Figures in Stone: Architectural Sculpture in New York City

by Robert Arthur King

Overview

A delightful collection of quirky faces, figures, and creatures that adorn New York City buildings.

This gift-sized and attractively priced book for architecture buffs features more than two hundred imaginative sculptural details, from the domestic to the fantastic, with a brief introduction and contextual photos to show the building on which each ornament appears, the addresses, and transportation information. Contains the complete contents of King’s Faces in Stone and Animals in Stone, available for the first time in one decisive volume.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393712438
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	05/02/2017
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	1,155,538
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Robert Arthur King FAIA, is an architect, designer, writer, and a teacher at the New York School of Interior Design. He also appears in Stonefaced, a documentary about his photography of overlooked NYC architecture. He teaches at the New York School of Interior Design and lives in the Bronx.

Editorial Reviews

04/10/2017
Combining two previously published photo collections, Figures in Stone (2008) and Animals in Stone (2009), architect King surveys the countless human and animal figures that adorn buildings throughout the city in this wonderful pictorial guide to architecture detail in New York City. Many of the stone busts showcased are products of the Eclecticism architectural movement spanning from the early-19th century to the mid-20th century. Some of the humans are well-known figures, such as painters Rembrandt and Whistler, who appear on a building on East 39th Street, or Theodore Roosevelt, who appears on the facade of a building on Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. in Harlem. Many others are much more mythological, figures of kings, satyrs, and sirens. The stone menagerie is also varied, with squirrels, lions, eagles, rams, dogs, and a doughty turtle. Some have deeper associations; owls adorn schools in their wisdom, and snakes appear in caducei on medical buildings. Architectural historian Barry Lewis notes in the volume’s foreword, “Human ‘head-shots,’ animals of every kind, abstract arabesques, ‘grotesques’ that laughed at us or the human condition—all were acceptable to make the building special.” Most are just grand caprices of ornament for the passerby who happens to look up—or at this book. B&w photos. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"The figures take center stage in large photos – usually one to a page – but the book also includes small photos of the buildings they adorn, addresses, subway information, and helpful maps. With all this extra information, readers can venture out to see in person the faces that often go overlooked but which King has carefully trained his camera on."

The Daily Dose of Architecture

"[D]eserves a spot in two types of collections: arts holdings strong in architecture or sculpture, and any strong in the history of New York City. The former audience will appreciate some two hundred sculptural details that focus on the faces, figures and creatures that embellish NYC's buildings and the close-up black and white images throughout that capture these details, while fans of New York City history will welcome the historic background about how these were developed and placed throughout the city."

Midwest Book Review