Talk:Municipal Asphalt Plant

I'll be adding in the architectural style and the reception towards the design of the municipal asphalt plant later. If anyone has any criticisms of what I've already written in or what I've just suggested, let me know! Qchong5 (talk) 19:48, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

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GA Review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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This review is transcluded from Talk:Municipal Asphalt Plant/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Grk1011 (talk · contribs) 13:00, 1 August 2023 (UTC)

I will review this one! Grk1011 (talk) 13:00, 1 August 2023 (UTC)

Infobox and lead

• Infobox information checks out, though I might suggest "1941–1944" for built year since you have 1941 in infobox and 1944 in lead.
  • Done. Epicgenius (talk) 21:09, 6 August 2023 (UTC)
• Wikilink asphalt plant
  • Done. Epicgenius (talk) 21:09, 6 August 2023 (UTC)
• "it was attached to a conveyor belt and storage facility, both of which have been demolished." <-This feels tacked-on. Are we to assume it was because of the conversion or was it unrelated?
  • The conveyor belt and storage facility were part of the original plant. The conversion to a recreation center happened several years after the demolition of these two structures. Epicgenius (talk) 21:09, 6 August 2023 (UTC)
• "The exterior was designed with four arched ribs, The walls" <- fix the capital "The" by either splitting or better combining this sentence.
• Introducing the Murphy Center again in the second paragraph felt repetitive.
  • Fixed. Epicgenius (talk) 21:09, 6 August 2023 (UTC)
• "the conveyor belt and storage facility were demolished." <- you mentioned this in the first paragraph already. I think the lead needs a quick re-focus to avoid repeating things.
  • I've reworded the lead to avoid repetition. Epicgenius (talk) 21:09, 6 August 2023 (UTC)

Features

• remove "the" before "the FDR Drive" (a couple instances of this throughout the article. (I'm basing this on how it's referred to in FDR Drive)
  • Done. Epicgenius (talk) 21:09, 6 August 2023 (UTC)
• At this point in the article, I began to wonder "what is asphalt used for". I can assume city projects, but it hasn't been stated anywhere yet.
  • I added a little description. Epicgenius (talk) 21:09, 6 August 2023 (UTC)
• "In the final plans, three levels were added to the Murphy Center, rather than two." <- I got confused by this sentence. Didn't you just describe how it was planned to be three, but then you say three were built instead of the two that were planned? I think this might be an issue of what was there prior, what was added, and what the total number of stories ended up being.
  • Oops. I meant "four levels, instead of three". Epicgenius (talk) 21:09, 6 August 2023 (UTC)

History

• "The plant supplied all of the asphalt used to repave roads in Manhattan; between 1945 and 1948, over 80 percent of repaving projects in Manhattan used asphalt." <- this sentence is rather important overall, but is tucked away in the history section. The word "road" is only used once in the article despite this building being essential in road construction. Make sure some part of this is in the lead.
  • I've added this to the lead. Epicgenius (talk) 21:09, 6 August 2023 (UTC)
• "soliciting the support of 80 percent of nearby landowners." <- This is interesting phrasing. Is it landowners such as landlords of towers, building owners, etc. or actual residents/voters?
  • This generally refers to building owners, but it's a bit more complicated than that. In some cases, the people who owned the building were not the same as the people who own the land underneath. This sentence is talking about the people who owned the actual land. Residents of the buildings didn't have a say in the matter, unless they owned the building themselves (which they rarely did). Epicgenius (talk) 21:09, 6 August 2023 (UTC)
• The cancelation of the development feels like it's missing something. It goes from two alternatives that appear to have support, to canceled without any stated reasons.
  • Although land owners were supportive of the project, most actual residents opposed it, which is why the redevelopment was canceled. Epicgenius (talk) 21:09, 6 August 2023 (UTC)
• Unlink Richard Dattner and add a couple words about who he is to provide context
  • Done. Epicgenius (talk) 21:09, 6 August 2023 (UTC)
• "American football" <- remove "American" as this is obvious in a US-focused article
  • Done. Epicgenius (talk) 21:09, 6 August 2023 (UTC)
• "proposed reopening the neighboring DSNY waste transfer station in 2006" <- this waste station was mentioned earlier in the article, but the reader isn't aware that it ever closed.
  • I've clarified this now. Epicgenius (talk) 21:09, 6 August 2023 (UTC)

Impact

• "landmar kstatus"
  • Fixed. Epicgenius (talk) 21:09, 6 August 2023 (UTC)
• Is there any more information about it being added to the National Register? One statement sentence doesn't feel like enough.
  • Unfortunately, the sources don't say much else about why the plant was listed on the NRHP, just that it received such a designation. Epicgenius (talk) 21:09, 6 August 2023 (UTC)

Other GA items

• Earwig's copyvio tool showed 24.8% chance of copyvio (meaning unlikely) with the use of "the George and Annette Murphy Center" over and over the only thing that really stood out. No problem.
• Refs: I accepted the NY Times refs in good faith. You might want to add the subscription required tag to them and any others that require it. The landmark application refs had so much detail in them. Very impressed.
• Photos: All photos are properly licensed. For me, what I really needed in this article was some sort of map showing where things were in relation to each other. With some components replacing others, I often lost track of what was still there and what had been removed.
  • I can add a map of the plant in a bit. Epicgenius (talk) 21:09, 6 August 2023 (UTC)

Discussion

Hi @Epicgenius: A really great article and not much to fix. Grk1011 (talk) 14:11, 4 August 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for the review @Grk1011. I will address these issues over the next few days. – Epicgenius (talk) 04:43, 5 August 2023 (UTC)

@Grk1011, thanks again for the feedback. I think I've addressed all of these issues now. Epicgenius (talk) 21:09, 6 August 2023 (UTC)

@Epicgenius: Looks great! Looking forward to the map if you're able to get that done at some point (not necessary for GA). Passing this now! Grk1011 (talk) 13:37, 7 August 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Bruxton (talk) 18:52, 17 August 2023 (UTC)

(

• Comment or view
• Article history

)

The Municipal Asphalt Plant

• ... that the walls of the Municipal Asphalt Plant's mixing plant remained standing after three weeks of attempts to demolish it? Source: Mifflin, Lawrie (January 28, 1976). "Old Asphalt Plant Settled Safely on Road to Posterity". New York Daily News.
  • ALT1: ... that the Municipal Asphalt Plant became a recreation center after three weeks of attempts to demolish it? Source: Mifflin, Lawrie (January 28, 1976). "Old Asphalt Plant Settled Safely on Road to Posterity". New York Daily News.
  • ALT2: ... that the Municipal Asphalt Plant, characterized by Robert Moses as the "Cathedral of Asphalt" when it opened, later became a recreation center? Source: Mifflin, Lawrie (January 28, 1976). "Old Asphalt Plant Settled Safely on Road to Posterity". New York Daily News.
  • ALT3: ... that the Municipal Asphalt Plant was likened to a half-buried sardine can? Source: Johnson, Kirk (June 28, 1985). "2 Rental Luxury Towers Rise in the New Yorkville". The New York Times.
  • ALT4: ... that the Municipal Asphalt Plant later trained an Olympic swimmer? Source: Heyman, Marshall (September 25, 2012). "Upper East Side 'Pool Party' Goes for Gold". Wall Street Journal.
  • ALT4A: ... that an Olympic swimmer trained at the Municipal Asphalt Plant? Source: Heyman, Marshall (September 25, 2012). "Upper East Side 'Pool Party' Goes for Gold". Wall Street Journal.
  • Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Thwaites Glacier

Improved to Good Article status by Epicgenius (talk). Self-nominated at 15:17, 7 August 2023 (UTC). Post-promotion hook changes for this nom will be logged at Template talk:Did you know nominations/Municipal Asphalt Plant; consider watching this nomination, if it is successful, until the hook appears on the Main Page.

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Cited: Interesting:

Image: Image is freely licensed, used in the article, and clear at 100px.
Freely licensed: Used in article: Clear at 100px:

QPQ: Done.

Overall: the link to the Johnson (1985) scan isn't legible to me, so I'll AGF.

• ALT2: The source cited doesn't mention "Cathedral of Asphalt" unless I missed it. It seems from the other sources cited in the article that the term was specifically used by Moses, and I didn't see evidence of wide use.
• ALT4: Being a spoilsport, I don't think it's quite correct to say that the building trained the swimmer. Presumably it's phrased like that for quirkiness, unless it's a form of words in American English I'm not used to. I'm not sure I can approve that one as it stands.

• @Epicgenius: - I love these hooks, but have queries on a couple. Regards, BennyOnTheLoose (talk) 14:18, 9 August 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for the review BennyOnTheLoose. I've attributed ALT2 to Moses and proposed ALT4A as an alternative to ALT4. In American English, sometimes when we mention the building/organization, we actually mean their occupants, employees, etc. (So for example, if we say the White House did something, then we mean that the President or his staff did it.) Epicgenius (talk) 14:31, 9 August 2023 (UTC)

Sorry to make you wait BennyOnTheLoose. I've done a QPQ now. Epicgenius (talk) 13:43, 17 August 2023 (UTC)