Francis Morrone and Matthew A. Postal, Photography (and all photos below) by Edward A. Toran, Robin Lynn, Editor
W. W. Norton & Company with a proprietary assist from New York’s beloved and too-little-understood Municipal Art Society (MAS) has published a new volume entitled 10 Architectural Walks in Manhattan.
The Madison Square skyline, though not nearly as large as the downtown or midtown skylines, nonetheless is quite extraordinary. The easy intermixture of tall and low buildings and open space has had no small role in the neighborhood’s late twentieth-century renaissance.
When it comes to the Society it’s NOT “Arts” but “Art”; in 1898, when among distinguished others, Richard Morris Hunt, Daniel Chester French, and Edwin and Evangeline Blashfield founded this civic organization, inspired, as they were, by the hopeful lessons of the Ecole des Beaux Arts it was to promulgate the concept that today we would call “urban planning” “ or “town planning,” or “New Urbanism,” or now more currently, “emergent urbanism” or “smart growth.” Back then it was purely, simply, and very elegantly referred to as “municipal art”—not bad when you think about it with the distinct advantage of removing the polemical schisms of recent years…Maybe it’s time to revisit that moniker in the face of all the opportunity now at hand.
Besides paying attention to the good works of MAS generally, I urge all to those who either reside in New York or who love and visit New York to secure a copy and use it accordingly, soon and often. Visit our online bookstore to that worthy end via www.classicst.org.
The monument to Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, with a bronze statue by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and an exedra by Saint-Gaudens and Stanford White, was recognized early as one of the most important public artworks in America.
This MAS guidebook is a fine resource for those either already pre-disposed or eager to encourage the not-yet-converted to take the time to look about and discover the joyous and endlessly illuminating lessons of the built environment in the full historic palimpsest it promises to reveal for discerning onlookers. Look and you shall see!
The cherub is one of the principal formal devices of Western art. No one- before or since- executed them better than the Alsatian Philip Martiny, New York’s greatest architectural sculptor.
Plus it is dedicated to our co-founder, Henry Hope Reed , who on April 8, 1956 invented the New York walking tour and brought what he himself describes as a French construct to America. The visite conference as it was and is denominated took its permanent place in American culture; he thus spawned what is now commonplace and ubiquitous.
Henry Hope Reed, the late Arthur Ross and Janet Ross, at the 2007 Arthur Ross Awards
I have asked my friend and former colleague, Robin Lynn, to comment further:
Architectural historian Henry Hope Reed led what was not only the first MAS walking tour but also probably New York’s first architectural walking tour for the general public. The tour “From Madison Square to Gramercy Park” was such a novelty that newspapers sent reporters to cover it, and neighborhood residents didn’t know what to make of it. It is a testimony to what MAS and Henry started that walking tours are today an accepted part of the city’s culture.
MAS has just published 10 Architectural Walks in Manhattan, and dedicated it with pride. Designed for visitors, students, or newcomers, but also for seasoned New Yorkers eager to learn more about the bricks, brownstones and glass towers they live among, 10 Architectural Walks takes walkers all over Manhattan. Under bridges, into buildings, and across parks, it allows everyone to make the most of New York’s pedestrian-friendly streets, vibrant public spaces, and historical architecture.
The guidebook features the experienced voices and strong opinions of architectural historians Francis Morrone, ICA Fellow and Matthew A. Postal, who have both led MAS walks for over 10 years. Tours include Madison Square, where Henry led his first group, a walk along Park Avenue’s prestigious corporate addresses; a historical stroll in Hamilton Heights; an informative section on New York’s earliest tall buildings; a tour along The High Line, New York’s newest and only elevated park; and Midtown Deco, among other areas.
Can’t read maps? No sense of direction? No problem. The book is filled with intuitive, easy to follow directions with recognizable landmarks, 10 clear maps, and more than 200 color photographs by noted photographer Edward A. Toran to ensure that you never confuse your chapels, misname your buildings, or end up lost in lower Manhattan.
10 Architectural Walks in Manhattan costs $29.95. ICA&CA members can present their membership card at Urban Center Books, 457 Madison Avenue, and receive a 10% discount. Books can also be ordered online at www.urbancenterbooks.org. To find out how to walk with Francis or Matthew or other MAS tour guides, visit www.mas.org.
The principal facades of the redbrick Potter Building are enlivened by sculpted terra-cotta ornament.
By the way, the self-guided tours as listed in the index are as follows:
1) Old City, New City: Downtown Preservation and Planning
2) Before the Code: Downtown Skyscrapers
3) Along the High Line
4) Of Farragut and Flatiron
5) Midtown Deco
6) Grand Central City
7) When It Was New: Park Avenue
8) Midtown since Modernism: East 57th Street to Columbus Circle
9) Country in the City: Central Park
10) Harlem Haven: Hamilton Heights
The titles best hint at the full content. I commend all who have made it happen and I do so in like tribute to Henry Reed, who whether with praise or occasional wrath loved above all to look about at the achievements of his fellow city dwellers –some renowned yet most anonymous. This post first appeared in the Summer of 2009 but it’s recommendation will hold for at least a decade to come.
Paul Gunther
Henry Hope Reed calls The Glory of Commerce America’s greatest work of monumental sculpture.
LeCtor, there is a typo there, LECTOR not LECOR
Posted by: Luca | July 02, 2009 at 06:46 PM
Excellent post.Generally I do not post on blogs, but I would like to say that this post really forced me to do so.
Posted by: aion kinah | March 02, 2010 at 01:07 AM