Mansions in the Clouds: The Skyscraper Palazzi of Emery Roth [Hardcover]

Steven Ruttenbaum (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Roth's ornate, eclectic apartment buildings in New York City harked back to Renaissance palaces at a time when architectural fashion was embracing Wright and Le Corbusier. Despising the "baldness" of so much modern architecture, he wedded limestone, brick and terra-cotta in functional yet richly detailed commercial buildings with Old World charm. Arriving in New York in 1884 as a penniless Hungarian immigrant, he rose to become a well-connected architect, weathering changes of taste and economics as he switched from '20s Art Deco to '30s Moderne to a hybrid of the classical and the new. Hotel St. Moritz, the Ritz Tower, the Normandy Apartments on Riverside Drive and some 250 other Manhattan buildings attest to his staying power. When the era of grand-scale living shrank, Roth made the typical 12 17 living/sleeping room both efficient and elegant. This, the first book on a neglected architect, is long overdue.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

When architect Emery Roth died in 1948, he left a remarkable legacy of over 250 apartment buildings in New York City aloneexecuted not in the modern mode, but in a wonderful eclectic mix of Italian, French, and Spanish Renaissance styles. Many of these grand old buildingsthe San Remo, the Beresford, the Ritz Towerhave survived, adding an ineffable sense of style, sophistication, and romance to the urban fabricand relief from the ubiquitous glass and steel box. Historian Ruttenbaum has researched his subject meticulously, tracing Roth's career from his arrival in the United States from Hungary in 1884 up until he passed control of his firm over to his equally prolific sons in the 1940s. Long overdue, this volume with its 220 photographs and renderings makes an important contribution to our understanding and appreciation of Roth's architecture. H. Ward Jandl, National Park Svces., Washington D.C.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 223 pages
• Publisher: Balsam Pr; First edition (October 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0917439090
• ISBN-13: 978-0917439094
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 9.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #435,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lost Elegance in the Architecture of Emory Roth, May 31, 2000

By 

Paul Lehninger (Wauwatosa, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mansions in the Clouds: The Skyscraper Palazzi of Emery Roth (Hardcover)

In the impersonal concrete and glass caverns of New York City, one can still find survivors of a more gracious, yet jazz-age modern, era. Mansions in the Clouds introduces readers to the career and major buildings of architect Emory Roth. His residential hotels and apartment buildings graced the New York skyline with impressive profiles while retaining human scale and classical detailing. The exterior renderings, interior photographs, floor plans, and descriptive detail assist the reader in recapturing and appreciating the genius of Emory Roth. Tea at the Ritz has become an impossible dream, but the Beresford, San Remo, and other Roth-designed buildings remain as inspirations for any of today's architects who are eager to appropriate these masterpieces of the past and express them in a contemporary idiom. Most of all, the book is an indulgence for all of us who daydream of our own manison in the clouds.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emery Roth: New York's underappreciated architect, October 2, 2001

By 

saskatoonguy (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mansions in the Clouds: The Skyscraper Palazzi of Emery Roth (Hardcover)

Ruttenbaum's book on Emery Roth (1871-1948) is a biography as well as a survey of the buildings he designed. The author successfully explains Roth's role in creating high-rise hotels and apartment buildings that combined attractive exteriors with more efficient, more livable interiors than had been the case before Roth. Architects like Wright, Pei, and LeCorbusier may be better known, but their buildings were designed as works of art, not buildings to be lived in. In contrast, Roth's buildings combined functionality and attractiveness. As Ruttenbaum walks us through Roth's career, we see how he gradually fine-tuned his ability to craft functional floor plans. Roth's works include such New York landmarks as the Beresford, Warwick, San Remo, St. Moritz, Ritz Tower, and hundreds of others.

Two small quibbles regarding this book: Why did Ruttenbaum omit the Hotel Dixie (now Hotel Carter), which was noteworthy for having a long-distance bus station in its basement, complete with turntable? And why did the author use the last chapter to fawn uncritically over the works of Emery Roth's sons, who, lacking their father's aesthetic sense, have produced buildings comprising the worst of 60s-era architecture? Ruttenbaum's book includes a multitude of photos, averaging roughly one per page, as well as 25 floor plans.

5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating for New York apartment dwellers, August 5, 2011

By 

Theophrastus - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mansions in the Clouds: The Skyscraper Palazzi of Emery Roth (Hardcover)

If you've ever lived in an older Manhattan apartment, or thought of looking for one, this book will tell you a lot about the history and design of such places. You will never take a foyer for granted again.