NYC Public School Parents: Richard Barr on the glorious Snyder school buildings, too many lost, sold or sitting empty

NYC Public School Parents: Richard Barr on the glorious Snyder school buildings, too many lost, sold or sitting empty:

Richard Barr on the glorious Snyder school buildings, too many lost, sold or sitting empty

by Leonie Haimson

Morris High School in the Bronx

Mayor Bloomberg’s invitation to his State of the City speechfeatures a photo of the glorious Morris High School building in the Bronx where his address will be given. Morris High School was designed by the NYC Superintendent of schools, Charles B.J. Snyder, at the turn of the century.

According to the architectural historian Jean Arrington, Snyder designed and built an astonishing 344 school buildings and 64 additions over about thirty years; a record that puts Bloomberg’srepeated claims of having the most ambitious record of school construction to shame.

The Wikipedia entry about Snyder says: “Snyder saw school buildings as civic monuments for a better society. He was