Bricks & Brownstone - by Charles Lockwood & Patrick W Ciccone & Jonathan D Taylor (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The much-awaited reissue and reexpression of the classic New York row-house book Bricks and Brownstone, with all-new and updated text, new color photography, and luxury slipcase.

The classic book Bricks & Brownstone, the first and still the only volume to examine in depth the changing form and varied architectural styles of the much-loved New York City row house, or brownstone, was first published in 1972. That edition helped pave the way for a brownstone revival that has transformed New York's historic neighborhoods over the past half-century. Rizzoli published a revised and expanded edition of the book in 2003, to much fanfare. This edition revisits the classic comprehensively, with an updated text and additional chapters, and an abundance of specially commissioned color photography. It offers to an eager audience the long-awaited re-issue of the landmark volume in a brilliant new form.

Boasting more than 250 color and black-and-white images, this definitive volume traces New York's row houses from colonial days through World War I, examining in detail the Federal, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, and Second Empire architectural styles of the early and mid-nineteenth century, as well as the Neo-Grec, Queen Anne, Romanesque, Renaissance Revival, and Colonial Revival styles of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The new Bricks & Brownstone remains the gold standard reference on brownstone architecture and interiors, and one of the few truly classic histories of New York's urbanism and real estate development.

Review Quotes

"A bible for buffs, architects, and preservationists" - Judith Thurman, The New Yorker

"Classic" - New York Magazine

"Legendary ... A Stunning Photographic Timeline of New York City's Iconic Brownstones" - Architectural Digest

"Unrivaled" - Metropolis

"One of the Top 10 Books about New York City" - Edmund White, The Guardian

A Spectator (US) 2019 Book of the Year: "Building buffs, lovers of streetscapes, budding architectural preservationists and those who remain besotted by New York ... will treasure this new edition."

"Beautiful ... fantastically informative" - The Daily Beast

"Extraordinary ... conveys a love of New York City, its houses, and its people" - The New Criterion

"Informative, genially written history of the row house ... merits the attention of anyone seriously interested in urban architecture." - The New York Times

"The beautiful but also fantastically informative...tome is filled with wonderful photographs not only of the rowhouses that remain today, but also fantastically detailed close-ups of exterior and interior decorations as well as historical photographs from when they were first erected." --USA Breaking News

A reissue surely qualifies for a book of the year when it comes in gorgeous packaging, has a slightly updated text and reproduces a healthy ration of new photographs. Credit to Rizzoli for not only republishing Charles Lockwood's Bricks & Brownstone: The New York Row House ($85), first brought out in 1972 as the result of the author's undergraduate thesis at Princeton, but also for doing it in such style, with help from Patrick W. Ciccone and Jonathan D. Taylor. --Spectator USA

About the Author

Charles Lockwood (1948-2012) was one of the foremost historians of nineteenth-century New York City architecture and urbanism. He was the author of many books, including Manhattan Moves Uptown.
Patrick W. Ciccone is a New York City-based preservationist who has led major historic rehabilitation projects in Manhattan, Brooklyn, upstate New York, and Pennsylvania.
Jonathan D. Taylor is a preservation consultant in New York City.
Dylan Chandler is a native New Yorker and photographer. He shoots for a mix of commercial and editorial clients.