Alex Swartz

Alex Swartz was a native of New York City's Lower East Side. He graduated from Columbia University with a degree in architecture two weeks before the Second Great War began. Swartz was conscripted and served for the duration of the war, rising to the rank of captain. After the war he remained in the Army and served occupation duty in Mississippi. During a leave in 1944, he presented plans he'd drawn for a rebuilt and less overcrowded Lower East Side to Congresswoman Flora Hamburger.