Beyond Architecture: The New New York - Hardcover

by Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel (Editor)

A volume of new essays by a range of contributors--architectural critics, city planners, historians, scholars, journalists, and more--to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the passage of the New York City Landmarks Law, exploring the past, present, and future of historic preservation in America's great metropolis.

Beyond Architecture: The New New York is a volume of new essays, never before in print, commissioned by the NYC Landmarks60 Alliance to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the passage of the New York City Landmarks Law. The 1965 law established the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) and initiated the era of historic preservation in New York City (the largest city in the United States). Today (as of July 2024) the Landmarks Preservation Commission oversees more than 38,000 buildings and sites throughout New York City, and has designated 158 historic districts and extensions, 1,464 individual landmarks, 123 interior landmarks, and 12 scenic landmarks (for example, all of Central Park comprises one landmark).

"Honor our past, imagine our future" is the axiom of the NYC Landmarks60 Alliance. The contributors have written essays with forward-looking visions and consider "the future of the past" in the twenty-first century. Each contributor is uniquely placed to understand and explore this challenging topic.

Their individual essays explore varied aspects of the impact, legacy, and current and future status of historic preservation in New York City. All the essays are meant to inspire reflection, hope, and excitement about the future of the new New York, its complex history, and its never-ending transformation.

The writers have moved beyond architecture to examine the past, present, and future of New York City with creative and careful analyses of the subject which will stimulate thought, discussion, and action as we move toward a new New York.

Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, Editor
Vishaan Chakrabarti
Justin Davidson
Andrew Dolkart
Thomas Dyja
Paul Goldberger
Adam Gopnik
Michael Kimmelman
Guy Nordenson
Nat Oppenheimer
A. O. Scott
Lisa Switkin
Rosemary Vietor

Author Biography

Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel has been a leading voice during the last sixty years on some of the defining urban issues of our time. As the first director of New York City's newly created Department of Cultural Affairs, she brought the first public art exhibit to Bryant Park and the first public performance by the Metropolitan Opera to Central Park. She was appointed to the board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum by President Reagan and President Clinton appointed her to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. As President Obama's appointee, she served on the American Battle Monuments Commission, and was named chair of their New Monuments Committee. In 2022, President Biden appointed her to the President's Advisory Committee on the Arts.

The longest-serving commissioner of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, and chair of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Foundation, she created and commissioned the now-standard Street Name signs and Markers/Maps programs, which identify NYC's historic districts. As chair of the Historic Landmarks Preservation Center, she created the Cultural Medallions program to commemorate notable New Yorkers. In 2007, she was appointed to the New York State Council on the Arts, where she was vice chair and then chair and CEO. In 2023, she was appointed by New York's Governor Hochul to the City University of New York board of trustees.

The recipient of four honorary doctorates, numerous honors and awards--including her election as an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects--and with service to many boards, Diamonstein-Spielvogel earned her doctorate from NYU. A long-term board member of PEN America, she was also elected an honorary member of PEN Slovakia. She has shared her scholarship through many books about art, architecture, photography, crafts, design, and public policy; numerous museum exhibitions; and as a television interviewer and producer for local and national networks. Her book Handmade in America was the basis of the first exhibition of crafts in the White House; her Landmarks of New York inspired an exhibition that toured with the U.S. Department of State to 82 countries.