other discarded materials (“Tunnel Homes”).  Inspired by this favela on the Hudson, architects Lebbeus Woods and Michael Sorkin designed an urban utopia called “Timesquare” as an alternative to Donald Trump’s planned “Television City” development (“Timesquare”).  These clips are from a series of short videos broadcast on The Eleventh Hour (WNET) and shown at the Friedman Benda Gallery in Chelsea.