10 Years After Katrina, Book Talk by Roberta Brandes Gratz

 

Above: Photo of Uptown New Orleans by Eric Bouler  

Please join LANDMARK WEST! as we remember Hurricane Katrina (2005)
and celebrate 10 years of steady urban regeneration 

in the historic city of New Orleans.

Wednesday, September 9, 6:30PM
A Book Talk by Roberta Brandes Gratz*

award-winning journalist, urban critic and author of the newly released
We're Still Here Ya Bastards: How the People of New Orleans Rebuilt Their City

Book Culture on Columbus**
450 Columbus Avenue (between 81st & 82nd Streets)

Tickets $15 ($10 for members of LW!)
RSVP - space is limited
landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org or (212) 496-8110
or reserve online through Eventbrite

Talk followed by book signing and reception
Books available for purchase from Book Culture

On August 29, 2005, an ill wind swept across New Orleans. Her name was Katrina.

So begins RBG's riveting account of a historic city's near-destruction and, against all odds, rebirth. "Cities are never lacking in wise, energetic, passionate, and dedicated citizens who know how to rebuild their communities. New Orleans has more than its share of such citizens. They are the ones most responsible for their city's recovery."
 

What others are saying:

"Gratz provides a moving chronicle of the efforts of a real people to rebuild their battered city in the fact of bad engineering, cynical politicians, incompetent bureaucrats and greedy developers...This book is an absolute must read for anyone who cares about the future of our communities and nation."
- Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class and professor at NYU 

"In this powerful book, Roberta Brandes Gratz turns her deep understanding of the work of Jane Jacobs into an astonishing account of how imaginative community activists like Jacobs emerge and grow in the wake of a disaster like Katrina. In virtually every domain of urban life-in housing, health care, education, economic development, and environmental protection-she discovers New Orleanians... A masterpiece of reportage and analysis!"
- Richard Rabinowitz, Phd, President, American History Workshop



*ABOUT ROBERTA BRANDES GRATZ
A Greenwich Villager by birth; a world traveler, lecturer and writer by profession; and an Upper West Sider by choice, Roberta Brandes Gratz began her preservation journey as a copy girl and went on to pen an award-winning-and game-changing series of articles probing the city's then-nascent landmarks process for the New York Post in 1973. Her coverage led directly to strengthening the Landmarks Law and set the stage for protecting more than 25,000 places covered by the Law in the years since. With Jane Jacobs, she founded The Center for the Living City. As a member of the Landmarks Preservation Commission from 2003 to 2010, and right on till today, Roberta is an outspoken defender of the New York's historic neighborhoods, including her own beloved West Side. She splits her time between New York and New Orleans. (for more about Roberta, visit www.robertabrandesgratz.com)

**ABOUT BOOK CULTURE
"As Upper West Siders, we want to start turning the tide right here in our own community, on a current trend that sees independent bookstores - and the power of choice that comes along with them - disappearing at an alarming rate. As New Yorkers, we want to do our part to make sure that our city's rich history and reputation for being home to writers, publishing houses, editors, and bookstores, remains intact - as does our city's position as the literary capital of the world." (excerpted from www.bookculture.com)

How Architecture Works: A Humanist's Toolkit - An Illustrated Talk and Book Signing with Witold Rybczynski

 

How Architecture Works: A Humanist's Toolkit

An Illustrated Talk and Book Signing with Witold Rybczynski
With an introduction by Jacob Weisberg*

welcoming remarks by Kate Wood 

 Tuesday, October 28, 2014 6:30 PM 

 Macaulay Honors College, 35 West 67 Street

   

  

How Architecture Works is a humanist's toolkit for thinking about the built environment and seeing it afresh. In his book, Rybczynski says, "Most architecture, a backdrop for our everyday lives, is experienced in bits and pieces - the glimpsed view of a distant spire, the intricacy of a wrought-iron railing, the soaring space of a railroad station waiting room. Sometimes it's just a detail, a well-shaped door handle, a window framing a perfect little view, a rosette carved into a chapel pew. And we say to ourselves, 'How nice. Someone actually thought of that.'"

  

Modern architecture runs the gamut from fantasy to engineering to retro. This book introduces readers to the rich and varied world of contemporary design, and takes them behind the scenes, showing how architects as varied as Philip Johnson, Frank Gehry, Renzo Piano and Robert A. M. Stern work their magic. From a war memorial in London to an opera house in St. Petersburg, from the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, to an architect's private retreat in downtown Princeton, Rybczynski explains the central elements that constitute good building design.

"...ever the engaging and thoughtful writer, [Rybczynski] offers a wide-ranging tour of the glories and curiosities, old and new, in the field."  -  Washington Post

 

"[This] expert, holistic, down-to-earth guide awakens us to architecture's profound humanness."  -  Booklist

*Jacob Weisberg is the Chairman of The Slate Group. He is a writer, editor, and political commentator, whose work has been featured in Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine and Newsweek. He is also the author of The Bush Tragedy, a 2008 New York Times bestseller.

Tickets are $20 for LW! members; $25 for non-members;

To inquire about your membership status and/or to purchase tickets

email landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org, or call (212) 496-8110. 

You may also buy tickets online via Eventbrite.

 

 

It's a Twofer! World Trade Center and Grand Central Lecture and Book Signing

1978 image of the World Trade Center by Balthazar Korab. Korab was one of the leading architectural photographers in the period after World War II. He died at the age of 86 and his life was remembered in the New York Times obituaries on January 27th, 2013. 

The World Trade Center 

Illustrated Lecture and Book Signing

with West-Sider Anthony W. Robins

Wednesday, February 20th, 2013 at 6:00PM

Macaulay Honors College at CUNY

35 West 67th Street

From David W. Dunlap's 12/3/2012 New York Times review of The World Trade Center: "Mr. Robins's collection evokes this same [upbeat] spirit and adds a rich dimension to trade center history."

Originally published in 1987 while the Twin Towers still stood--brash and controversial, a new symbol of the city and the country--Robins's book offered the first serious consideration of the planning and design of the World Trade Center.  A decade after the disaster, a new World Trade Center is rising on the site. 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. 

Space is Limited. Reservations Required! 

$20 for "Steward" members, $25 for non-members 

2-for-1 Admission for "Partners" and above members

It's a twofer*! Robins will return in March 2013 for an illustrated slide lecture celebrating the arrival of his new book, the hot-off-the-press Grand Central Terminal: 100 Years of a New York Landmark. Attend two slide lectures for the price of one! For more information about the World Trade Center and Grand Central Terminal books and about Anthony W. Robins, visit 

his website.

To inquire about your membership status and/or to purchase tickets email landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org, or call 212-496-8110

*A coupon offering two items, especially tickets for a play, for the price of one.