2800+
City Blocks
110000+
Buildings
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Way It All Came Together
From the Blog…
The 30,000 foot view in 6 posts
6. Six Principles for Building Manhattan
This is the last in the relaunch series of posts that lay out in broad [...]
5. City Hall: Epicenter
Beginning in the 1850s, the finest shops, theaters and hotels were relocating up Broadway to [...]
4. How Business Overran the “City” II: Manhattan’s Two-Part Skyline
Manhattan's downtown cluster of skyscrapers rose in the early 20th century, notably in the Art [...]
3. How Business Overran the “City” I
This is part I of how business districts repeatedly overran both the “city,” and the [...]
2. How the “City” Came From Madison Square
Lincoln Center’s Metropolitan Opera House, Fifth Avenue’s historic shopping blocks, Times Square and Herald Square [...]
1. The “City” that Moved Uptown
The "city" that moved uptown on the Island of Manhattan is a combination of today's [...]
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2010-2011 posts
How "Hell’s Kitchen" Got its Name (I think)
No neighborhood’s name wallows in more obscurity than “Hell’s Kitchen.” A veritable Thunderdome of the [...]
42nd Street to the Battery: 1855
The last post showed the city from 63rd Street to the Battery by putting together two pictures [...]
The Big Picture of New York in the 1850s (Literally)
Old landscape drawings and panoramas of the city can be mesmerizing, in addition to being [...]
In and Around the Bowery Theatre
This post builds on The Bowery & Chatham Square, heading up a few blocks to [...]
Pawn Stars, Carlo Gambino & SGS Associates
Just a quick, fun post. I was watching Pawn Stars and a guy walked in [...]
The Bowery & Chatham Square, Then and Now
While preparing Part II of The Story Behind the Lower East Side, I came across some [...]
The Story Behind the Lower East Side
This look at the Lower East Side will be done over three posts. This first [...]
Manhattan on the Nile
This is a small tribute to the brave and amazing people of Tahrir Square. To [...]
298 Grand Street, Then and Now
Just a quick post. Going through the Museum of the City of New York’s archives [...]
The Haymarket, Broadway & NoMad—and a Long Forgotten Street!
There’s a strange part of town that’s in the middle of everywhere. In the 1990s [...]
The Inspiration for the Statue of Liberty
There’s a difference between what inspires a statue to come into creation and what a statue represents, and [...]
Morningside Heights: History is in the Lay of the Land
And the bend in the road is still visible today! This is 114th Street and [...]
New Year’s Eve in Times Square
My first New Year’s Eve in Times Square, no commentary along the way. Only to [...]
Why the West Side is Different
The west side and the east side are frequently sized up against each other, and [...]
The Holiday Spirit Around Town
…and a few special links. Trump Tower, 721 Fifth Avenue. Rockefeller Center Midtown Lobby Trees [...]
The Limelight: an Unholy Evolution
As happens, while doing research on one project I stumbled on something so remarkable I [...]
Inwood Park Walk (pt. 2) & the Columbia “C” Explained
Here’s the rest of Monday’s walk through Inwood Park, Manhattan’s last vestige of primeval forest. [...]
Inwood Park & Robert Frost
The Tuft of Flowers, by Robert Frost, came to life today at the start of [...]
Decoding the Seals of the City of New York
A study of the current and past seals of New York City is an excellent [...]
WTC progress
Just a quick post and a few pictures to show the progress at the [...]
Harriet Tubman in Harlem: Not a Typical Outdoor Sculpture
There’s somewhere around 200 works of outdoor sculpture in Manhattan. Works in human form come in two [...]
Ghost of the Broadway Central Hotel
My first post is a simple interesting one. I had just read Alone Together: A History [...]
WTC Progress 2
No commentary. An afternoon walk around the World Trade Center and the things I encountered, [...]