Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #856985 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Calendar
• 24 pages

From Publishers Weekly
New York's most obvious examples of the streamlined architectural style-the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building and Rockefeller Center-figure prominently in this book, but it's the less notorious buildings and the attention given to architectural details that shine brightest in this paean to old Gotham. Evoking the emotional appeal of interiors, Berenholtz captures the scintillating gold mosaics within the reception hall of the Irving Trust Building. An added enticement is the inclusion of lesser known landmarks that will be familiar to careful observers of late twentieth cinematography: The Lenox Lounge once played host to jazz greats Billie Holiday and John Coltrane and was featured in Spike Lee's Malcolm X; Scorsese buffs will recognize the gritty glamour of the Airline Diner from Goodfellas. Because of the book's diminutive size, some studies, most notably of Rockefeller Center and the Empire State Building, aren't as powerful as they could be, but interiors and exterior bric-a-brac, often overlooked in New York architecture books, take center stage here.
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Customer Reviews

The living Deco city

The lovely Rockefeller Center rightly kicks of this photographic Deco tour of New York. The exteriors of the six buildings have delights everywhere, for all to see, too.

The book though is very generalised and probably aimed at the tourist market because it has no contents, index or bibliography. What it does have are plenty of close-ups of the detail work that seems to adorn so many Manhattan buildings, frequently way above street level so that these gems are mostly missed. There is a super shot of one of the Chrysler eagles on pages 148-9, or the ornamental metalwork of a lightning bolt and a bird on the General Electric Tower, page fifty-one.

The one hundred and thirty eight photos are all in color and each has an informative caption. Between the photos text pages contain thoughts on Big Apple by a variety of writers and historical personalities, which again suggest the title is really a keepsake aimed at the visitor.

A similar photo book by Carla Breeze, 'New York Deco' (ISBN 0847815528) though lacking in so many close-ups takes a more guide book approach with copy and photos covering commercial, residential, entertainment, public and religious buildings plus an index and bibliography. If your curiosity goes further David Garrard Lowe's fascinating 'Art Deco New York' (ISBN 0823002845) sums it all up within a serious historical perspective.