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Rating: 
Summary: How LOST NEW YORK came to be revised
Review: I first wrote this book as a 27 year old living in New York. I revised it as a 63 year old living in London. A native New Yorker, I've now lived half my life elsewhere. So when I worked again on this book of mine that's been continually in print for over 30 years, I thought a slightly new approach was in order.The new LOST NEW YORK is less about the politics of preservation and change than the original edition was not just because the city is no longer my home, but because my real subject is memory. I try to explore why a city's places structure the lives of its inhabitants, and why certain moments have a powerful resonance for ourselves and many others. It seems to me that, as the countryside has seasons and cycles of life that run parallel to the lives of its human inhabitants, cities have a man-made counterpart: memorious places and events that shape our lives. LOST NEW YORK is full of amazing pictures of splendid lost places, but I feel that my real message is about the relations between urban places and ourselves, and why city dwellers must never lose sight of that or forget the wholeness it provides for us.
Rating: 
Summary: A Success on Two Counts
Review: IF the reviewer below is really Nathan Silver, I congratulate him on the shift of gears from his 1968 version of LOST NEW YORK to this one. (Even if it's not him, I congratulate him anyway.) The first edition was heavy on the preservation/conservation debate while this one is more reflective and personal. In both instances, however, Mr. Silver has made an incredible contribution to the study of New York history--not just its architecture, but to the thinking that went into the creation of these lost structures, and the lack of thinking that destroyed them. Like Jane Jacobs, Mr. Silver shares a passion for the city and how its monuments, public buildings and spaces, and private residences have a direct and fortifying effect on its citizens. The photographs are stunning, as is the quality of the printing. Mr. Silver's text is equally powerful and just as relevant. At times the effect of seeing these representations of a lost time, and reading about their ends, can be upsetting; the sense of loss is very powerful. But there is a point to all of it beyond the seeming nostalgia: we had better start appreciating those gems of the past that are still rooted in the schist of Manhattan before they wind up in the next edition of LOST NEW YORK. One last note: As rebuilding begins on the site of the World Trade Center (a part of lost New York that wasn't our fault), this book indirectly compels New Yorkers to participate in some forward-thinking. It makes one wonder, not only what was lost to us, but what will we give to future generations? Rocco Dormarunno,
author of THE FIVE POINTS
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Summary: The Past Recaptured
Review: Mr. Silver has a poetic prose style, revealing a most poetic soul, and frames his message of architectural conservation and adaptation through a highly effective personal lens of incredulity and nostalgia, articulating what most readers subconsciously knew but probably never take the time to think about: that architecture is the most accesible and inescapable reminder of urban culture at a given moment; that while culture evolves and architecture becomes artifact, these artifacts can often continue - through thoughtful planning and incentives - to live and to serve without economic detriment to their owners; and that rapacious, self-serving obliteration of our architectural past is the obliteration of cultural evolution and memory. I would like to see Mr. Silver now produce a companion volume to LOST NEW YORK, a book about what has been saved.
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Summary: Lost New York
Review: The book Lost New York by Nathan Silver is one of the best photo and information books ever writen. Old photos and information on land marks in New York City which have been torn down. Shows you how buitiful a city is but also how little care some people can have for it's treasures
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful book about lost buildings in NYC
Review: This wonderful book gives wonderful pictures and descriptions of lost buildings.
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