Originally published under the title 'Apartments for the Affluent,' this book is aimed at a very narrow audience indeed. Alpern takes us through 75 luxury Manhattan apartment houses in chronological order, from 1869 to 1974. Each building has a full-page b&w photograph, a diagram of a typical floor plan, and a quarter-page-or-so description. Alpern explains the reasoning behind the various room arrangements, and how that reasoning evolved over the years. I enjoyed this book immensely, but it's not for everyone. If you ever walked by an older high-rise apartment building and wondered how the rooms were arranged and why, this slender volume will fascinate you. Otherwise, you may prefer a book that's a more general survey of the topic (including some by the same author).

Finally I got a hold of this book! Great floor plans; but as usual, I would have liked more interior pics (hardly any).

This book provides excellent descriptions and floor plans of many of New York's finest apartments. It proved to be a great guide book on a recent trip to the city.

An interesting overview of the design and evolution of aprtment houses in NYC. With floorplans, pictures and even some original selling prices of some of NYC's tonier buildings, it is great information for every real estate conscious New Yorker.

Architectural historian Andrew Alpern takes the reader through a survey of luxury apartment buildings on Manhattan Island. There are 34 chapters, of which 28 are descriptions of particular buildings, their histories, and their unique features, each illustrated by one or more large b&w photographs. The book includes four floor plans. Buildings discussed include the Majestic, Century, Ansonia, London Terrace, Beresford, Osborne, and Alwyn Court. There are also six chapters dealing with more general topics: British 'antecedents of American apartments,' famous courtyard buildings, office-to-residence conversions, classic buildings of Fifth Avenue, double-height studios for artists, and changing fashions in floor plans.

There is substantial overlap with Alpern's earlier book, 'New York's Fabulous Luxury Apartments,' although the two books were clearly separately written works. That earlier book is aimed at the reader whose interest is mainly in floor plans, while the reader who is more interested in detailed narrative descriptions might prefer 'Luxury Apartment Houses.'

An interesting overview of the design and evolutions of apartment bulidings in NYC, originally published as the very hard to find 'APARTMENTS FOR THE AFFLUENT.' Cretainly good fun for todays real estate conscious New Yorker with photos, floorplans and even original selling prices of NY's tonier buildings.

For anyone serious about studying humans in the urban environment, this is essential reading. The authors detail the sagas (and they often are) of individuals who owned strategically located bits of real estate and refused to sell their property to land developers eager to consume them in major projects. Sometimes you root for the holdout, sometimes you feel sorry for the misguided rebel. The writing can become a bit petulant when the authors fail to see the holdout's point of view (for at least one author progress is always on the side of the Donald Trumps of the world), but ultimately enough information is given to allow the reader to decide who was the wisest player in a particular scenario. This book also provides a look at 'New York buildings that aren't there anymore.'

Alpern has collected a comprehensive array of images and information both past and present that illustrate the breadth of work by Carpenter and Candela. Their buildings still house the privileged members of New York's social set that these apartment houses were designed for. Netto's intro is overwrought, pretentious and obviously included to lend a certain cachet from a card carrying member of Park Ave society. The book is a good visual reference, yet somewhat anticlimactic in it's format.

Alpern has written several books about New York apartment buildings and this is his best. This time he focuses exclusively on the genius of two ground-breaking designers, James Carpenter and Rosario Candela. If you are not adept at reading floor plans (of which there are many), it might not be immediately obvious what defines the genius of these two architects. It is the innovation of their layouts and the graciousness of their spaces that made apartment house living so desireable, allowing for the migration from town house to apartment building. Regardless, everyone will still enjoy the exterior and interior views of these great New York buildings and get a sense of how the rich really live. Alpern raises our awareness of the apartment house type in the City to a higher level, just as others had focused on the greatness of NYC's commercial structures.
Each building is described in detail and there is some chatty material about who lived where, who bought what, and maybe a little more of that would have added fun to the book. There is a chronology of all the buildings and I would have liked to have seen thumbnail pictures of the buildings next to the timeline, since the book is organized geographically. It is otherwise an excellent and elegant study of the complete apartment house works of these two great designers.

Candela and Carpenter were two of New York's most noted architects of the inter-war era, specializing in luxury apartment buildings. Architectural historian Andrew Alpern has assembled a reference text of their buildings, organized in geographic sequence. In this book, a typical building has two pages dedicated to it. One page consists of a floor plan, and the facing page has a photo or rendering of the exterior, combined with a one-to-six sentence description. Also, there are several brief essays at the beginning of the book.

I enjoyed this volume, which Alpern has directed at a very narrow segment of readers, but it's not for everyone. This is a volume for architectural enthusiasts who are intrigued by room arrangements. Others might be better served by a book broader in scope (including some by this same author).

Even at this low price, the book isn't worth it. You get the questions and answers--but no organization, no grouping of questions into related topics or chapters, no list of question, no index--no way to search for just what you need to know. Have a specific question? You will have to browse through the entire book to find it. The book also does not give enough of a background to help writers make informed decisions. This was a book written by a lawyer, not a writer, and it shows.

Save your money and buy Cheryl Besenjak's "Copyright Plain and Simple" instead.

I enjoyed my first read through the book fairly well. It's clearly written, and gave a pretty good overall feel for the way that copyright law works. So it's still on my shelf, and I don't feel bad about the little bit it cost me.

But...

Exactly as the title suggests, the book is a series of questions and their answers. Although there is a sort of progression from question to question, there is no index, no table of contents, and no real grouping of questions into categories. So if I have a specific question, it would be very hard to find the answer in this book.

Overall, I'd say it's a decent read, but a very poor reference.

101 Questions About Copyright Law is just that... 101 random questions pertaining to Copyright Law and their answers are included here. I found that this book will be helpful, but that I also needed something that would go further into detail than just a standard "question-answer" format. In my opinion, this is the type if book that will be most useful as a type of quick reference manual. As a beginner's book I find that it will be used best in addition to other books that I purchased containing more in-depth material.

I bought this book expecting more of what Alpern has covered in his previous books: more buildings, with more stories, and more floor plans. Instead, while some material is new, quite a few of these buildings have been covered in his earlier books. And there are no floor plans at all. If you are an afficionado of great Manhattan apartment houses, avoid this book and stick with "New York's Fabulous Luxury Apartments" instead.

This extremely slender, 84-page book covers 20 luxury apartment buildings in New York City, each of which is illustrated by at least one large b&w photograph. For each, the author discusses the building's history and unique features. Buildings covered include the Normandy, San Remo, and Hampshire House. This book has no floor plans, in contrast to Alpern's earlier work, 'New York's Fabulous Luxury Apartments.'