Amazon.com Review
New York looms large, inundated with skyscrapers and traffic and crowds and noise. Like the pedestrians, the buildings jostle for space and get lost in the cement and brownstone sea. But there are jewels of preserved landmarks throughout the five boroughs that are well worth the search. If you want to appreciate orchids and violets, you need a botanical field guide. If you want to enjoy the rich structural heritage of New York, you need Barbaralee Diamonstein's guide to New York's landmarks.
Who would think to find the oldest building in New York State hidden in the flatlands of Brooklyn? But that's where the Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House is, dating back to 1636. Also in Brooklyn is the Old Gravesend Cemetery, established in 1650. Staten Island is full of beautifully preserved homes from the 1600s up through the 1800s, and there's one prerevolutionary house that has survived in Manhattan. The Morris-Jumel Mansion on West 160th Street and Edgecombe Avenue was built in 1765 by British Executive Council member Colonel Roger Morris (his wife, Mary Philipse, was rumored to have had an affair with George Washington before her marriage). And off on Roosevelt Island there's the picturesque Smallpox Hospital from 1857 and the even more picturesque Lighthouse, built in 1872.
There are in fact more than 1,000 landmarks and 70 historic districts, all with quality historical write-ups and excellent photography. It's a wonderful reference, a fine new way to see the city, and a pleasure to glance through. Just flipping the glossy pages is an enjoyable and educational experience, and the armchair tour is undeniably easier on your lungs and feet. --Stephanie Gold
From Library Journal
Time and the impatience of our culture have conspired to leave Lewis Mumford as someone we dimly recognize but probably haven't read. By gathering some of the best of Mumford's "The Sky Line" columns from The New Yorker of the Thirties, editor Wojtowicz does readers of our era a great service. Mumford was best known as an architectural critic, but this collection shows him as an urban aesthetician at his best when writing as an analyst of the values, life, and political culture of New York City. Today, his ridicule or praise of a strip of brick or his dissection of window placement in a massive wall may be of little consequence, but these essays remain valuable because they demonstrate Mumford's ability to find art and precision in many of the city's physical spaces while clarifying the sociological schematic of New York. Wojtowicz's compact biography of Mumford is a fitting prelude to the essays of this very busy writer. Diamonstein is the chair of the Historic Landmarks Preservation Center. The third edition of her book includes a section on recently designated landmarks while holding to the format of the 1988 and 1993 editions: a straightforward black-and-white photograph of the building is accompanied by a brief text on its history, purpose, and significance. This book is formal and comprehensive, making it a significant library reference source with particular usefulness in the New York metropolitan area. Both works are recommended for all architecture as well as regional collections.?David Bryant, New Canaan
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
