Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan

Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan

by Rem Koolhaas
Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan

Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan

by Rem Koolhaas

Hardcover

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Overview

Since its publication - Delirious New York (1978) has attained mythic status. Rem Koolhaas's celebration and analysis of New York depicts the city as a metaphor for the variety of human behavior

At the end of the nineteenth century, population, information, and technology explosions made Manhattan a laboratory for the invention and testing of a metropolitan lifestyle - "the culture of congestion" - and its architecture. "Manhattan," he writes, "is the 20th century's Rosetta Stone . . . occupied by architectural mutations (Central Park, the Skyscraper), utopian fragments (Rockefeller Center, the U.N. Building), and irrational phenomena (Radio City Music Hall)." Koolhaas interprets and reinterprets the dynamic relationship between architecture and culture in a number of telling episodes of New York's history, including the imposition of the Manhattan grid, the creation of Coney Island, and the development of the skyscraper.

Delirious New York is also packed with intriguing and fun facts and illustrated with witty watercolors and quirky archival drawings, photographs, postcards, and maps. The spirit of this visionary investigation of Manhattan equals the energy of the city itself.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781580934107
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Publication date: 07/01/2014
Pages: 320
Product dimensions: 6.50(w) x 1.50(h) x 9.50(d)

About the Author

Rem Koolhaas is the internationally known architect, a founder of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (O.M.A.) in Rotterdam, and author of the critically acclaimed S,M,L,XL.

Table of Contents

Delirious New YorkIntroduction
Prehistory
Coney Island: The Technology of the Fantastic

The Double Life of Utopia: The Skyscraper
The Frontier in the Sky
The Skyscraper Theorists
The Lives of a Block: The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and the Empire State Building
Definitive Instability: The Downtown Athletic Club

How Perfect Perfection Can Be: The Creation of Rockefeller Center
The Talents of Raymond Hood
All the Rockefeller Centers
Radio City Music Hall: The Fun Never Sets
Kremlin on Fifth Avenue
2 Postscripts

Europeans: Biuer! Dali and Le Corbusier Conquer New York
Postmortem
Appendix: A Fictional Conclusion
Notes
Acknowledgments
Credits

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