A History of Housing in New York City: Dwelling Type and Social Change in the American Metropolis

by Richard Plunz

Book Overview

Since its emergence in the mid-nineteenth century as the nation's "metropolis," New York has faced the most challenging housing problems of any American city, but it has also led the nation in innovation and reform. Plunz traces New York's housing development from 1850 to the present, exploring the housing of all classes, discussing the development of types ranging from the single-family house to the high-rise apartment tower.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0231062966
• ISBN13: 9780231062961
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 422 Pages
• Weight: 3.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 9.3" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

History of Housing in New York

If you can only buy one book about housing in the USA (this isn't just for those interested in NYC), this is the one to buy. It makes terrific reading just as an evolving narrative -- how many books on housing can one say that about? From the earliest dwellings to highrise towers in the park, the book tackles important social and design trends. Robert Moses of course comes in for a bow but all that underpinned his vast reshaping of NYC is detailed. You want floor plans? It's got floorplans galore. My one quibble is that it ends in the early 90s and so much as happened since then. Time to write a companion book, Professor Plunz.