The Building of Manhattan Paperback – 21 April 2010

I bought this book for my high school. It is very well done and the illustrations are outstanding. It is very appealing to students. The only drawback is it was published before 9/11. So it is a little odd to read all about the building of the world trade center with no mention of its destruction.

This work is truly unique thanks to the author's own detailed black and white drawings. Among these, all dealing with contemporary topics are clearly based on careful in situ observations.In terms of contents, the reader is actually offered two books for the price of one. The first 50 pages present an overview of Manhattan's architectural and urban development history, all the way since New Amsterdam. The final 100 pages or so deal with seldom covered technical aspects of building: excavation, foundations, crane assembly and dismounting, concrete and steel construction, infrastructure such as gas and phone lines or sewers and even unions.Though a reprint of a 1988 work, this book is still very worthwhile although it is sad of course to be reminded about the `strength' of the Twin Towers and the pride they inspired.This work is accessible to a young public but, chock full of information, it is certainly of great interest to adults as well, including architecture or planning specialists.

Great book for a 6th grade year long study of the U.S. I am going to use it as I move through history so that my students will have an anchor point to reference. I would not suggest trying to read it all at once.

Donald Mackay is perhaps one of this era's most talented illustrators. His illustrations about the building of Manhattan catch all the details including the anxiety to see construction workers walking in beams high atop the sky.I truly recommend this book.

I was expecting great pictures of the varios buildings in NYC with names and history and maps of where they are. Instead, I got an all black and white book with constructions details and problems with building in New York City. Guess an up and coming engineer might like it.