The Eureka Moment

This chapter describes the historic Battery Maritime Building, which contains the archives of the New York City Department of Docks (DD) that dated back to 1880. It mentions how the author sought documents in the building to confirm her theory that recreational facilities played a role in the primarily industrial New York City waterfront. It also highlights that the idea of floating baths captured the author' imagination after she proved her theory, solidifying her conviction to introduce floating baths to late twentieth-century readers through magazine articles and her book, Manhattan Water-Bound. The chapter discusses how the author's eureka moment started the twenty-seven-year-long campaign to reintroduce the floating baths to New York City and give the recreationally underserved urban public a place to swim on the city's riverfront. It details how the author convinced others of the historical appropriateness and modern-day desirability of creating a twenty-first-century “Floating Pool Lady.”

Joanna C. Diman (1901–91):

Joanna C. Diman (1901–91): A “Cantankerous” Landscape Architect at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill presents a biographical overview of Diman's career as a landscape architect. Using hitherto unpublished sources, Nicholas Adams traces Diman's progress from her training at the Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture for Women (from which she graduated in 1923) through her early work for individual practitioners. For a decade beginning in 1934, she worked for the New York City Department of Parks. In 1944, she joined the New York office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, where she worked until her retirement in 1967. Archival sources at SOM reveal that she was involved to differing degrees in nearly all projects that passed through the firm's New York office, from the relatively small garden at Lever House to the great works of “pastoral capitalism,” such as that at Connecticut General in Bloomfield, Connecticut (1957). Adams raises questions of stylistic individuality and places them alongside the larger issue of what influence an in-house landscape department had on design at SOM during these years.

Associations Between Recent Bereavement and Psychological and Financial Burden in Homebound Older Adults

Introduction Bereavement is common in older adults, but it remains unknown whether bereavement contributes to poor outcomes in the vulnerable population of older adults receiving home-based services. We examine whether recent bereavement was associated with worse physical or mental health, presence of abuse or neglect, and financial strain. Research Design Cross-sectional analyses of an assessment of functional and social vulnerabilities collected by the New York City Department for the Aging (DFTA), the largest Area Agency on Aging in New York. Assessments were completed on 5,576 New York City Department for the Aging long-term care program, recipients aged ≥60 who received services in 2012. Assessment also collected data on partner or child death in the last year. Results Logistic regression indicated that the recently bereaved were more likely than the nonbereaved to report both depression symptoms and financial strain. Conclusion Enhanced efforts to identify and address mental health and financial concerns in bereaved homebound older adults may be warranted.