Beyond Architecture: The New New York

Beyond Architecture: The New New York is a volume of new essays to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the passage of the New York City Landmarks Law. The law created the Landmarks Preservation Commission and initiated the era of historic preservation in New York City. Today, the agency oversees more than 39,000 buildings and sites throughout New York City, with the mandate to preserve the cultural and historical legacy of the built environment.

This collection will explore various aspects of the impact, legacy, and current and future status of historic preservation. The essays represent a wide range of disciplines and are written by architectural critics, city planners, engineers, landscape architects, historians, scholars, journalists, and critical thinkers, each uniquely placed to understand and explore this challenging topic. Among the contributors are Paul Goldberger, Adam Gopnik, A. O. Scott, Justin Davidson, and Michael Kimmelman.

The contributors consider how historic preservation has transformed New York City, how historic preservation is viewed today, and how historic preservation should or could be transformed to respond to a changing city. This new New York, in all its complexity, must take part in the future of historic preservation in order for the city to thrive.

The book will include photographs by New York Times photo editor Sara Barrett.