New York Deco

by Richard Berenholtz (Photographer), Carol Willis (Introduction)

New York Deco profiles the architecture of the city during its most stylish and dazzling the 1920s and early 1930s. New York City landmarks were born in this age - the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, and the Waldorf-Astoria - as well as dozens of lesser-known office buildings and apartment houses. Together, they make the skyline of New York what it is today.

Richard Berenholtz's stunning photographs of the finest examples of New York City's art deco architecture are accompanied by text from writers, artists, and personalities of the era, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ogden Nash, and Frank Lloyd Wright, among others.

Genres: Architecture, Art, Nonfiction

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a beautiful book! Although mostly a coffee table type book it is actually lap sized. It has enough text to give a lot of important information about art deco and art deco art and architecture. Fantastic photos and even gold end papers. Zowie.

The photos allow you to see how stunning the detail on buildings of this period in Manhattan were. Some are so high they are hard to see from street level. You don’t really want to walk around with your head up and gawking for fear of stumbling or being a victim of robbery, in any case.

All the photos are full color and just amazing. Some are of full buildings or skyline shots but many are close ups of detail. The labor and materials used in this period are amazing. Although mainly a picture book, there are brief explanations for each photo and throughout the book are quotes from famous people such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Lorenzo Hart, Malcolm Cowley and many, many more. I can’t speak too highly of this book.

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 5 out of 5]

While the money lasted, New York City embraced Art Deco. Some of the most lasting ways were in architecture and architectural decoration. Berenholtz has captured much of this legacy and presents if “artfully” in this compact picture book along with period quotations from famous New Yorkers.

I found my GR friend Pam’s review enticing
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I agree with her that this book’s photos bring out the details often not visible from street level. The photography is excellent.

In discussing Art Deco, Wikipedia notes that: “During its heyday, Art Deco represented luxury, glamour, exuberance, and faith in social and technological progress. The movement featured rare and expensive materials such as ebony and ivory, and exquisite craftsmanship. It also introduced new materials such as chrome plating, stainless steel, and plastic.”
Luxury
Glamour
Exuberance and
Faith in … progress

They are all captured in this lovely small book. Truly satisfying!

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unlike the intentionally repulsive modernist art of the later twentieth century, Art Deco welded the sensibilities of the industrial age with the Classical tradition (as well as adding in foreign influences from, say, ancient Egypt or Persia) to make a new style that is both suitable for the contemporary world and enduringly beautiful. This artistic style has its most permanent monuments in the form of architecture and its adornments, and some of the most striking Art Deco buildings are in New York City.

This book is mostly a series of photographs by Richard Berenholtz, and it has as "commentary" quotations from writers of the '20s and '30s about the "feel" of NYC in that time, and captions that give a limited but nonetheless useful information about the location of the buildings and their architects and significance.

Some of the reviews on Amazon complain that the book isn't much more than a picture book. That's true enough, but fundamentally misguided. This isn't an analytical discussion of the buildings or of the period but a collection of striking illustrations of what you can see today. On that basis, I think the book is great. It's comparatively short, so naturally one might want more of any of it (for instance, from my limited experience, I'd want to see more of the Fred C. French Bldg, and I bet anybody who's familiar with the city could come up with other examples).

The photos are mostly straightforward, giving a very clear impression of the buildings and the ornaments portrayed. One complaint I have is that a few of the dawn shots of the city as a whole strike me as being photoshopped (strange colors for dawn). But these apparent lapses are few in number and notable for being out of place with the large majority of the images. These images are mostly either closeup shots of details or exterior shots taken from high up.

One minor quibble is that the '20s-style typeface used for the captions is rather 'unreadable" as the typographers say (i suspect it would look fine in a bigger font, say on a menu).

Overall, every picture makes you (or at least me) think, "God, when can I get back to NYC to see that?" The art is beautiful and so is this book.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely book. The photos (and architecture!) are superb and the interspersed quotes from the era are the icing on the cake.

[Magpie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely beautiful

[Jiwon Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

For someone who knows nothing about Art Deco, this book was beautiful and informative. I would love to buy this book if I ever get a chance to live in New York :)

[Bradley White · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love art deco.

[K. G. Whitehurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me be upfront-- I LOVE Art Deco. That said, this is still a wonderful book because the photography is so lush. And because it's not a gigantic (and expensive) coffee table book, you can actually hold it, get up close to it, read it. The short descriptions of the photographs teach quite a bit of architectural history is the most delicious way. The literary quotations add some perspective to New York City, not all of it complimentary. It's a book to make you want to go to NYC just to see these great buildings.

[SM Surber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fabulous pictures and descriptions, with relating quotes about NYC by notable personalities of the era.