Waterworks

The New York City Water Supply System

This research (1993 to 2005) focused on the resources and infrastructure of the city’s water supply system. Professor Bone directed a seven-year program, between The Cooper Union and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, to study the archival holdings of those agencies that designed and built the monumental water supply system. An exhibition on the New York City Waterworks was held in 2001 at Cooper Union. For the following two years, Cooper Union worked the city on its vast archival holdings, directing initiatives to preserve, database and store the several hundred thousand drawings, photographs and artifacts. Professor Bone served as the primary editor and contributing author to the publication of Water-Works, The Architecture and Engineering of the New York City Water Supply (Monacelli Press, 2006).

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.