The World Trade Center (Classics of American Architecture)

by Anthony W. Robins

Overview

Originally published in 1987 while the Twin Towers still stood - brash and controversial, a new symbol of the city and the country - this book offered the first serious consideration of the planning and design of the World Trade Center. It benefited from interviews with figures still on the scene, and archival documents still available for study. Many of those interviewed, and many of the documents, are gone. But even if they remained available today, it would be impossible now to write this book from the same perspective. Too much has happened here. In this, the tenth anniversary year of the disaster, a new World Trade Center is rising on the site. We can finally begin to imagine life returning, with thousands of people streaming into the new buildings to work or conduct business, and thousands more, from all over the world, coming to visit the new memorial. It is only natural, then, that we will find ourselves thinking about what life was like in the original Center. This new edition of the book - expanded to include copies of some of the documents upon which the text was based - is offered as a memory of the World Trade Center as it once was. It is also offered as a reminder of a more innocent time, when the Center stood as a symbol, certainly, of hubris, wealth and power, but also of the conviction that in New York City, Americans could do anything to which they set their minds.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940148615835
Publisher:	Thompson & Columbus, Inc.
Publication date:	08/08/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	182
File size:	18 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

ANTHONY W. ROBINS is an historian and writer who specializes in the architecture of New York City. He holds a Masters Degree in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, and was the winner of a 1997 Rome Prize. During a 20-year-long career at the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, he served as Deputy Director of Research and Director of Survey. Subway Style, his book on the art and architecture of the New York subway written for the New York Transit Museum, was published in 2004; most recently he wrote Grand Central Terminal: 100 Years of a New York Landmark, commemorating the Terminal's 2013 centennial. The World Trade Center (Classics of American Architecture), originally published in 1987, has been called the first serious book on the subject. A life-long New Yorker, Mr. Robins lives with his wife on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Editorial Reviews

Mr. Robins’s collection [of original documents] ...adds a rich dimension to trade center history.

New York Times, December 3, 2012 - David Dunlap

Any detailed account of the architectural history of the World Trade Center must rely on the work of Anthony W. Robins.

Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center - Angus Gillespie