Intersections: The Grand Concourse at 100 [Hardcover]

Antonio Bessa (Editor), Daniel Libeskind (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0823230783 | ISBN-13: 978-0823230785 | Edition: 1

November 2009 marks the 100th anniversary of the Grand Boulevard and Concourse, the Bronx's crown jewel of urban planning, which stretches over four miles from 138th Street to the Mosholu Parkway. This famous roadway represents Art Deco and Art Moderne architecture at its grandest, including a cornucopia of apartment complexes, the Concourse Plaza Hotel, the Loews Paradise Theater, the Bronx County Courthouse, and, of course, Yankee Stadium. Modeled on the Champs-lyses in Paris and described in the 1939 WPA Guide to New York as the Park Avenue of the middle-class,it offered residents amenities not seen before in the city, such as private bathrooms and central heating.Intersections: The Grand Concourse at 100 examines the rich history of the Bronx's most famous thoroughfare through a fascinating collection of pieces-written by top-rate historians and contemporary museum curators, and accompanied by two original texts by Alsatian-born engineer Louis Risse, who designed and oversaw the construction of the Grand Concourse-on the context that informed its planning and construction, along with a vast and lush collection of photographs that bring this intoxicating period back to life. The book will also feature six art projects especially commissioned for the occasion: a series of large-scale color photographs by Jeff Liao; a time line by Skowmon Hastanan; The Tree Museum, a project by Katie Holten on the green spaces along the Concourse; a documentary film by Pablo Helguera on three buildings along the Concourse, namely, Poe's cottage, the Paradise Theater, and the Freedman Home; a project by Kabir Carter about capturing sounds from different areas along the Concourse; and a special lobby installation by Acconci Studio.Traveling the Concourse today offers a lesson in architecture, history, and sociology as you see the faces and places that call it home. It is truly New York, but more important, authentically the Bronx. You can't experience the Bronx until you travel the Grand Boulevard and Concourse, and Intersections: The Grand Concourse at 100 gives you this opportunity.

Editorial Reviews

Review

. . . A solid coffee-table acquisition for New York lovers.

Celebrates the history of the famous Bronx boulevard through a collection of pieces written by historians and contemporary museum curators.

About the Author

MARYSOL NIEVES is a New York-based independent curator and art consultant with over twenty years of museum and corporate art experience specializing in contemporary and Latin American art.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Fordham University Press; 1 edition (September 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823230783
• ISBN-13: 978-0823230785
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 9.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,604,419 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed,, November 27, 2009

By 

Stuart A. Yahm (Carrollton, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Intersections: The Grand Concourse at 100 (Hardcover)

Having grown up on and around The Grand Concourse in the 1940's and 50's my expectations for this book were not met in many ways. The photos were dark, unclear, and, in my opinion, did not appear to be the result of any serious attempt at research for better ones. The layout of the book is poorly organized with more emphasis on architecture than history both from the point of view of how the Concourse came to be, inckudubg its detracters, and the many important and influential people who lived, went to school and played there. If this book is all that is available then I'm happy to have at least this much but the Concourse deserves a better researched, less slapped together account. There is more to tell just at the corner of The Concourse and Fordham Rd. than is contained in this entire book.

Stuart Yahm

P.S. 79 Creston Jr. High School

1944 - 1947

De Witt Clinton High School

1947 - 1950

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Ripoff!, September 12, 2010

By 

Jacqueline Rund - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Intersections: The Grand Concourse at 100 (Hardcover)

If you think you are going to get photos or information about "intersections" on the Grand Concourse, you are wrong. This book is about some project that a team works on. Total waste of money and i am very sorry to have wasted my money on it, thinking I was adding to my collection of books about the Bronx.

5.0 out of 5 stars Intersections: The Grand Concourse at 100, July 13, 2010

By 

T. Berlinger (Tallahassee, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Intersections: The Grand Concourse at 100 (Hardcover)

I grew up in the Bronx in the 50's and 60's, a mere block from Tremont Avenue and The Grand Concourse. It was a great time to live in the wonderful borough of the Bronx. As a Bronxite, this book provides you with history of a place you know well, and offers you a bite of nostalgia that you didn't even know you were hungering for after all these years! I recommend this as "must read" for anybody that lived in the Bronx for any length of time.