A great book for the coffee table or the library. Concise desriptions of built projects as well as conceptual ideas for the City of New York. Focuses on individual neighborhoods as well as the city as a whole.

First of all, the book is just too darned big to handle comfortably. With over 1300 pages, I don't know whether to congratulate the authors on their thoroughness or criticize them for having no sense of self-restraint. This tome could have been divided into three separate volumes, and each would have been a substantial book in itself.

The epic length of the book allows the authors to go into incredible detail. The book is divided into chapters primarily by neighborhood. There are also chapters devoted to the topic of interior decoration, the 1964-65 World's Fair, "Beyond the Boroughs," "Historic Preservation," and "New York and the Arts." The numerous b&w photographs, averaging more than one per page, are stunning.

A chapter titled "Death by Development" walks the reader through the ideology of the era that led to public housing monstrosities, as well as middle-class housing of dubious aesthetic and structural integrity. This same chapter discusses proposals for air-raid shelters, some of which would have had expanses large enough to hold a nine-story building, as well as the 1945 incident in which a US military plane crashed into the Empire State Building. The same chapter shifts to transportation issues, and presents a 1951 proposal for an unconventional "people mover" under 42nd Street, and the beginning of construction in 1972 on the Second Avenue subway (which perhaps, will open sometime in my lifetime). All this in just one of seventeen chapters - gives you some idea of the expansiveness and thoroughness of this book.

Many readers will take special note of the eight pages devoted to the World Trade Center. This book was written before "9-11," and the book's coverage of the WTC is haunting, to say the least.

From our perspective, the era in question (1945-1976) constitutes the "dark ages" of urban planning and architecture. Yet, the beautiful period photographs and accompanying text immerse the reader in the aesthetic mentality of the era. This book is a masterpiece, and maybe later in the day I'll find the strength to move this eight pound book from my table to my desk.

which gets to the core of what metropolitan cities, and specifically New York, are all about. Politics, codes, social agendas, design, and chance mix, struggle and interchange to become Architecture, which in return can be read as the memory and the conscious of the city. Given the sheer amount of information provided by this book, it's almost stunning how easily it reads. Countless anecdotes amuse and surprise through this enormous journey and keep the reader's interest focused and a smile on his face.

This is an excellent treatment of New York architecture, 1890-1915, divided into chapters by building type. It's substantially thinner than Robert Stern's other books in this series (New York 1880, New York 1930, New York 1960), but there's enough meat here that the reader feels the topic has been fully covered. The book has a particularly attractive page format, with numerous photos that beautifully document the era (averaging approximately one per page). There are also roughly 60 floor plans, although most page space is used for text.

This is a groundbreaking work that unearthed the contemporaneous understanding of events that, because of the advent of modernism, was never recorded in books. It has paved the way for more specialized studies, but its breadth of learning and expertise has never been surpassed.

The twentieth-century items by which New York City is usually synechdocally identified, the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center and what have you, are arguably just later iconic ornaments set atop the massive base formed during the earlier period covered in this book. The character New York has today was really in good part formed by the turn of the last century, by the structures and systems here presented. Gimlet-eyed Robert Stern and his apparently omnivorous assistants, Gilmartin and Massengale, have sorted, digested and made available enormous amounts of information. _New York 1900_ is an indispensable starting point for architects, historians, preservationists and others serious about understanding the City of the era.

This book is well written and includes clear examples. A great book for starters. Especially usefull for users of an AS/400 system. A definite Must.

This period was covered in New York 1900, which provided background material from 1876 and before. Although New York 1880 is longer than New York 1900, it seemed to me to be a padding of what had already been said in a more succinct and more readable way in the first book of the series (NY 1900).As for the length, New York 1880 badly needs an editor.

With over 1100 pages, this book was so difficult to handle physically, that it hampered my enjoyment of this epic-length volume. On the other hand, the book is a bargain in terms of cents per page! Photos average more than one per page; however, the quality of photographic reproduction is frequently very disappointing (even when compared to Stern's 'New York 1900,' which also uses very old photographs). There are approximately 75 floor plans, with most page space used for the less-than-rivetting text. Chapters are divided by building type. A surprising amount of page space is consumed by illustrations of entries in architectural competitions (Union League Club and Cathedral of St. John the Divine).

While it is too heavy to lug around, NY 1880 is an eye popping journey into New York of 120 or so years ago. There are over 1,200 photographs and 99 pages of footnotes. Anyone interested in seeing what this wonderful city was like a generation before the First World War is strongly urged to grab this book. So much of what this book is about is no longer standing - churches, synagogues, clubs, apartments, etc.

Buy it!! This is the best of the 4 books in the series (NY 1880, NY 1900, NY 1930 and NY 1960) with NY 2000 to come in a few years.