Manhattan Classic

June 1, 2014

Books about New York apartments typically present either decorative ideas or social histories of urban living. In this title, architect Lynch (H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, New York) instead highlights structural details, using redrawn floor plans, brief histories, and photographs to examine prewar apartments in their 21st-century states. Original photographs by Joseph and Tauber, which comprise the majority of the volume, provide colorful views inside these mansions in the sky. The work is subdivided by location and indexed by architect and includes brief biographies. An introductory essay on the history of prewar apartments sets the tone for capsule histories of notable buildings. Lynch could have strengthened the building histories by delving into primary documents, but instead he is more focused on the structures' current lives. His bibliography lists recent articles from the New York Times and elsewhere, as well as secondary sources, especially Andrew Alpern's studies of Manhattan apartments, including New York's Fabulous Luxury Apartments (1975) and The New York Apartment Houses of Rosario Candela and James Carpenter (2001). VERDICT Surprisingly few books exist on this topic and this volume's well-illustrated architectural/historical approach makes it valuable to both academic and public libraries that focus on this area.--Lindsay King, Yale Univ. Libs, New Haven, CT

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