New York for New Yorkers: A Historical Treasury and Guide to the Buildings and Monuments of Manhattan [Hardcover]

Liza M. Greene (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1995

This guide traces the history of New York as it was built, aiming to provide an understanding of the buildings, who built them and why. The architecture of the city's spectacular structures, including the Woolworth, the Flatiron, the Chrysler and the Empire State buildings and the World Trade Towers, is here studied in detail. New York is also the home of scores of clubs, private houses, apartments, lofts and industrial buildings whose history or unique architecture makes them worthy of study. Award-winning designer Liz Greene, who is also a design director for "Time" magazine, demonstrates trends in style and construction, and introduces some of the people who most influenced New York's past.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Liza M. Greene is an award-winning designer and design director for the marketing and promotion department of Time magazine. She lives in New York City. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 113 pages
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc; First Edition/First Printing edition (September 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393038831
• ISBN-13: 978-0393038835
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,878,113 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Guide for First Time Visitors, as well as locals, March 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: New York for New Yorkers: A Historical Treasury and Guide to the Buildings and Monuments of Manhattan (Hardcover)

As a first time visitor to New York City, I found this book was an invaluable guide to the major landmarks of New York City. It contains just the right amount of detail on each, so as to be a useful reference, but not too much so you still feel enticed to go and visit the various historic attractions and landmarks. Although the photographs are a little too small, there is still enough of an image to help aid the memory of a tourist (or local for that matter) My only regret was buying the book at the Metropolitan Museum shop, rather than through Amazon.Com!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars labor omnia vincit, June 12, 2001

By 

craig mullen (Cambridge, Massachussetts U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: New York for New Yorkers: A Historical Treasury and Guide to the Buildings and Monuments of Manhattan (Hardcover)

Liza Greene's book is quite unique, and in many ways is one of the best books on the subject of New York's fabled architecture in the annals of the city. It is very obvious that this book was a labor of love and personal commitment on Ms. Greene's part. There is nothing cliched or by rote in this book. She has captured a number, a very large number of very fresh takes on the city "in situ." This book is so very New York in the fact that it is D.I.Y. She did not use twenty-five thousand dollars of expensive equipment, and lighting with a small horde of assistants and gofers. This book is the work of a single woman's very singular vision of what I think is the ultimate Metropolitan dream in the history of mankind. The labor of single-mindedness is reflected in pictures that are not dollied or craned or overly artificialized by city permits and special access. This is the work of an almost guerrilla sensibility. I only wish that PBS would give Ms. Green a full camera crew and 110 minutes to present her vision in context with her own voice-over so that more and more people would have access to her unique vision and singular passion. This book eloquently proves that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Bravo, Ms. Greene, bravo indeed.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pleasant Sojourns Down New York Way, June 15, 2001

By 

Elizabeth Drakeley (Wellesley, Massachussetts U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: New York for New Yorkers: A Historical Treasury and Guide to the Buildings and Monuments of Manhattan (Hardcover)

I purchased Liza Greene's book last Spring at my local bookstore and I have been very pleased with it. I have bought dozens of books and guides to New York City over the years. I am a married housewife with four daughters with a workaholic husband and my particular reward and gift from my family is that I get to go to New York City about four times per year for a little shopping, The Pierre, some nice dinners, the Met, Lincoln Center, and a few shows. I am originally from Dallas, Texas and I was just raised that way, and of course I realize that I am just an old dinosaur from a bye-gone time, but that was my generation. I have always thought and known that I was missing alot of New York City by being tethered to such a limited agenda. Last year I decided to broaden my horizons. Well, I couldn't be more pleased with Liza Greene's book, and I have used it as a blueprint, and a guide to some very exciting visual experiences that are just not to be found in any other guidebook. I just think that this book is a peach, an absolute peach. I am very glad that Liza Greene wrote it, and I am very pleased with its very nicely proprtioned size and portibility while it also gives a feeling of heft and substance. I don't think that the writer or the publisher could have done any better of a job of it. This is just a perfect little source and it has improved my feeling of grasping New York City a thousandfold. Thank you Ms. Greene for helping an old woman to get out of her rut.