Research Catalog

Title

Antiquity in Gotham : the ancient architecture of New York City / Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis.

Author

Macaulay-Lewis, Elizabeth

Publication

• New York : Empire State Editions, an imprint of Fordham University Press, 2021.
• ©2021

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

x, 283 pages : illustrations (chiefly color); 27 cm

Summary

"Since the city's inception, New Yorkers have deliberately and purposefully engaged with ancient architecture to design and erect many of its most iconic buildings and monuments, including Grand Central Terminal and the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch in Brooklyn, as well as forgotten gems such as Snug Harbor on Staten Island and the Gould Memorial Library in the Bronx. Antiquity in Gotham interprets the various ways ancient architecture was reconceived in New York City from the eighteenth century to the early twenty-first century. Contextualizing New York's Neo-Antique architecture within larger American architectural trends, author Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis applies an archeological lens to the study of the New York buildings that incorporated these various models in their design, bringing together these diverse sources of inspiration into a single continuum. Antiquity in Gotham explores how ancient architecture communicated the political ideals of the new Republic through the adaptation of Greek and Roman architecture; how Egyptian temples conveyed the city's new technological achievements; and how the ancient Near East served many artistic masters, decorating the interiors of glitzy Gilded Age restaurants and the tops of skyscrapers. Rather than classifying neo-classical (and Greek Revival), Egyptianizing, and architecture inspired by the ancient Near East into distinct categories, the Neo-Antique framework considers the similarities and differences--intellectually, conceptually, and chronologically--amongst the reception of these different architectural traditions. This fundamentally interdisciplinary project draws upon all available evidence and archival materials--such as the letters and memos of architects and their patrons, and the commentary in contemporary newspapers and magazines--to provide a lively multi-dimensional analysis that examines not only the city's ancient buildings and rooms themselves, but also how New Yorkers envisaged them, lived in them, talked about them, and reacted to them. Antiquity offered New Yorkers architecture with flexible aesthetic, functional, cultural, and intellectual resonances--whether it be the democratic ideals of Periclean Athens, the technological might of Pharaonic Egypt, or the majesty of Imperial Rome. The result of these dialogues with ancient architectural forms was the creation of innovative architecture that has defined New York City's skyline throughout its history." --

Alternative Title

Ancient architecture of New York City

Subjects

• Neoclassicism (Architecture)
• History
• New York (State) > New York
• Buildings
• Architecture > Roman influences
• New York (N.Y.) > Buildings, structures, etc
• Neoclassicism (Architecture) > New York (State) > New York
• Architecture > New York (State) > New York > History

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-272) and index.

Contents

Introduction: from the Appian Way to Broadway -- Why antiquity? Methodologies, evidence, and themes: archaeology, reception studies, and the neo-antique -- Herculean efforts: New York City's infrastructure. The grid -- Rivaling Rome and the Sphinx: The Croton Aqueduct and Murray Hill Distributing Reservoir -- Bridging the East River in style: The Manhattan Bridge -- Train stations: appropriating the colonnades and baths of imperial Rome -- The genius of architecture: ancient muses and modern forms. The Parthenon on Wall Street: The US Custom House -- Brooklyn Borough Hall, the Manhattan Municipal Building, and Foley Square -- The tombs -- Treasuries of old and treasuries of new. Banks -- Ware houses and commercial lofts -- The first and second merchants' exchanges -- The New York Stock Exchange -- Skyscrapers -- Modernism and its debt to classical architecture: The Seagram Building -- Modern Museions. The Metropolitan Museum of Art -- The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences -- Temples to monkeys, birds, and lions: The architecture of the New York Zoological Society -- The New York State memorial to Theodore Roosevelt at the American Museum of Natural History -- Pantheons and a stadium: The architecture of New York's universities -- Public libraries -- Togas at home. Domestic architecture and the Greek revival style in New York City -- The Tredwell Home -- Residences in New York City after the Civil War -- Pompeian rooms in New York City -- The mansion and Greco-Pompeian music room of Henry G. Marquand -- Aspirational antiquity: décor and design for the middle classes -- Apartment buildings: classical forms in the sky -- dining like Nero. The development of the lobster palaces -- Murray's Roman gardens -- The Café de l'Opéra -- To be buried like a pharaoh. New York's cemeteries before 1838 -- Green-Wood and Woodlawn -- Classical temples to New York's emperors and gods -- Obelisks, pyramids, temples, and a baroque kiosk -- Heroic New Yorkers. Arches to Washington -- The Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch, Grand Army Plaza -- The column to Columbus -- Monuments in early twentieth-century New York -- Eclectic antiquity. Snug Harbor and Grecian temple churches -- Bathing culture in New York City -- Fraternal organizations: the Grand Masonic Lodge and the Pythian Temple -- Theaters -- Reflections: useable pasts and neo-antique futures.

ISBN

• 082329384X
• 9780823293841 (hardcover)
• 9780823293858 (ePub ebook) (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

99989442500

OCLC

• on1176326519
• 1176326519

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries