Artist and editor of the new book The New York City Museum of Complaint Matthew Bakkom and Tamara Coombs of MAS take us on a nostalgic, yet grumpy, journey through New York City’s archives looking at letters of complaint to the Mayor from 1751 to 1969.

Ranging in subject from the removal of dead animals to lost baseballs to accusations of corruption, the book’s 132 letters not only chronicle issues affecting New Yorkers through the ages but also the development of their voice as citizens.

Join us on Tuesday, December 1, at 7:00 p.m. when Bakkom will be joined by director of the NYC Municipal Archives Kenneth Cobb and celebrated writer, poet and native New Yorker Philip Lopate who will read from selected letters from the book. Reservations and prepayment are recommended. Purchase tickets online or call 212-935-2075. A reception will follow the program during which signed copies of the book will be available from the MAS bookstore, Urban Center Books. Continue Reading>>

Pioneering architect, planner and theorist Denise Scott Brown brings her singular perspective to MAS on November 12 for what is sure to be a lively evening. Ms. Brown, who was educated in the 1940s and 1950s at Witwatersrand University in South Africa, the Architectural Association, and the University of Pennsylvania, has taught and led her Philadelphia firm, Venturi Scott Brown and Associates since the 1960s in collaboration with Robert Venturi.

“I have come to feel like a grandmother in architecture, a guardian of its institutional memory who knows its pitfalls and where the bodies are buried.”
– Denise Scott Brown

Following a short talk about her new book, Having Words, Denise Scott Brown will be joined by architects Sarah Whiting and Hilary Sample for a panel discussion moderated by Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at MoMA.

Denise Scott Brown: 40 Years of Evolving Architectural Imagination
Thursday, November 12, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m., at MAS, 457 Madison Avenue
Free, but reservations required. Reserve your place online or call 212-935-2075. MAP.
This program is underwritten by Elise Jaffe + Jeffrey Brown.

Last Monday evening, MAS welcomed Anthony Flint, author of the new book Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York’s Master Builder and Transformed the American City, who gave an engaging lecture on the clash between these two influential figures.

Flint portrays their battle as the ultimate David-and-Goliath story: Jacobs was the quirky “girl from Scranton” who shunned academics and would later turn down an honorary degree from Harvard. Moses was the “master builder” who graduated from Yale, continued his studies at Oxford, and returned from England with an affected English accent. He wielded his power through appointed positions, while she used savvy activism to mobilize the community and to court both the media and up-and-coming politicians like Ed Koch. Continue Reading>>

Lynden Miller was a painter with a passion for plants when Betsy Rogers, as administrator of Central Park and head of the Central Park Conservatory, handed her an assignment: restore the Conservatory Garden at 105th St. and Fifth Ave. That was 1982, when that end of the park was often considered dangerous. In addition to restoring the garden, Lynden was also charged with raising the money to do it and finding a way to bring people back to it. The Conservatory Garden was the beginning of her career as a public garden designer. Gardens all over town followed, including those at Bryant, Wagner, and Madison Square parks.

Now Lynden Miller has written a book, Parks, Plants and People, which tells others how public gardens can be created, including a resource directory on everything from the art of garden design to park advocacy and funding sources, plus a plant list of those she has found to be hardy, reliable and relatively low-maintenance. She dedicates the book to William H. Whyte, from whom she learned the elements of a successful public space. In addition to practical advice, Lynden Miller provides telling anecdotes. When a taxi driver dropping her at the Conservatory Garden in the early 1980s expressed concern for her safety, she invited him to accompany her into the partially restored garden, where the crab apples were in bloom. One down.

This Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m., join us at the Municipal Art Society for an engaging and inspirational talk with Ms. Miller, buy an autographed book at a 25% discount, and talk with fellow urban garden lovers over a glass of something refreshing. $15, $10 MAS members. Reservations recommended. Purchase tickets online or call 212-935-3960. MAP.

Join author Randall Mason tomorrow night at MAS for the launch of his new book The Once and Future New York and a discussion of the emergence of historic preservation in New York urbanism.

In the popular imagination, the controversial 1963 demolition of Pennsylvania Station gave birth to New York City’s historic preservation movement, but, as the author reveals, historic preservation has been a persistent force in the development of New York since the 1890s, when the city’s leading politicians, planners, and architects first recognized the need to preserve the rapidly evolving city’s past.

Rich with archival research, The Once and Future New York documents the emergence of historic preservation in New York at the turn of the twentieth century.

The Once and Future New York
Tuesday, June 9, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m.
$15, $10 MAS members. Purchase tickets online or call 212-935-2075.
Sponsored by Urban Center Books, the MAS bookstore.

Travel back in time on Tuesday night to 1609 when Manhattan was home to thousands of species, over fifty-five ecosystems, and the Lenape, who called the island “Mannahatta,” meaning “island of many hills.” Coinciding with this year’s quadricentennial of Henry Hudson’s arrival on the shores of Manhattan, the new book Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City, reconstructs, in words and images, the wild island as it existed 400 years ago.

Join landscape ecologist and author Eric Sanderson and illustrator Markley Boyer as they discuss the decade of work that is behind this astounding work, offering readers a unique window into the ecological history of New York and inspiration for green cities and wild places of the future.

Book Launch with Eric Sanderson, author, and Markley Boyer, illustrator
Tuesday, May 5, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m., at the Municipal Art Society
FREE, but reservations required. RSVP online or call 212-935-2075

There are still a few tickets left for tonight’s lecture by architectural historian Francis Morrone on the architecture and history of New York’s main street, Broadway. This program will be illustrated with photographs from different periods in the life of this unique urban thoroughfare, from Bowling Green to the Harlem River.

Though a fascinating subject in its own right, tonight’s focus is to provide context for the current photographic exhibition By Way of Broadway: New York Photographs by Cervin Robinson, on display at MAS through Thursday, May 7.

Tickets for tonight’s lecture are $15, $10 MAS members. Purchase them online or call 212-935-2075, and for more information about the exhibit and gallery hours, visit www.mas.org/exhibitions.

In this podcast, architectural historian John Kriskiewicz talks to Tamara Coombs of MAS about his April 2 lecture, The 100th Birthday of Two Great Bridges: The Queensborough & The Manhattan, celebrating the centennial of the Manhattan and Queensboro Bridges, and explains why their construction marks New York’s metamorphosis from an island city to a modern metropolis.

Join MAS as we celebrate the centennial of two of the eras great bridges with a lecture and two walks across the neighborhoods they transformed. $15, $10 MAS members. Purchase tickets online or call 212-935-2075.

MAS is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition, By Way of Broadway: New York Photographs by Cervin Robinson, next Thursday, March 26. One of the most widely-published architectural photographers working today, Cervin Robinson began taking photographs at the encouragement of his father, an architect, when he was twelve, and this collection explores New York’s visual landscape comprising thirty views of the 17-mile length of Manhattan’s main street taken over the course of three decades.

The exhibition opens with a reception at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 25, at MAS. The event is free but reservations are required. RSVP online or call 212-935-2075. By Way of Broadway will be on display at MAS galleries through Wednesday, May 6, and the galleries are open to the public Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday: 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., and closed at all other times. Continue Reading>>

Architect and author Adam Kalkin will present his recent book Quik Build: Adam Kalkin’s ABC of Container Architecture on Tuesday, March 3 at 7:00 p.m., hosted by the Municipal Art Society’s bookstore Urban Center Books. His presentation will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Alastair Gordon, and featuring Barry Bergdoll, K. Michael Hayes and Mr. Kalkin, on the evolving identity of the architect through periods of crisis and confidence.

Kalkin’s iconic Quik House is one of the most viable pre-fabricated systems available today, providing  spacious dwelling and customized elements with the most efficient reduction of both energy waste and cost. Projects include his Refugee Village and FEMA housing concepts.

Quik Build: Adam Kalkin’s ABC of Container Architecture will be sold exclusively through Urban Center Books the night of the lecture. A special “scented” edition will be available in limited quantities. Continue Reading>>