Norval White (1926–2009)

I'd wager that just about every architect with some interest in New York City knows the AIA Guide to New York City, which Norval White co-authored with Elliot Willensky across a handful of editions. Terse, critical entries full of humor and honesty define those guides; they're influential, though very few other writers have been able to match their skills. That said, I'd also wager that relatively few architects know about White's solo New York: A Physical History from 1987, a couple years before the AIA Guide's 3rd edition. I didn't know about it until seeing it a few months ago in the New York section at a used bookstore. A quick flip through the profusely illustrated book was all I needed to convince me to buy it.

White tackles 400 years of the city's physical history through 18 chapters. The successive chapters are thematic, though they follow a roughly chronological order, moving from "The Virgin Place" in the first chapter to "Counterculture, a Recycled City, and Tomorrow" in the last. Within each chapter the content flows chronologically, such that the "Patrons" of chapter 14, for instance, range from John Jacob Astor and other money men in the 1800s to the corporations and public authorities in power in the 1980s. Like the AIA Guides, White's descriptions balance fact and opinion, the latter usually on target. Furthermore, given how much time and how many themes he tackles, those descriptions end up being relatively short, just like the guides. Regardless, this book proves that White could also write narratives – 18 great ones here.… (altro)