New York's Fabulous Luxury Apartments

A nice bit concise summary of buildings with photos and plan drawings.

If you love architecture and New York Apartments, then this is a must for you! Arranged chronologically and beautifully illustrated, complete with floor plans for each building. A pleasure to read

Andrew Alpern's magnificent book, BEW YORK'S FABULOUS LUXURT APARTMENTS: WITH ORIGINAL FLOOR PLANS FROM TEH DAKOTA, RIVER HOUSE, OLYMPIC TOWER AND OTHER GREAT BUILDINGS, is one of those very rare books that is the "REAL Deal"! This means that it is EXACTLY what it purports to be -- page after page shows wonderful, luxurious floorplans, from wonderful, luxurious buildings, in one of the world's most, (if you have the money), luxurious and wonderful cities!Of course, not every luxury building is presented, and some of the illustrations, though full-page illustrations, do seem a bit cramped -- because they show so much!Many, (but not, thankfully, all), of these buildings have been, em..."changed" through the years. Some have simply been upgraded to allow for modern conveniences. Others, (unfortunately), have had their super-luxury apartments sub-divided into mere luxury apartments -- or worse, into quite ordinary dwellings. The text of this book shows that the author is just as upset and disappointed at these sub-divisions as most of his readers must be. (Thanks, Mr. Alpern! It's good to know someone else cares, as well! :_)This aside, (and one can always have those pages with floorplans that seem cramped, enlarged at your local copy-shop!), this book is a true treasure, for anyone who studies or admires fine architecture, longs for luxury -- and/or who needs constant inspiration that one's talents WILL take one to the stars, (or at least to the HEIGHTS of the great apartment buldings of New York!), THIS is the book you need!Even if you don't feel some of the illustrations are cramped, have them enlarged, and copied anyway. Then put them on the walls of your 180 square-foot apartment-- and start dreaming.............AND DOING!

Learned a lot

It is very interesting to see not only black & White photographs of some of the iconic New York Luxury Apartment Blocks with their mini-histories but with over 100 line drawings of representative apartment floor plans that show some of the original layouts.Many apartments were very spacious with servant's quarters but with a few exceptions this commodious accommodation has been gobbled up by property speculators and converted into smaller units. For those interested in the history and social changes in the life of the middle and upper classes Manhattan over the years Mr Alpern's work is a useful accessory.