I LEGO N.Y. is an imaginative new look at life in New York City constructed entirely out of LEGOs. The former New Yorker illustrator, Christoph Niemann, posted photographs of his creations along with his handwritten captions on his New York Times blog. Resident and honorary New Yorkers around the world responded enthusiastically to the clever and minimalist inventions, which captured both the iconic (the Empire State Building) and the mundane (man standing on a subway platform) in fewer LEGO pieces than one might think possible.

This book includes all of the original images, plus 13 new creations. The resulting collection is delightful in its simplicity and moving in its ability to capture the spirit of life in New York in so few strokes.

Published on March 1, 2010, by Abrams Image, and priced at $14.95, I LEGO N.Y. is available now for purchase online at www.urbancenterbooks.org, the MAS bookstore for architecture and design. MAS members receive 10% off all purchases at Urban Center Books. (Note: discount is deducted from total cost post-sale. You will see the reduced price on your credit card bill, not at check-out.) To become a member of MAS, visit MAS.org/membership.

The Municipal Art Society has moved to the Steinway Hall Building, 111 W. 57th Street, New York, NY 10019.  Our phone and fax numbers remain the same.

Urban Center Books will be open until January 23 at the Villard Houses, 457 Madison Avenue.  There is currently a pre-moving sale, with all stock 40% off.

If you don’t get a chance to say goodbye to the Villard Houses in person, you can read the lovely farewell to the Municipal Art Society at the Villard Houses in last week’s New York Times, available here.

As of Saturday, January 23, 2010, MAS’ bookstore, Urban Center Books, will close when we vacate the Villard Houses for the Steinway Hall Building at 111 W. 57th Street.

Until then, we are holding a sale with 40% off all stock. Print this voucher and bring it to the store to claim your discount. Come in today to take advantage of the sale in its final week. UCB stocks books on a diverse range of topics including, architecture, design, New York, landscape, urbanism, sustainability, interiors, construction, theory, magazines, journals, and much more.

We expect UCB to reopen in a new location in the fall. In the meantime, visit us at www.urbancenterbooks.org to order books and receive your MAS member discount.

MAS has much to celebrate and share with our members, friends and colleagues this holiday season. After more than 25 years in the Villard Houses, we are moving our headquarters to the Steinway Hall Building at 111 West 57th Street as of mid-January 2010.

So, join us on Thursday, December 10, from 6:00 p.m. for wine, beer, cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, music, and good cheer throughout the evening. President Vin Cipolla and Chairman David Childs will toast MAS and its future, and bid farewell Villard Houses and hello Steinway. Architectural historian and MAS tour leader Francis Morrone will give a brief talk about the history of the Villard Houses and of the Steinway Hall Building.

Then, from 8:00 -10:00 p.m., DJ’s will play, dancing will begin and party-goers can enjoy special discounts of 20% off all books in stock at the MAS bookstore, Urban Center Books, where staff will be on hand to offer personalized recommendations for holiday gift books and a complimentary copy of The Villard Houses: Life Story of a Landmark is available with each purchase. Intermittent tours of the building will also be given by Tamara Coombs, MAS director of tours and programs.

MAS Holiday Party
Thursday, December 10, 6:00 – 10:00 p.m.
At The Villard Houses, 457 Madison Avenue at E. 51st Street, MAP.
Tickets: Members $25 in advance, $35 at door; Non-members $40 in advance, $50 at door. Purchase tickets online or call 212-935-2075.

Growing out of the popular exhibit Unpacking My Library that looks at the book collections of some of the most influential architects working today is the new accompanying book Unpacking My Library: Architects and Their Books. Join moderator Barry Bergdoll, the Philip Johnson chief curator of design at MoMA, next Tuesday, December 8, at MAS, for the launch of this book and a fascinating discussion among renowned architects Stan Allen, Billie Tsien, Bernard Tschumi, and Tod Williams about their personal book collections and the importance of them to their careers.

Unpacking My Library is a publication of Urban Center Books, the MAS bookstore, and is published by Yale University Library. It is on sale now in the bookstore and copies are also available online at www.urbancenterbooks.org.

The exhibit Unpacking My Library is on display at MAS now through mid-January. For more information and gallery hours, click here.

Unpacking My Library: Architects and Their Books
Tuesday, December 8, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m., at MAS
$15, $10 MAS members. Reservations and pre-payment recommended. Purchase tickets online or call 212 935 2075. MAP.

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>>

Urban Center Books, the bookstore of the Muncipal Art Society, will close in January 2010, when we vacate the Villard Houses. MAS headquarters is relocating to the Steinway Building, at 111 West 57th Street, and a search for a new location for Urban Center Books (UCB) is underway.

Urban Center Books will be open in its present location throughout the holiday season, offering shoppers a diverse collection of books on architecture, design, New York, landscape design and urbanism.

We expect to reopen Urban Center Books in a new location by the fall. Urban Center Books will continue to have an online presence, at www.urbancenterbooks.org, and we hope our patrons visit us online until the store reopens. Check the UCB web site for updates on the move.

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.