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Manhattan Unfurled
In Manhattan Unfurled, architect Matteo Pericoli turns his affection for the city into two continuous and continuously enchanting pen-and-ink drawings of the skyline. This unusual book comes in a linen slipcase and opens accordion-fashion into a 22-foot-long panorama, the east on one side, west on the other. As critic Paul Goldberger writes in the accompanying booklet, "Pericoli has given us the Manhattan skyline in all its awesome chaos, but he has rendered it readable and manageable."
48 pages, Hardcover
Published October 16, 2001
About the author
Matteo Pericoli
28 books10 followersMatteo Pericoli is a Milan-born architect, illustrator, writer and teacher.
He is the author of several illustrated books — including Manhattan Unfurled, The City Out My Window: 63 Views on New York and Windows on the World: 50 Writers, 50 Views.
His drawings have appeared in various newspapers and magazines, both in the US and in Europe — including, among others, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Observer, The Paris Review Daily and La Stampa.
In 2007, his mural Skyline of the World was installed at the new American Airlines terminal at JFK International Airport.
In 2010 he founded the Laboratory of Literary Architecture, a cross-disciplinary exploration of literature as architecture.
He is the author of several illustrated books — including Manhattan Unfurled, The City Out My Window: 63 Views on New York and Windows on the World: 50 Writers, 50 Views.
His drawings have appeared in various newspapers and magazines, both in the US and in Europe — including, among others, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Observer, The Paris Review Daily and La Stampa.
In 2007, his mural Skyline of the World was installed at the new American Airlines terminal at JFK International Airport.
In 2010 he founded the Laboratory of Literary Architecture, a cross-disciplinary exploration of literature as architecture.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 15, 2016
I read this because I had also read Joe Sacco's silent masterpiece, The Great War: July 1, 1916: The First Day of the Battle of the Somme, which I reviewed here, and I share that review because there is a link to the actual drawing itself, 24 continuous plates boxed accordion-fashion so when you unfurl them you have to have a long floor to see them. Click on the link in my review so you can see what it is we are dealing with here, and you can see students looking at the whole long thing.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Sacco's editor, because he has done a lot of comics journalism about wars, asked him to draw something for the 100th anniversary of WWI and suggested an idea for him, that he look at a single battle from that war, and also read Pericoli's Manhattan Unfurled, which is also silent, devoting 24 pages to each side of The City. Pericoli was born and went to art school in Italy, then moved to NYC, and took one of those double decker tours of the city, marveling at the architecture, the scope of it. So he spent almost three years making 890 inches of drawings of buildings. No streets. No people. No stories. No events. But it is impressive, kind of encyclopedic.
Here's one from Pericoli's Twitter page:
https://twitter.com/matteopericoli/st...
Sacco's work on that epically tragic battle moved and moves me more than just these drawings of buildings, though I love Manhattan, recalling Woody Allen's Manhattan, Gershwin, and so on, obviously. I also recall that a guy in the nineties walked the length of Broadway on the west side in one day, documenting it in The New Your Times Sunday Magazine. Then, looking for that very article, I found dozens of YouTube videos of walking NYC and recall that it is, duh, a tourist destination, a city to look at, of course, breathtaking.
I like architectural graphic novels such as Chris Ware's Building Stories, Richard McGuire's Here, and Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli, though I prefer ones with people in it to the austere buildings-speak-for-themselves approach. And I don't know if we can call it a novel, really. It has progression, we sort of can see with him all of the city, a building at a time, but there's no real narrative. Still, this is an amazing achievement, worth checking out for sure. That mine is the FIRST Goodreads review of the book that came out in 2001 means for me that it needs more exposure.
Pericoli went on from there to do other panoramas: London Unfurled, Windows on the World, The City Out my Window: 63 Views on New York, World Unfurled, Manhattan Within (a drawing of Central Park). Cool, right?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Sacco's editor, because he has done a lot of comics journalism about wars, asked him to draw something for the 100th anniversary of WWI and suggested an idea for him, that he look at a single battle from that war, and also read Pericoli's Manhattan Unfurled, which is also silent, devoting 24 pages to each side of The City. Pericoli was born and went to art school in Italy, then moved to NYC, and took one of those double decker tours of the city, marveling at the architecture, the scope of it. So he spent almost three years making 890 inches of drawings of buildings. No streets. No people. No stories. No events. But it is impressive, kind of encyclopedic.
Here's one from Pericoli's Twitter page:
https://twitter.com/matteopericoli/st...
Sacco's work on that epically tragic battle moved and moves me more than just these drawings of buildings, though I love Manhattan, recalling Woody Allen's Manhattan, Gershwin, and so on, obviously. I also recall that a guy in the nineties walked the length of Broadway on the west side in one day, documenting it in The New Your Times Sunday Magazine. Then, looking for that very article, I found dozens of YouTube videos of walking NYC and recall that it is, duh, a tourist destination, a city to look at, of course, breathtaking.
I like architectural graphic novels such as Chris Ware's Building Stories, Richard McGuire's Here, and Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli, though I prefer ones with people in it to the austere buildings-speak-for-themselves approach. And I don't know if we can call it a novel, really. It has progression, we sort of can see with him all of the city, a building at a time, but there's no real narrative. Still, this is an amazing achievement, worth checking out for sure. That mine is the FIRST Goodreads review of the book that came out in 2001 means for me that it needs more exposure.
Pericoli went on from there to do other panoramas: London Unfurled, Windows on the World, The City Out my Window: 63 Views on New York, World Unfurled, Manhattan Within (a drawing of Central Park). Cool, right?
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February 12, 2026review text for 4335
March 20, 2017
Manhattan vista dal fiume: due disegni lunghissimi piegati a fisarmonica, uno per ciascuna riva. Tratto sottile a china, minuzioso ma non rigoroso, con grattacieli spesso storti e "molli". Appassionante per il suo carattere di descrizione enciclopedica. Con un saggio doveroso ma non troppo illuminante del noto critico architettonico Paul Goldberger.
December 30, 2009
This is such a delightful book - the skyline of the Island of Manhattan in a wonderfully LONG fold out - east and west.
September 12, 2016
Matteo Pericoli has created an amazing book of Manhatten! Fans of New York should all own this one. Folds out to incredible length with ink sketch of east side on one side and west on the other.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews