Thursday, June 29, 6:30 p.m.
TWILIGHT TOUR OF GRAND ARMY PLAZA
The turn-of-the-20th-century City Beautiful movement sought to bring classical grandeur to all the neighborhoods of the city. Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn may be New York’s fullest realization of City Beautiful ideals. Henry Hope Reed said of the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch that it was “the second greatest triumphal arch of modern times, after the Arc de Triomphe.” Its sculpture, by Brooklyn native Frederick MacMonnies, ranks with the best ever produced by an American artist. We will look closely at the arch, at the other superb statuary and design elements of the plaza, at the part of Prospect Park that the plaza is a gateway to, and at the Park Slope “Gold Coast” that the plaza is the climax of. We will be joined by Brooklyn-based artist Bridget Regan, whose photographic exhibition, Grand Army Plaza: Soldiers, Gods and Angels, is on view at the Urban Center through July 31. Leader: Francis Morrone, architectural historian. Meet at the corner of Eighth Ave. and St. John’s Pl. (Transit: #2, 3 trains to Grand Army Plaza; B, Q trains to 7th Ave.)