New York City Books

[Merry]

I’ve just recently had a spending spree at Amazon.com resulting in several additions to my New York City collection. *Please excuse my nonexistent book reviewing/writing skills.

1. *New York New York by Torsten Andreas Hoffman

Hoffman had taken a series of black and white photos in Summer 2001 intended for a calendar but he decided that there were too many of the WTC. *Then 9/11 happened. *He then undertook to re-photograph (in colour) the same views post-9/11. *The result IMO is a very moving then-and-now document serving to remind us of what we all expect to be there, replaced by the eerie emptiness we see now. *I love this book – highly recommended.

2. *Requiem WTC by Hideaki Sato

Black and white photos taken before and after the WTC site was cleared and the subsequent construction of the Twin Towers from 1967-69. *Also documents life in NY at the time, from New Yorkers just going about their daily lives -- playing checkers, catching some sun, the ferry ride to work -- to anti-war demonstrations. *My favourite is one of a young girl with a placard that proclaims “War is Gory Not Glory”. *There are some nice misty shots of the completed Twin Towers from Greenwich Village, not at all an ugly juxtaposition. *Towards the end of the book are comparisons between the rubble during site clearance in 1968 and Ground Zero in 2001, heartbreakingly not at all dissimilar.

3. *212 Views of Central Park, Mick Hales (photographer)

A lovely book of images of every aspect of Central Park, from what people do in the Park, to the statuary, bridges and park benches, as well as the splendours of the plant life. *Some of the photos include built New York as a backdrop to the Park, reminding us that it’s not in isolation but surrounded by a very dense man-made urban environment, which I think complements the beauty of the Park, itself entirely man-made. *A favourite photo is a stunning view taken from the roof of a Central Park South roof of the reds, yellows, golds and a dash of green of Fall with the architecture of CPW and 5th Avenue regally standing sentinel on the perimeter. *It has become obvious to me from turning the pages of this book that one can never know just how beautiful Central Park is unless it’s experienced first-hand. *This wonderful book is second best.

4. *Harlem Lost and Found by Michael Henry Adams

A wonderful history of Harlem’s residential architecture in particular, but also discussing various other buildings, including churches and schools. *Accompanying the text (which I haven’t read yet) are gorgeous photos of building exteriors and street scapes as well as interiors. *Some of the earlier photos provide an amazing glimpse of Harlem’s former glory. *Let’s hope the current renaissance significantly contributes to its restoration. *My favourite views are of row houses on West 147th Street between Broadway and Riverside Drive and on West 154th Street.

5. *A Quiet Walk in Central Park by Frederic Winkowski

Not as good as 212 Views but still a nice little book. *Interesting and engaging commentary accompanies each photo.

6. *Wall Street by Robert Gambee

This, of course, refers to the Financial District in general. *Includes photos of building exteriors and interiors (including trading floors – god, they’re messy dudes, but I don’t envy their tiny, cramped, non-personal working conditions) accompanied by extended, in-depth captions. *Includes a couple of gorgeous photos of the Twin Towers from Battery Park City and the Wall Street area from South Cove. *Also the J. Seward Johnson bronze statue of a man sitting looking into his opened briefcase, this time snow-covered, that was so poignantly depicted post-9/11 covered and surrounded by dust and paper.

7. *Above Hallowed Ground, NYPD photographers

Includes not previously published photos of 9/11 NYC. *I already have several 9/11 books but I thought this one would be a worthwhile addition, particularly for the (only) aerial shots taken of the scene by NYPD photographers. *A comprehensive and very moving account by those directly involved of that terrible day. *I always cry when I see the pathetically lonely, very recognisable, remaining fragments of the steel structure at the base of the Twins. *This image alone will forever remain etched in my mind. *Watching it live on TV was so surreal. *I still can’t believe the Twins are not there any more. *This book will remind me over and over again.

8. *Brooklyn Then and Now by Marcia Reiss

I have several other Then and Now books from this series (New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston) which all provide me with endless hours of enjoyment and this latest addition is no exception. *Pretty self-explanatory -- black and white “thens” and colour “nows”. *I have several then and now books on NYC and what I find most engrossing (and fun) is examining the differences between the photos and discovering just how much and how little (or not at all) the views change over a significant time span. *That’s New York.

9. *NY-71 Daido Moriyama

I’m afraid I was very disappointed with this book. *It contains black and white photos (no captions or text) that are very grainy and often out of focus (obviously meant to be) taken by Daido Miroyama during his visit to NY in 1971. *The book is a paperback with a very minimalist exterior design that came in a thick, plain cardboard slipcase. *All very arty, but not my thing at all. *Perhaps it will become a collector’s item.

10. *New York New York by Richard Berenholtz

The ultimate coffee table book (if you’ve got an enormous, sturdy coffee table!). *This book is a numbered, limited edition (5000) which includes a separate print signed and numbered by Berenholtz. *Those familiar with Berenholtz’s photography will know that he favours detail and close-up images (gargoyles, tops of buildings, etc.) –- not my favourite style but the photos are still very evocative of the flavour and identity of NYC. *It includes several gatefolds containing panoramic views of the city which are several feet long. *Definitely a collector’s item.

11. *New York by Esther Selsdon and Klaus H. Carl

Published in 1999 (pretty old in publishing terms), this is essentially a picture book (I’m sure there’s a name for this kind of publication – mass market, el cheapo…?). *Nothing particularly special but still very New York. *I must say I was very frustrated by the less than helpful captions, for example, ”View of Manhattan”, when “Bryant Park” would have been equally economical with words but much more informative. *And another “View of Manhattan” which is unfortunately very small but a wonderful view of no less than four bridges in upper Manhattan (I think). *The section on Harlem and The Bronx was a bit perplexing. *I could be wrong, but two photos of fire escape-clad apartment buildings don’t look like they’re in Harlem. *One caption proclaims “Colourful façade in Harlem”, but I’m sure it’s a gallery in Soho and one photo is particularly puzzling. *The caption (ever unhelpful) says “Streets in Harlem” but the photo includes a street sign with “4th Ave” on it. *As far as I know (?), there is no 4th Avenue in Harlem and even after doing a bit of digging, I can’t work out where exactly it would be. *The 4th Avenues in The Bronx (Edgewater Park) and Queens (Malba? and Breezy Point) don’t seem to be contenders. *4th Avenue in Sunset Park, Brooklyn maybe?? *The picture is taken from a side street looking towards the 4th Avenue sign and includes a rather sad rubbish-strewn, bill postered landscape with some poor soul sleeping amongst it all. *This may, of course, be an old photo. *Perhaps someone can shed some light on this. *Anyway, there’s a typo on the back cover (“costums” instead of “customs”) and a number of the larger photos are markedly (surely not intentionally) out of focus, so maybe this is an overall indication of the quality of the publication?….

12. *Access New York City

10th Edition. *I’ve always enjoyed this series since I first discovered it. *Numbered entries of hotels, restaurants, attractions, shopping and parks/outdoors corresponding with matching numbers on maps of each neighbourhood. *I’ve kept all the previous editions (I’m missing a couple) as a very interesting record of (again) how much or little New York changes over time. *Despite being obviously subjective in some respects (restaurant food choices, for example), I think this is one of the better “guides” to NYC. *Its format is easy on the eye and provides practical information for travellers, without bombarding them with (albeit sometimes interesting for armchair travellers) too much detail.

[amigo32]

WOW! *Thanks, Merry!
I love this forum, so much intelligence here.

[Eugenius]

If I am not mistaken, the only place that 4th Avenue exists in Manhattan is a small stretch between Cooper square and Union Square. *After that, it's Park Avenue. *So that should present a fairly narrow area from where that photo could have been taken.

[Jessica]

I just wanted to add a favorite book of mine for the NYC traveler...The Fodor's Guide to New York City. *I have an older version, but I noticed at Borders there is a new 2003 ed. out!

[Merry]

Quote: from Eugenius on 1:36 am on Jan. 14, 2003
If I am not mistaken, the only place that 4th Avenue exists in Manhattan is a small stretch between Cooper square and Union Square. *After that, it's Park Avenue. *So that should present a fairly narrow area from where that photo could have been taken.


Yes, I did consider this, but didn't think it looked like that area at all, despite being close to the Bowery. *And Harlem is a long way from the East Village. *I've just had another look at the photo and I can just make out a sign on a building several stories high that says "Brooklyn Home of The News". *I can't make out what the words underneath say. *This building is in the cross street running through 4th Avenue. *There's also another building on the cross street with the sign "Underberg" and an address 420 Atlantic Avenue. *4th Avenue and Atlantic Avenue do intersect in Boerum Hill in Brooklyn. * I always thought Boerum Hill was a nice neighbourhood, but having read the entry in "The Neighborhoods of Brooklyn", apparently the area underwent a period of economic decline and in the early 1960s became *less than salubrious. *I'm no expert on American cars, but the ones in the photo look 1970s-ish, too. This may not be the answer, but it's amazing what you can find when you look properly!

[Merry]

...speaking of looking properly, I think they must be going for a world record for the most mistakes in a book with this one, the number and basic basic nature of which beggars belief; not least getting bridges and buildings totally mixed up, not to mention the location of various sights being completely wrong.

[Hof]

For some good NYC eye candy,check out "Manhattan Unfurled",a fold-out,pencil sketch(with some interesting perspectives)of the entine Island of Manhattan's waterfront,by Matteo Pericoli. East Side,West Side.All around the town.
I found these in the bargain bins:
"Perpetual Motion",by Joe Mysak--"The Illustrated History of The Port Authority".It's a P.A. PR piece,but some good photos and stories of NY.--"Too Big to Fail",by Walter Stewart.Not entirely about NY,it's about the Reichmann family who owned Olympia and York,who developed the *World Financial Center.

[Merry]

I just found this site, which contains a sample of the photos in Torsten Andreas Hoffman's wonderful book of then and now photos of the WTC.

http://www.auroraphotos.com/col_GeographyPlacesTravel.shtml

Go to the "Now and Then" section and click on View as Slide Show.

[brianac]

I am interested in finding out more about street and place names in NYC, and have sorted out the names of a couple of books I may buy.

a) Naming New York. Sanna Feirsein. New York University Press.

b) The Street Book (An Encyclopedia of Manhattan Street Names and Their Origins. Henry Moscow. Fordham University Press.

Any advice is welcome.

Also any opinions on ("The Encyclopedia of NYC". Kenneth T. Jackson. Yale University Press), would be helpful.

[Hof]

I bought the "Encyclopedia" a couple years ago,and have spent many hours since digesting what is in there.This is a dense book,a proper encyclopedia.It has heft,both in weight and information.There are nearly 1400 pages,and they are all coated with squinty print.If you buy the book,get a magnifying glass to go along with it.

The book (at least the edition I have) is somewhat dated now,having been copyrighted in 1995,but as a source for the answers to the many questions those curious about the Big City may ask,it's invaluable.
Kenneth Jackson,a New York enthusiast and architecture pundit for the "Times",was editor.

Want to know who Phil Ochs was,and why Woody Guthrie wound up in NY,or read a history of the Normandie? Do you even know about The Mad Bomber,NY's own homegrown terrorist?
There are 8 full pages about architecture and probably another two hundred seperate entries about significant buildings.
Sports gets 4 pages.So do songs about the City.
You can find out who the Bruckner Expressway was named after,then read about how Robert Moses forever screwed up the Bronx by building it.How about something concerning Malba?
Probably anything discussed on these pages is represented in this book--except pizza,and that may be in there somewhere,under "Italians" or "restaurants"...

There are tons of photos,maps,lists,population figures,notable buildings,and hundreds of biographies of New Yorkers,some very interesting.
Whatever you need to know.It's probably the last pre-digital effort of it's kind.

Last week,I stopped into a little rare and used bookstore on Broadway in the 80s.He had a copy and wanted $40 for it;I bought mine online and paid about the same,considering the shipping charges.Shipping anvils would be cheaper,I think.

[Padre]

I would definately reccommend The Mole People, by Jennifer Toth. An insight into life in the tunnels under New York. Written in the early 90's.

[GVNY]

New York In The Forties: Feininger

[Stern]

A few of my favorite new books:


New York Streetscapes: A great book about the fascinating history and back stories behind great buildings, many of which will be newly introduced.

Robert Moses and the Modern City: A great book about parks, highways, and housing projects built under the Moses' era.

New York 2000: I would recommend this book on the pictures alone, I doubt I'll ever have the time to finish it, great great book.

[kz1000ps]

These don't concern just New York, but they're mostly focused on it:

- Sidewalk Critic: Lewis Mumford's writings on New York

- Form Follows Finance, by Carol Willis. It follows the development of skyscrapers in NY and Chicago and how market demands and zoning laws (literally) shaped them.

And I'm with Stern on New York 2000. I haven't bought the book yet, but I've probably spent about 5 hours in a Borders pouring myself over it. Great stuff.

[ebrigham]

About halfway finished with Gotham - History of NYC up to 1898 - so far very interesting.

[Hof]

If you want to dive into the deep end of New York's history pool,get "Island at the Center of The World" ,by Russell Shorto.

It's about the Dutch,the original settlers of Manhattan,who through the efforts of Henreich Hudson,"discovered" the perfect port in the New World and proceeded to create the City we are all so proud of today.

It's a book dense with the history of the early settlement of NY.

[abrahamtim]

quotable New York by Gregg Stebben is a great book with quotes of people from NYC about NYC like: Rudolph Giuliani, Ed Koch, Jerry Seinfeld, Donald Trump, Brooke Astor and many more

[brianac]

McSorley's Wonderful Saloon, by Joseph Mitchell.

A collection of short stories, most of them about New York City in the 1930's and 40's.

A number of very amusing tales about old time NY, and characters such as Professor Sea Gull (Joe Gould) and street preacher the Reverend Mr. James Jefferson Davis Hall.

[brianac]

Reading New York

Witness to the Poor, and a Grand Ship Undone

By SAM ROBERTS (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/sam_roberts/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
Published: March 9, 2008

EVERY generation needs to rediscover Jacob Riis for itself. Born with a preacher’s passion, building on decades of prodigious research by scholars and fellow reformers and empowered by the emerging potency of photography, Riis transformed himself from a penniless Danish immigrant into the conscience of New York and a confidant of Theodore Roosevelt (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/theodore_roosevelt/index.html?inline=nyt-per)’s.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/03/09/nyregion/read450.jpg
Jacob A. Riis Collection
A scrub woman in 1892, from “Rediscovering Jacob Riis.”

In companion essays in “Rediscovering Jacob Riis: Exposure Journalism and Photography in Turn-of-the-Century New York” (The New Press, $35), Bonnie Yochelson, a former curator at the Museum of the City of New York (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/m/museum_of_the_city_of_new_york/index.html?inline=nyt-org), and Daniel Czitrom, a history professor at Mount Holyoke College (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/m/mount_holyoke_college/index.html?inline=nyt-org), assess Riis’s immediate and enduring impact without overlooking his weaknesses and prejudices.

“How the Other Half Lives,” the title of the work with which Riis remains most closely associated, was an understatement. The poor he chronicled probably accounted for more like three-quarters of New York’s population. An earlier version of the title was more to the point: “How the Other Half Lives and Dies.”

The authors trace Riis’s evolving reputation in the universe of fellow social activists. In the late 19th century, Riis was first and foremost an advocate for housing reform. Later, he was pigeonholed by progressives for his old-fashioned faith in Christian charity and his distrust of government. Finally, he was rediscovered as an inspiration for the New Deal.

“I had no special genius, no special ability,” Riis wrote. “I had endurance, and I reached at last the heart of men; that is all I can claim.”
“Although his innovations quickly became commonplace,” the authors write, “Riis posed a series of urgent, often implicit, questions to himself and his readers, which remain surprisingly apt today: What is the structural relationship between persistent poverty and new immigrants? If different ‘races’ and nationalities possess inherent moral and cultural characteristics, how can that be reconciled with the American creed of individualism? How does environment shape ‘character’? What are the proper roles of government, public philanthropy, and religion in reform efforts? How important is spectacle and entertainment in rousing the public conscience?”

The text is sometimes too technical and the images repetitive (though this is, after all, a book about imagery). But ultimately “Rediscovering Jacob Riis” is an evocative and valuable reminder both of one unrelenting individual’s ability to make a difference and of the relevance of his revelations to the painfully familiar problems we face today.

•

The painting on the cover of John Maxtone-Graham’s “Normandie: France’s Legendary Art Deco Ocean Liner” (W. W. Norton, $100) depicts the fabled liner’s maiden arrival in New York in 1935. It was the beginning of a storied romance that included the ship, its crew and passengers and its host city. Seven years later, the romance ended tragically and somewhat mysteriously on the West Side of Manhattan.

Mr. Maxtone-Graham, a New Yorker whose two dozen books on the great liners of the past include “The Only Way to Cross,” describes in riveting detail the ship’s exuberant life and its agonizing death throes.

On Aug. 28, 1939, passengers from Europe disembarked at Pier 88 from the Normandie for the last time. The ship was scheduled to return to France two days later, but the voyage was aborted. That same day, the Bremen sailed home to Germany from New York. Less than a week later, the world was at war.

For more than two years, the Normandie hibernated off Manhattan, its rugs preserved with four tons of mothballs and the vessel staffed by a skeleton crew of 114. Seized by the United States and rechristened the U.S.S. Lafayette, it was being converted into a troop ship when it caught fire and capsized. Six investigations later, the liner was refloated, towed to Brooklyn and sold for scrap.

“Lafayette was upended, demeaned and undignified, like a dowager who, slipping on a wintry sidewalk, falls with upraised skirt, helpless prey for voyeurs,” Mr. Maxtone-Graham writes in one of his many eloquent passages. “Thirty thousand of them showed up that first morning alone.”

•

Washington Irving (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/i/washington_irving/index.html?inline=nyt-per)’s name may not roll off the lips of Knicks fans, whose team drew its name from the author’s most memorable creation. But as Brian Jay Jones writes in his charming biography “Washington Irving: An American Original” (Arcade Publishing, $29.99), Irving ranked as one of America’s greatest writers, bon vivants and literary showmen.

It was Irving who not only wrote a “History of New York From the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty” but also invented its author, Diedrich Knickerbocker, that mythological chronicler of Dutch New York, and perpetrated a literary marketing campaign that Madison Avenue might envy.

Irving, described by Mr. Jones as “the first American to earn a living by his pen,” was named after the first president (the village of Irvington, in Westchester County, was named after him), and he died not long after completing the final volume of Washington’s biography.

He left no formal epitaph beyond a literary legacy that included Knickerbocker, Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Crane, along with the modest hope that while his writings “may appear light and trifling in our country of philosophers and politicians,” if they “possess merit in the class of literature to which they belong, it is all to which I aspire in the work.”

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company.

[Front_Porch]

Shameless plug: Diary of a Real Estate Rookie is a memoir and about half of it takes place in Manhattan, in both swanky multi-million-dollar condos and the little studio near Lincoln Center where I'm writing this now.

Less shameless plugs: There are some great New York novels -- Washington Square, A Hazard of New Fortunes, and Manhattan Transfer come to mind. Time and Again by Jack Finney is not as literary, but it is a pretty wonderful window into the New York City of yesteryear.

ali r.
{downtown broker, and, er, author, of Diary of a Real Estate Rookie}

[Merry]

Shameless plug: Diary of a Real Estate Rookie is a memoir and about half of it takes place in Manhattan, in both swanky multi-million-dollar condos and the little studio near Lincoln Center where I'm writing this now.

Less shameless plugs: There are some great New York novels -- Washington Square, A Hazard of New Fortunes, and Manhattan Transfer come to mind. Time and Again by Jack Finney is not as literary, but it is a pretty wonderful window into the New York City of yesteryear.

ali r.
{downtown broker, and, er, author, of Diary of a Real Estate Rookie}

Not shameless at all, perfectly relevant to this thread!

I really loved Finney's Time and Again too and also the sequel From Time to Time (with an eerie twist at the end).

[Merry]

Purely a feast for the eyes, just gorgeous photos and captions, Manhattan New York (http://www.amazon.com/Gerrit-Engle-Manhattan-New-York/dp/3829601573/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205243999&sr=1-1), by Gerrit Engel.

[brianac]

July 25, 2008, 9:34 am

A New History for an Old Skyscraper

By Sewell Chan (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/author/schan/)

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/07/24/nyregion/wool.533.jpg
The Woolworth Building, known for its height when it opened in 1913, is being extensively renovated. (Photo: Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times)

Updated, 12:38 p.m. |

On the evening of April 24, 1913, President Woodrow Wilson pressed a tiny button inside the White House (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9907E3DA1F3AE633A25756C2A9629C94 6296D6CF), lighting up the Woolworth Building in Manhattan. It was “the tallest structure in the world, with the one exception of the Eiffel Tower in Paris,” The New York Times reported, and it was a marvel of architecture and engineering.

Of course, the Woolworth Building has been surpassed in height — by the Chrysler Building in 1930 and by the Empire State Building in 1931 — and it has at times seemed to recede into the fabric of Lower Manhattan. The building’s owners at one point considered converting the building into luxury apartments (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990DEFD61030F931A35752C1A9669C8B 63), but now the structure is being refurbished as top-end offices (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/realestate/commercial/30woolworth.html).

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/07/24/nyregion/FenskeCover.190.jpg
“The Skyscraper and the City: The Woolworth Building and the Making of Modern New York.”

“The Skyscraper and the City: The Woolworth Building and the Making of Modern New York,” (http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/219823.ctl) a book scheduled to be released next week by the University of Chicago Press, offers a new examination of the building and its significance in New York’s history.

The 400-page book is the culmination of more than 15 years of research by Gail Fenske, a professor of architecture at Roger Williams University (http://www.rwu.edu/) in Bristol, R.I., who began the project as a doctoral dissertation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The book provides a new perspective on some of the most notable aspects of the Woolworth Building, like its eclectic design — Beaux-Arts with Gothic ornamentation, over steel-frame engineering. The building has been seen as “a throwback, a historicist building, not truly a modern building,” Professor Fenske said in an interview, adding that she instead sees the building as “in a sense emblematic of modernity,” capturing both “the excitement of the new — the breaking of technological barriers — and also, on the other hand, a discomfort with it.”

Designed by Cass Gilbert (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/cass_gilbert/index.html), the building, at 233 Broadway, between Park Place and Barclay Street, was commissioned by the retail magnate Frank W. Woolworth and constructed between 1910 and 1913. Woolworth famously financed the building without loans or help from developers. “He financed it on his own,” Professor Fenske said. “It was unnerving to speculators, because he could do whatever he wanted.”

The book contains numerous illustrations, including one showing a 1929 advertisement for the building, calling it a “Cathedral of Commerce” — a name that has stuck — and lauding its height (792 feet), number of floors (60), weight (206 million pounds), floor area (15 acres), exterior windows (3,000), tons of steel (24,000), bricks (17 million) and tons of terra cotta (7,500).

In the interview, Professor Fenske said she initially disliked the moniker “Cathedral of Commerce,” finding it glib and simplistic. But as she studied the context in which the tower rose, she said, she began to see the name as appropriate. Its Gothic gestures suggested comfort, “moralizing evocations” of the old world from which many of Woolworth’s customers had come. (Although Woolworth, the 5- and 10-cent emporium, was in some ways the Wal-Mart of its era, it also differed from today’s big-box retailers. For instance, Woolworth’s carried finely crafted products imported from Europe that would be particularly familiar — and appealing — to immigrant customers.) By turning to Beaux-Arts design, Professor Fenske writes, Gilbert and Woolworth “resisted the forces of sensationalism and spectacle” associated with advertising and mass culture.

The book places the Woolworth Building in the context of its time and place: the booming commercial culture of early 20th century New York; the often unsettling experience of modernization; advances in technology and communications; and a new phenomenon of “urban spectatorship” that made skyscrapers sources of public wonder and admiration.

Many innovations set the Woolworth Building apart. It contained a shopping arcade, health club, barber shop, restaurant, social club and even an observatory. Its use of technology — including an innovative water supply system, a electrical generating plan, high-speed electric elevators providing both local and express service and what Professor Fenske calls “the first prominent use of architectural floodlighting in the world” — also set it apart. So did the construction process, run by the builder Louis Horowitz of the Thompson-Starrett Company, who managed to avoid labor conflict, rationalize the building process and set a record for speed — paving the way for the famously rapid completion of the Empire State Building nearly 20 years later.

The building has survived the Woolworth Corporation itself. The company announced in 1997 that it would close its remaining discount stores (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800E7D81E38F93BA25754C0A9619582 60). The company was renamed the Venator Group (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9402E4D71E3AF931A25755C0A96E9582 60), began focusing on athletic wear, and since 2001 has done business under the Foot Locker name (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9407E1DD1E30F931A35752C1A9679C8B 63).

Although there are no longer Woolworth’s stores in the United States, the Woolworths Group (http://www.woolworthsgroupplc.com/), a former subsidiary of the American company, continues to operate hundreds of retail stores in Britain.

Summarizing the legacy of the Woolworth Building, Professor Fenske writes:
The question of whether the Woolworth Building is, indeed, a great work of architecture may still be open to debate. Yet Woolworth and Gilbert’s project represented in the eyes of contemporaries more than a vulgar contraption for producing a profit, and more than a dubious expression of corporate power, egregious advertising, or an aggressive assault on New York’s new signature skyline.
As the building approaches its centennial, she argues, New Yorkers should recognize not only its “aesthetic distinction” but also how “it reflected and refracted the many dreams and obsessions of the urban society that produced it.”

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/a-new-history-of-an-old-skyscraper/#comment-403684

Copyright 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[brianac]

“The End of the Innocence: The 1964-65 New York World’s Fair”

NOT long ago, I wrote that New York’s last World’s Fair, in 1964-65, paled in comparison with the 1939 version, but at least “did expose
Michelangelo’s ‘Pietà’ to millions and popularized the Belgian waffle.” In his new book, “The End of the Innocence: The 1964-65 New York World’s Fair” (Syracuse University (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/syracuse_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org) Press, $29.95), Lawrence R. Samuel rejects similar swipes as “dismissive thinking.” Instead, he delivers an overdue and well-deserved encomium to a largely denigrated chapter in the city’s history.

“There were,” writes Mr. Samuel, the author of several books of social history, “really two fairs in Queens in 1964 and 1965, or at least two constructions of its past. The first,” among the last gasps of the master builder Robert Moses (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/robert_moses/index.html?inline=nyt-per), “is steeped in its official memory, the business enterprise that lost money, overcharged exhibitors, offended the intellectual and aesthetic elite. The other can be found in its popular memory — the experience that most visitors found thoroughly enjoyable, if not enthralling, that sparked imaginations and reshaped people’s vision of the world.”

Mr. Samuel, like the fair itself, may sometimes overstate his case. But his book is a thoroughly enjoyable, if not always enthralling, reconstruction of both a largely forgotten era and of a society on the cusp of upheaval. No wonder, as he writes, the fair’s organizers bypassed “the uninviting near future” for a distant utopian vision.

I have my own recollections of the fair. I was 15, and my parents wouldn’t let me go on opening day because of fears that threatened civil rights demonstrations might turn violent, fears that, Mr. Lawrence writes, signaled America’s emergence from a “postwar cocoon.”

My own loss of innocence, though, was probably more attributable to the good times I enjoyed with various high school and college girlfriends during what must have been a dozen visits to Flushing Meadows over the next two years. These visits exposed me to, among other things, color television, the Ford Mustang, the Pietà and, yes, Belgian waffles.

For all of Moses’ faults, Mr. Lawrence reminds us, the legacy of his fair includes a mountain of magical individual reminiscences, along with the transformation of the part of Queens that F. Scott Fitzgerald (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/f/f_scott_fitzgerald/index.html?inline=nyt-per) once described as a “valley of ashes” into a great park where, even today, new memories are being made.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/nyregion/thecity/27read.html?ref=thecity

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