Book Description
The Landmarks of New York is a definitive resource book on the architectural history of the city, documenting and illustrating more than 1100 buildings that have been accorded landmark status over the past forty years. The chronological organization gives the reader a sequential overview of the city's architectural richness and diversity. The book presents a broad range of styles and building types-simple colonial farmhouses, churches, schools, libraries, Gilded Age mansions, and the great twentieth-century skyscrapers that are recognized throughout the world.
That so many of these structures have endured is due, in large measure, to the efforts of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, established in 1965. Since then, New York city has become the leader of the preservation movement in the United States, with more buildings and districts designated and protected than in any other city. Within this constantly changing metropolis, old buildings are often adapted to new uses, offering further proof of the quality of their design and construction.
Customer Reviews:
Landmarked but Flawed.......2006-12-18
Pound for pound this was the most disappointing of a series of books on New York City architecture that I have read over the past several years. This does not make it a bad book; its 600+ pages are filled with more information on New York City's 1100 designated landmarks than any other single volume, and each is accompanied by a fine black and white photo. Its format, with the buildings ordered by the year they were build allows the reader to thumb through the 1860's for example and see a succession of French Second Empire buildings with their iconic mansard roofs.
Still there are several flaws I have found with this book that weighs nearly seven pounds and has a sticker price of $65.00.
First and most egregious is the apparently careless editing.
One entry, that of the Van Cortlandt Mansion in the Bronx, seems to be lifted word-for-word, without attribution from Goldstone and Dalrymple's wonderfully literate book, "History Preserved". It is possible that Ms. Diamondstein-Spielvogel had permission to do this, perhaps the authors were friends from their days together on the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Maybe "The Landmarks of New York," is a successor to the older book. As there is no bibliography or explanation we will never know.
A second entry, that of Staten Island's Gardiner-Tyler House, the author writes in part, "Mrs. Tyler rarely visited the house before 1868, when as a widow she returned to Staten Island with Tyler's seven children from a previous marriage."
The author is of course referring to President Tyler's second wife Julia, whom he married in 1844, when she was 24 and he 54. By 1868, Tyler's youngest child from his first wife Letitia, Tazewell Tyler was 38, a physician, and living in California; his oldest surviving child Robert Tyler was 52; and only four of his children from Letitia were still alive. It is hardly likely that any of them followed Julia to Staten Island. What the author meant to say was that Julia moved there with her seven children from Tyler.
Another example, more one of carelessness than error is found in her entry on 359 Broadway, a fine Italianette style building found on the corner of Broadway and Leonard Street and best known for housing the studios of the great Civil War photographer, Mathew Brady, for a few years in the 1850's.
The last paragraph stated, "At the end of the century, the Ladies Mile neighborhood changed from a fashionable shopping district to a textile and wholesaling zone."
My first, surprised reaction upon reading this, was how the author could place this building, situated at the edge of today's Tribeca, in the Ladies Mile, which as anyone interested in New York history knows was located further uptown, along Broadway and 6th Avenue from about West 8th Street to West 23rd Street. As it turns out, this area was once called a ladies-mile, about a half-century before its better-known successor. But the entry doesn't explain this subtlety and there lies the confusion.
What this book is really lacking are neighborhood or area maps that locate each of the Landmarks. While a map isn't necessary to conceptualize the location of a building with a typical Manhattan grid address, the Alwyn Court Apartments at 182 West 58th St. for example, it would be nice to be able to quickly see the location of a farmhouse in Brooklyn or an old church in Staten Island, especially when that farmhouse or church is positioned on a page with a townhouse on the Upper East Side, a building it has nothing in common with aside from the year in which it was built. Perhaps in a future edition a map section could be added to the end of the book and an easy key can be developed to clearly cross-reference an entry to its map number or page.
In a book devoted specifically to "designated" New York City landmarks, how does one handle those buildings that are good enough to be landmarks on their own, but have never been designated individually because their inclusion in one of the several dozen Historic Districts before being considered for individual designation obviated the need for such designation? New York's two greatest Historic Districts, Greenwich Village and Brooklyn Height contain many of these worthy buildings. In its" Guide to New York City Landmarks", the Landmarks Committee deftly handled this issue by separately listing and discussing the dozen or so most important buildings in each of those two districts. Ms. Diamondstein-Spielvogel, however, chose to ignore them completely. So there is no mention of the famous Washington Memorial Arch, no mention of the unique teak wood detailing of the façade of the Lockwood deForest House, no mention of the great Jefferson Market Library, that whimsical Victorian Gothic building that has become a symbol of the village and was one of the first and finest examples of use conversion envisioned by the Landmarks Preservation Committee as a way to save old buildings. There is also no discussion of Brooklyn Heights' best buildings including Plymouth Congregational Church, where the fiery abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher preached, or Minard Lafever's Gothic Revival masterpiece First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn.
The book does however have a section that describes each of the Historic Districts so that a reader can get an overall feel for these districts, and ironically, given their nonexistence elsewhere in the book, has fine maps attached to each entry, showing the boundaries of each of these districts.
Any single book with this much information about its subject certainly deserves a recommendation, but for this book to reach its pretensions of being the standard reference of New York City Landmarks there is much that can be improved.
Over 1,100 buildings which have earned landmark status over the past forty years.......2005-10-06
If it's one weighty, definitive library reference you need to New York City's landmarks, make it Landmarks Of New York: An Illustrated Record Of The City's Historic Buildings: its scope and format can't be beat. Art and architectural libraries as well as New York City specialty collections will welcome documentation of over 1,100 buildings which have earned landmark status over the past forty years. A chronological arrangement guides readers through a wealth of building styles and types, from farmhouses and churches to mansions, with black and white photos of each accompanying descriptions, comments on style and design, listings of architects involved in the building's construction and redesign over the decades, and style descriptions. A 'must' for any serious architectural or New York history collection.
Over 1,100 buildings which have earned landmark status over the past forty years.......2005-10-06
If it's one weighty, definitive library reference you need to New York City's landmarks, make it Landmarks Of New York: An Illustrated Record Of The City's Historic Buildings: its scope and format can't be beat. Art and architectural libraries as well as New York City specialty collections will welcome documentation of over 1,100 buildings which have earned landmark status over the past forty years. A chronological arrangement guides readers through a wealth of building styles and types, from farmhouses and churches to mansions, with black and white photos of each accompanying descriptions, comments on style and design, listings of architects involved in the building's construction and redesign over the decades, and style descriptions. A 'must' for any serious architectural or New York history collection.
Over 1,100 buildings which have earned landmark status over the past forty years.......2005-10-06
If it's one weighty, definitive library reference you need to New York City's landmarks, make it Landmarks Of New York: An Illustrated Record Of The City's Historic Buildings: its scope and format can't be beat. Art and architectural libraries as well as New York City specialty collections will welcome documentation of over 1,100 buildings which have earned landmark status over the past forty years. A chronological arrangement guides readers through a wealth of building styles and types, from farmhouses and churches to mansions, with black and white photos of each accompanying descriptions, comments on style and design, listings of architects involved in the building's construction and redesign over the decades, and style descriptions. A 'must' for any serious architectural or New York history collection.
Over 1,100 buildings which have earned landmark status over the past forty years.......2005-10-06
If it's one weighty, definitive library reference you need to New York City's landmarks, make it Landmarks Of New York: An Illustrated Record Of The City's Historic Buildings: its scope and format can't be beat. Art and architectural libraries as well as New York City specialty collections will welcome documentation of over 1,100 buildings which have earned landmark status over the past forty years. A chronological arrangement guides readers through a wealth of building styles and types, from farmhouses and churches to mansions, with black and white photos of each accompanying descriptions, comments on style and design, listings of architects involved in the building's construction and redesign over the decades, and style descriptions. A 'must' for any serious architectural or New York history collection.
Book Description
A fresh look at the greatest builder in the history of New York City and one of its most controversial figures.
In various roles in city and state government from 1930 to 1965, Robert Moses reshaped the fabric of the city. From Lincoln Center to the Triborough Bridge, the West Side Highway to the Cross Bronx Expressway, his public projects, reassessed in this book by notable urbanists, continue to exert a strong influence in the lives of New Yorkers. 250 illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
A top pick not just for New York libraries.......2007-07-07
ROBERT MOSES AND THE MODERN CITY: THE TRANSFORMATION OF NEW YORK, which offers a new look at legendary architect Robert Moses, who reshaped the skyline of New York City. Readers familiar with New York will readily recognize some of his major contributions from the Lincoln Center to the Cross Bronx Expressway - so it's surprising to note this is the first major publication since the 1974 biography THE POWER BROKER appeared - and ROBERT MOSES AND THE MODERN CITY: THE TRANSFORMATION OF NEW YORK comes packed with photos that his biography doesn't provide. Far from hastening the demise of New York, this book shows how his works strengthened the central city and brought it into modern times, altering road systems and creating an urban design plan to foster changes. Plenty of detailed history surround the photos and descriptions of each project's special challenges, making this a top pick not just for New York libraries, but for any college-level art or urban planning collection.
ITS A WONDER HE DID NOT TRY TO PART THE EAST RIVER.......2007-03-22
Now this man had POWER. It is amazing how much control he had over the building of infastructure in NYC, he was the first and last word. He was like a 20th century Baron Hausemann. This book is well written and scholarly and frankly just fascinating. I saw a documentary on Robert Moses one time and was just blown away at his hubris and power. His reign over NYC spanned several powerful mayors and to this day no person has ever had so much power of the cities infrastructure. Great book, highly recommended.
A modern take on the metropolis that Moses crafted.......2007-03-19
The Power Broker (another prominent work on Moses) is a product of the 1970s pessimism concerning the death of the city, saying that Moses helped bring about the downfall experienced in 1974 when the book was published. In Ballon's book, we have the experience that 30 years of hindsight provides, and the tone is radically different Ballon and other essayists provide a more modern insight to Moses and his achievements. Do not be fooled, this is not a coffee table book, but almost a text book for urban planners on the practices employed by Moses. The book was inspired by the museum exhibits going on currently in New York City concerning Moses and his works, and is an excellent supplement to them. If you are interested in NYC, public works, or Urban History- this is a must buy, and will become more important as time wears on.
I also recommend The Power Broker and Moses' own book Public Works: A Dangerous Trade
Book Description
As the world's financial and cultural capital, New York demands the best in innovative architectural design, balancing the pressure to build with the need to preserve the historic fabric of the city. Author Robert A. M. Stern and his colleagues trace the rise and fall of the real estate market, the impact of the designation of historic districts and new zoning on development, and the emergence of new commercial and residential centers. Organized geographically, this survey moves north from Lower Manhattan to Harlem and on to study the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island.
New York 2000 documents the milestones in the city's architectural history--the development of Battery Park City, the rebirth of Harlem and Times Square, the creation of the cultural precinct around the new MoMA, the reclaiming of the waterfront along the East and Hudson Rivers as recreational parkland--and celebrates the achievements of internationally recognized architects including Sir Norman Foster, Cesar Pelli, Richard Meier, and Renzo Piano.
Customer Reviews:
NewYork grandeur.......2007-02-13
NewYork as I know and love it.This is an exceptional book,it explains why the city is like it is.Every outstanding architecture is well described and it is readable by everyone.
NYC.......2007-01-16
At 1300 pages this is quite comprehensive and exhaustively researched. NYC has had a real resurgence in skyscraper building in the last ten years or so and many good buildings have been built..like the Time Warner Bldg. the Bloomberg Tower, and the New York Times building..and so far it looks like the world trade center site is going to have some specacular buildings, frankly im still not sure about the Freedom Tower(please find a new name, lord)design but it's so much better than that untenable Libeskind designed, frankly I love the Norman Foster design but whatever, but I digress...as for this book it's fantastic and if you love NYC you will have to have this in you collection, really a complete, thorough book on current architecture in NYC, buy this book you wont be disappointed.
Great Gift Book.......2007-01-03
I bought this book as a gift for my boss who loves both NYC and architecture. He loved it! I looked through it before giving it to him and agree it is a great book. It's $100 in the book stores, so it is a good buy on Amazon for $63.00. Great for anyone who loves NYC.
Customer Reviews:
A fantastic book for a very much loved park.......2006-07-26
Did you know that the elm lined mall leading to the Bethesda fountain and the view of the ramble are actually based on the layout of a church? Or that all of the lakes in Central Park are manmade. This and many other very interesting facts are interspersed with lovingly taken photographs of the park which were taken by the author of the book as well. Miller starts decribing how the park came to be and the leading ideas and ideals that lead to its creation by Olmsted and Vaux. She proceeds to describe systematically the various sections of the park providing historical information as well. She delves into the some of the controversies and compromises that Olmsted and Vaux encountered in the creation of one of the finest examples of 19th Century art but it is not a comprehensive history of the park. There is a 2 page map of the park at the of the book with a legend identifying each of the features discussed in the book. If you are first time visitor to the city wishing to explore the park in detail or a life long New Yorker this book will delight and surprise you.
Definitive Review of the Finest Work of Art in NYC.......2006-02-20
As an avid fan of Central Park who has been exploring it and studying the books on it for decades, I was amazed at what there was still to learn about it from Miller's book. For example, other historians allude to a connection between Central Park's design and the Hudson River School of landscape art: Miller provides actual sources of the designer's inspiration and shows the results explicitly in the photos. And all in a way that is not at all "bookish" but instead makes you want to go right in and see for yourself the scenes she shows so well in the book's illustrations. The beautiful photos and fascinating stories and the well chosen historical prints all work together in such a compelling and entertaining way that one might never realize one is being educated by a superb textbook in the field of art.
With her emphasis on the past of the park, and its present restored beauty, it is understandable that the author does not use very much of the book's valuable space on the remaining present-day problems, but she might at least have alluded to the incongruity of the city's insistence on using this artistic matepiece as a through route for motor traffic during the majority of daylight weekday hours. In effect, the city's Dept. of Traffic is providing a refuge from the chaos of the surrounding streets during rush hours - but for the cars, not for the people. If you want to appreciate the park shown in this book, go during the times when the traffic noise does not drown out the wind in the trees, the birdsong, and the happy voices of children!
New York's Oasis.......2005-09-21
Central Park is breath taking and this book does a fine job of giving the reader a feel for what makes this 850 acre masterpiece so special. The book is quite thorough and does an commendable job of disecting various sections of the park. The color photos are vivid and well thought out and the text is highly informative. The author has a real love for the park and it comes out in her writing. If you have never visited Central Park or have visited and fell in love with it like so many others, you will love this book. This oasis really is the heart of New York City and to understand New York you have to understand the parks history and its vast importantance to the city. Central Parks importance to New York and New Yorkers cannot be overstated, I can't imagine the city without it.
A Gorgeous Book Commemorating America's 1st Public Park.......2004-03-16
Commemorating the 150th anniversary of Central Park, photographer and historian Sara Cedar Miller celebrates the aesthetic, cultural and historic significance of America's first public park with the book "Central Park, An American Masterpiece." This is the park's definitive illustrated history, and offers some of the most gorgeous photographs I have seen on the subject - a difficult task given the number of pictures that have been drawn, painted and photographed of the Manhattan landmark. The book includes over 200 color illustrations, original plans and drawings alongside modern photos, giving the viewer/reader an historical perspective.
Accompanying Ms. Miller's work, portraying the park throughout the seasons, is a well written text which highlights the conception and creation of the park and its art and architecture. This is a big, beautiful picture book that would make a wonderful addition to any home or library. It's a wonderful gift idea. I know as I have given it numerous times.
Ms. Miller is the parks official historian and photographer and has been since the mid-1980s.
JANA
A book as worthy as the park it celebrates.......2003-11-26
Sara Miller has put together an outstanding book: a book as vast and detailed as the Great Park itself. For those not familiar with the park and its history, this is an invaluable introduction to the political, demographical, economic and, especially, aesthetic thinking that went into the creation of 800 acres of gorgeous park space in the middle of Manhattan. For those seasoned veterans of NYC history, this is a welcome reminder of the enormous vision and efforts of Calvert Vaux and Fredrick Law Olmsted, as they conceived the park.
Nota Bene: A lot of books have gorgeous photos but the print job is miserable ... Others have high-qualtity prints but the photos aren't that interesting ... This book has glorious prints and an expert print job. Pick up this book.
Rocco Dormarunno, author of The Five Points and The Five Points Concluded
Book Description
Profiling twelve years of architectural education from 1972-1985, Education of an Architect celebrates the work of the talented students and the spirited faculty of the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of the Cooper Union. It is divided into two parts covering chronologically the first four years of the design studio, and the thesis year which is organized by topic: Instruments, Orders and Projections, the City, the Institution, Outskirts, the House, Bridges, Topographies and Texts.
This volume is a sequel to an earlier work of the same title, published in 1971 when the Cooper Union School of Architecture was invited by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, to exhibit student work produced between 1964 and 1971, the first such exhibition ever held at the Museum. That volume has since become a classic within architectural education, immensely influential upon architectural thought and practice in the last fifteen years.
This new collection presents work influenced by art, literature, and medicine, and consequently details the scope of expanded thought that now permeates Architecture.
Book Description
New York between the wars: the city of Babe Ruth, Checker cabs, and Zelda Fitzgerald's infamous dip in the fountain at the Plaza Hotel. That is the city that comes gloriously to life in this fascinating collection of 100 historical photographs of New York's notable streetscapes and landmarks. Discovered serendipitously by author David Stravitz when he was on a hunt for used camera equipment, these rare photographs of the city are accompanied here by informative captions and an insightful essay by architectural historian Christopher Gray.
Not only are these photographs being published for the first time, but the clarity and detail of the images, taken with a large-format camera, are astonishing. One can read the signage on the sides of buildings, examine the items in store windows, and see how people on the streets and sidewalks are dressed. From Trinity Church to Harlem, from Coney Island to Yankee Stadium, these images transport the reader into the heart of a vanished era, when men wore fedoras and the Empire City sparkled with promise. AUTHOR BIO: David Stravitz is a professional photographer, an industrial design consultant and product creator for many Fortune 500 companies, and the author of The Chrysler Building: Creating a New York Icon Day by Day. Christopher Gray, the author of Abrams' New York Streetscapes and other books on New York City architecture, has written the "Streetscapes" column in The New York Times since 1987. Both authors live in New York City.
Customer Reviews:
GOLDEN AGE OF NYC.......2006-10-26
I love the fantastic black and white images in this book, you forget how spectacularly beautiful the New York skyline was before the 50's, 60's and 70's international style of Mies and SOM ruined the skyline blocking many of these breathtaking buildings from view and altering an iconic american image forever. At any rate, this is a really good book, with well researched, interesting text and aforementioned great photo's. As you look at all the beautiful buildings and lament the loss of so many over the years, you can't help but want to throttle Robert Moses and David Rockefeller.
New York, Empire City: 1920-1945 .......2006-06-28
No regrets but I wish there were more photos of the city and street scenes.
Every brick and window.......2006-06-04
When David Stravitz bought around five hundred glass negatives from a New Jersey photo shop in the late seventies I bet he didn't realise what a nice little earner he was onto. This treasure trove of images has so far produced two books, the amazing day-by-day building of the Chrysler Building (ISBN 1568983549) and now 'New York, Empire State'.
Both books follow the same format, page after page of very detailed architectural photographs of the city in the first fifty years of the last century. This book has a hundred images (thankfully in 175dpi) taken by commercial photographers Peyser and Patzig probably for architects and builders as a record of their endeavours.
It is the detail in the photos that makes the book so fascinating. Taken on eight by ten glass negs after carefully selecting the right position reveals street scenes and buildings where you can read the road signs and study the detail work on skyscrapers that would be impossible to see from street level. Nearly all the photos are of commercial property though near the end there shots of tenements, shops, sport arenas and Coney Island. Needless to say many of the buildings shown came down years ago.
Each picture has the name of the building or city area and Christopher Gray adds more detail on six pages at the back of the book and this is where I felt the reader has been badly let down by the publishers. There are 130 photo pages yet only sixteen have page numbers, which makes nonsense of Gray's page numbered captions and the three page comprehensive index. Strangely page 105, with a whole page photo does have a number and this, I assume, was to be the case with every page but someone screwed up! Very frustrating (and do I get a refund?).
I recently reviewed a similar architectural photo book about New York City with 170 stunning photos taken by Samuel Gottscho between 1925 and 1940. Included are some marvellous Manhattan night photos as well as shop and house interiors. Gottscho's work helped to define the popular skyline silhouette image of the big American city. Have a look at 'The Mythic City' (ISBN 1568985622) by Donald Albrecht.
***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.
Ageless and timeless New York.......2005-07-19
A wonderful pictoral history of early 20th century New York. One will be astounded at the space between the buildings of the city and the level of architecture throughout. In our daily hustle, this book reminds us of the beauty of the many buildings that make up the skyline of New York. Enjoy.
New York, Empire City 1920-1945.......2004-12-01
I found David Stravitz's new book (New York, Empire City 1920-1945) every bit as thrilling as his book on the Construction of the Chrysler Building, building an Icon Day-by-Day. The photos are spectacular, oversized and chuck full of detail of a grand era in the history of the greatest city in the world. The big question for me is "is there another book to follow?". Can't wait! Lisa Franciosi
Book Description
This book is the middle volume of a three-part work devoted to the evolution of New York's architecture and urbanism in the Metropolitan Era, the three-quarters of a century from the Civil War's conclusion through the depression of the 1930s.
Customer Reviews:
Beautifully documents buildings of the turn-of-the-century.......2001-11-18
This is an excellent treatment of New York architecture, 1890-1915, divided into chapters by building type. It's substantially thinner than Robert Stern's other books in this series (New York 1880, New York 1930, New York 1960), but there's enough meat here that the reader feels the topic has been fully covered. The book has a particularly attractive page format, with numerous photos that beautifully document the era (averaging approximately one per page). There are also roughly 60 floor plans, although most page space is used for text.
The original and the still the best!.......2000-01-04
This is a groundbreaking work that unearthed the contemporaneous understanding of events that, because of the advent of modernism, was never recorded in books. It has paved the way for more specialized studies, but its breadth of learning and expertise has never been surpassed.
Indispensable........1999-08-09
The twentieth-century items by which New York City is usually synechdocally identified, the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center and what have you, are arguably just later iconic ornaments set atop the massive base formed during the earlier period covered in this book. The character New York has today was really in good part formed by the turn of the last century, by the structures and systems here presented. Gimlet-eyed Robert Stern and his apparently omnivorous assistants, Gilmartin and Massengale, have sorted, digested and made available enormous amounts of information. _New York 1900_ is an indispensable starting point for architects, historians, preservationists and others serious about understanding the City of the era.
Flat and uninspiring history of a great city........1999-05-19
The book attempts to be more that an architectural history and fails miserably. They tried to use architecture as a way of intertwining the political and social history of the city. Needless to say, this type of scope is best in the capable hands of Robert Caro. In addition to the wooden text, the photographs, while rare, are uninspiring. The publisher produced a well-bounded book, so the most useful place for it would be on a coffee table.
invaluable for anyone interesting in NYC architecture.......1998-07-19
This work (the first in a projected pentology on New York architecture in 1876, 1900, 1930, 1960 and 2000) is a dead-on account of NYC high-style architecture from 1890-1915. A must have.
Book Description
The evolution of New York's built environment is chronicled in this breathtaking history organized chronologically by site-from architectural masterpieces to engineering marvels. Witness New York as it was being built in the years following the Civil War. It was during this era when the city spread uptown, landscaped Central Park, engineered the bridges and subways, and scaled ever higher in the form of innovative skyscrapers.The New York story unfolds in these pages with an immediacy only photography can capture. It allows us to relive the moment when the theaters moved uptown followed by the city's "newspaper of record," and muddy, horse-trodden Longacre Square sprouted its iconic neon signs and was reborn as Times Square. Trace the growth by accretion of the Metropolitan Museum of Art as it nibbled away at the park or the transformation of Fifth Avenue into "millionaires row." Along the way, the majestic history of the city unfolds along with the story of the visionaries whose stamp it bears today. New York's coming of age coincided with the rise of photography, and this incredible trove of photographs culled from the archives of Time Life and the New-York Historical Society are the very images that created the larger-than-life reputation of New York that continues to dazzle the world today.
Customer Reviews:
Dramatic Photographs of How the City Came to Be.......2005-12-03
Beginning with the 1811 grid plan of 100 foot wide north-south avenues and 155 cross streets set at 200 foot intervals this book shows the story of how Manhattan came to be in a brilliant collection of photographs. Actually the pictures begin with engravings dating from before photographs existed, but the book is mostly photographs from the late 1800's to the drawings of the proposed Fredom Tower at the World Trade Center site.
The photographs cover Manhattan. How central park came to be is discussed as are the bridges and tunnels that provide access to the city. Sailing ships from an 1883 picture are near those of the New York Naval Shipyard (which alone built more ships during World War II than did all of Japan). Air liners from a TWA DC-3 to Pan Am's new Boing 707 at their dramatic terminal at Idlewild is only a page away from a Pan-Am clipper flying boat at La Guardia's Marine Air Terminal.
This is a very dramatic collection of pictures that truly reflects the Rise and Rise of the Greatest City on Earth.
Average customer rating:
- Useful and Interesting--Especially for New Yorkers
- Fascinating guide
- Exhaustive Guide to the Greatest City in the World
- The City in your hand
- Keep it close
|
AIA Guide to New York City
Norval White , and
Elliot Willensky
Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
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ASIN: 0812931076 |
Book Description
Since the
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To prepare this edition -- the first revision since 1987 -- Norval White has visited and revisited more than 5,000 buildings, making this by far the most complete guide of its kind. This generously illustrated handbook presents the structures of the New York City--from the magnificent to the obscure -- in over 3,000 new photographs, more than 130 new maps, and hundreds of revised and new entries. Beyond the skyscrapers and historical buildings, the guide also leads the way to the city's bridges, parks, and public monuments.
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This guide is a definitive record of New York's architectural heritage and provides a compact, authoritative directory for lovers of New York City all over the world. Its portability and encyclopedic quality make it an ideal traveling companion for any walker in the city. For the sightseer, the architect, or anyone on a casual stroll, the
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Customer Reviews:
Useful and Interesting--Especially for New Yorkers.......2006-12-06
This book may seem like nothing more than a tourist guide to New York City, but that assumption could not be further from the truth. This book is insightful, interesting and very eye opening, even to myself who has lived in NYC for some time. It helped me appreciate this city as a living work of art, a place where every style of architecture comes together on a truly unique canvas.
A real selling point are the walks outside of Manhattan that this book offers. This shows off a side of New York hardly ever covered by other book or looked into by tourists, and it is very interesting.
The pictures are few and far between, and not large enough to give you an in depth look at the buildings described, but the walks layed out in the book are well organized, easy to follow and very interesting.
Buy this book and go explore one of the greatest city in the world!
Fascinating guide.......2006-01-18
This guide really opens up a perspective of Manhattan with tons of information on architecture and building styles. It gets you thinking about the structures that you see every day. I am learning a lot from it.
Exhaustive Guide to the Greatest City in the World.......2005-02-17
This book is the benchmark for books of this type. It doesn't just focus on Manhattan, it does justice to the wonderful architecture in the other buroughs. It is just amazing how many great buildings this city has, the book just goes on and on. The quality of the book is first rate and the pictures, though B&W, are crisp, though understandably small. The latest update was 2000, so the World Trade Center is mentioned as extant, and some of the newer buildings in N.Y., like Time Warner and Bloomberg are not mentioned, but that is for the next update I suppose, New York is ever changing.
The City in your hand.......2005-01-19
What can we say about New York that hasn't been said? It's an awesome place, and its architecture is truly astonishing in scope, diversity and importance. This book is a selective catalogue of the City's most important historical structures. I say historical because this guide just happens to be that way. There are significant gaps in the presentation of important modern buildings, which probably reflects the artistic preferences of the editors. So, this is a book for architectural historians, curious tourists and general readers. The entries are many, so the words included with each are few. Readers are not treated to long narrative histories of imporant landmarks but, rather, to a book which is exceptionally wide and quite shallow. This is what one expects from AIA Guides, so there should be no surprises. Buy this book to take New York's lovely historical architecture with you wherever you go. And by all means, go to see it!
Latest edition is 2000, so World Trade Center towers are included.
Keep it close.......2004-03-15
I have been a New Yorker all my life and thought I'd known it all. There were buildings/structures that I knew to be older than most and probably landmarks, but never got around to checking them out. Then I picked up the AIA Guide to New York City sometime in 2001. Ever since, I have kept it with me at all times: in my back pocket, my briefcase, my jacket... Sometimes I go to some of these places in advance, with the intent of looking at them after I'd read about them. Other times, when on my way to or from work or lunch, I will see a building, stop, and look to read about what it is. My hunches aren't always correct, of course: not all the buildings I think are landmarks are. But I always keep this Guide on hand to find out.
Customer Reviews:
QUITE A TOME.......2007-01-22
This book is the very definition of comprehensive, this book really hashes out beautiful Guilded Age New York. It is to be lamented that so many of these gorgeous buildings are no longer extant, but at least these wonderful archival images are available. As you walk around NYC today, you see glimpses of the grandeur that once pervaded the city, but this book conjures up the ghosts of an Age of unimaginable wealth and unparalled craftsmanship. High recommended to one and all.
New York architecture in the late 1800s.......2001-11-18
With over 1100 pages, this book was so difficult to handle physically, that it hampered my enjoyment of this epic-length volume. On the other hand, the book is a bargain in terms of cents per page! Photos average more than one per page; however, the quality of photographic reproduction is frequently very disappointing (even when compared to Stern's 'New York 1900,' which also uses very old photographs). There are approximately 75 floor plans, with most page space used for the less-than-rivetting text. Chapters are divided by building type. A surprising amount of page space is consumed by illustrations of entries in architectural competitions (Union League Club and Cathedral of St. John the Divine).
I was disappointed........2000-01-04
This period was covered in New York 1900, which provided background material from 1876 and before. Although New York 1880 is longer than New York 1900, it seemed to me to be a padding of what had already been said in a more succinct and more readable way in the first book of the series (NY 1900).As for the length, New York 1880 badly needs an editor.
A Wonderful fabulous work of scholarship on New York City.......1999-09-22
While it is too heavy to lug around, NY 1880 is an eye popping journey into New York of 120 or so years ago. There are over 1,200 photographs and 99 pages of footnotes. Anyone interested in seeing what this wonderful city was like a generation before the First World War is strongly urged to grab this book. So much of what this book is about is no longer standing - churches, synagogues, clubs, apartments, etc.
Buy it!! This is the best of the 4 books in the series (NY 1880, NY 1900, NY 1930 and NY 1960) with NY 2000 to come in a few years.
Books:
- The Last Colony
- The Mechanical Universe: Introduction to Mechanics and Heat
- The Normans in Sicily: The Normans in the South 1016-1130 and the Kingdom in the Sun 1130-1194
- The Planetary System, Third Edition
- The Search for Life in the Universe (Third Edition)
- The Search for Life in the Universe (Third Edition)
- The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe (Arkana)
- The Stargate Conspiracy: The Truth about Extraterrestrial life and the Mysteries of Ancient Egypt
- The Transit of Venus
- The Transit of Venus
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