Study for Maximum Mass Permitted by the 1916 New York Zoning Law, Stage 2

Hugh Ferriss's architectural rendering explores the volumetric envelope allowed under New York's pioneering 1916 zoning ordinance. This study demonstrates how setback requirements—mandatory as buildings rose—would shape the city's skyline. Ferriss's charcoal technique renders the massed form in dramatic shadow and light, revealing the geometric possibilities within legal constraints. His visualizations became foundational to twentieth-century urban design discourse, translating municipal code into tangible architectural form and influencing how planners and architects understood zoning's sculptural effects on the metropolitan landscape.