Buffalo Rising Online

Apr 26th 2007, 6:15am By STEEL

Architect Robert A.M. Stern and his five associate writers have recently released the final book in their sweeping history of New York City architecture. The massive five volume series is a comprehensive study of the built environment in the world's most important city. Stacked, it reaches almost 12 inches high and weighs as much as a small child. The series is broken into books representing historic epochs in the history of the city corresponding to trends in society, architecture, and urbanism in New York. Important representative years within those areas where chosen for the book titles:

"New York 1880, Architecture and Urbanism in the Gilded Age" examines NY at a time of explosive growth in the United States from the end of the Civil War to 1890 , a time at which America began experimenting with internationalism.

"New York 1900, Metropolitan Architecture and Urbanism 1890-1915" studies a period of massive change as the modern world began to alter the way we live in cities and America's confidence as a nation became apparent new forms of building and technology.

"New York 1930, Architectural Urbanism Between the Two World Wars" documents a period of extraordinary change in the world as America takes its place as the wealthiest most powerful nation on earth and NYC becomes the de-facto world capital.

"New York 1960, Architecture and Urbanism Between the Second World War and the Bicentennial" examines the city as our society experienced unprecedented change and NYC faced grave troubles and decline. This gigantic book more than any of the other 5 gives a clear vision of how the New York we know today came to be.

"New York 2000, Architecture and Urbanism Between the Bicentennial and the Millennium" brings the epoch story of New York architecture to contemporary times. This period saw a reversal in the city's declining fortunes as it regained its leadership in the world and architects again experimented with new forms in an effort to bring humanism back to the city's streets.

The books are richly illustrated with thousands of period photographs and drawings. Countless buildings are documented with mini histories that read like short stories. Much of the text is taken from period writing and news reports, documenting the thoughts and trends at the time the buildings were created,and giving great insight to how this city came into being. You gain a fuller understanding of this most incredible city and our society in general, and gain a new appreciation for buildings that may have fallen out of favor as time passed. If you are interested in urbanism and architecture you must have this collection.

As a bonus pick up a copy of Robert Caro's "Power Broker" a biography on Robert Moses. This book is not just about NYC's powerful highway builder but, is also a history of New York State and a detailed look into how public decisions and planning have been manipulated to create the built environment we now take for granted. Taken together these books are unsurpassed in detail and scope on the subject of this or any city.