Andrew Alpern – författare

An illustrated tour of the elegant entrances to New York City's most celebrated apartment houses.Thishandsome, oversized book introduces us to the grandest entrances of NewYork City's residential buildings. These posh portals come in an array of forms and styles, such as the porte cochere, with a passage to admit carriages or motor cars; the classic awning, originally meant to be retracted in good weather; and Neoclassical, Romanesque, and Gothic revivals.Architectural historian Andrew Alpern highlights approximately 140 entrances, from the 19th century to the present, including those of the Dakota, the first true luxury apartment house in New York; San Remo, one of Central Park West's most impressive apartmenthouses; and the Ansonia, at one time the largest hotel in the world. Each entrance is accompanied by a description of its signal features andthe history of the building that surrounds it. All are represented in splendid colour photographs, and many by charming watercolour drawings.Theseornate entrances offer a glimpse into New York's past, as well as its future - for today, once again, entryways have begun to feature heavily in the marketing of residential buildings. Posh Portals: Elegant Entrances and Ingratiating Ingresses to Apartments for the Affluent in New York City will be an inspiration for architects and a delight for city dwellers.

The definitive volume on one of New York’s most iconic residential architects.The long list of apartment buildings and hotels designed by Emery Roth in the 1920s and 1930s includes names that will be familiar to any aficionado of Manhattan real estate: the Ritz Tower, the Beresford, the San Remo, the Ardsley. Roth’s buildings, which ranged across Beaux Arts, Art Deco, and historical revival styles, shaped the ideal of residential luxury that is still called to mind by the phrase “prewar building.” Emery Roth’s New York Apartment Buildings, the first book to be published on this essential architect in nearly 40 years, has two parts. The first is a meticulously researched catalogue raisonné of Roth’s work (including unbuilt and demolished projects), illustrated with new colour photography. The second is a facsimile reproduction of Steven Ruttenbaum’s long out-of-print monograph on Roth, Mansions in the Clouds, whose invaluable text is illustrated with copious black-and-white photography of the architect’s interiors and exteriors.