New York 2020

Robert A.M. Stern is founding partner of Robert A.M. Stern Architects and former Dean of the Yale School of Architecture. He is the author of more than twenty other books, including Paradise Planned, Pedagogy and Place, and his incisive memoir, Between Memory and Invention: My Journey in Architecture (Monacelli, 2021).David Fishman is a coauthor of New York 1880, New York 1960, New York 2000, and Paradise Planned. His next book will be a biography of the architect Erich Mendelsohn.Jacob Tilove is a coauthor of New York 2000 and Paradise Planned. RAMSA (Robert A.M. Stern Architects) is a leading international design firm that carries forward the ideals of connecting people to history, culture, and place through design.

‘An unexpected, obsessively detailed . . . 10.5-pound encyclopedia of buildings. . . New York 2020 reads as a comprehensive urban ledger.’ –The Architect's Newspaper‘The great metropolis of New York is getting what it deserves with Monacelli’s 745-page final installment in Robert A.M. Stern’s series on the city’s architecture and built environment.’ – 1stDibs Introspective‘The definitive history of New York’s architecture and urbanism... a remarkably pleasurable read that packs tons of information’ – The Chicago Tribune‘To call this nearly 7,000-page-long collection a colossus is to understate its scope. It is, without debate, the most comprehensive account of the city’s architecture available, but a case can also be made for its being one of the most significant works of architectural history ever produced.' – Architectural Record‘An exhaustive guide to the city’s continual transformation, chronicling not just the loud dramas around Manhattan’s major monuments but also changes to neighborhoods that get less scrutiny: the leopard enclosure at the Staten Island Zoo, a cluster of supportive housing in the Bronx, a wooden-roofed Zen center in Flushing.’ – Curbed‘[A]n encyclopedic look at New York’s defining twenty-first-century transformations’ – The Interior Review‘[A]n essential reference work that is simultaneously a grand tour.’– New Criterion‘This 1,500-page whopper is what would have been dubbed a doorstopper in days gone by. But if any city deserves a volume of such heft, surely it's New York.’ – The Australian: Travel + Luxury‘Bringing up to the present one of the most monumental works of architectural history ever created, this stunning compendium of the shapes that have arisen in New York City across the first two decades of the 21st century is a breathtaking tour de force: a unique and indispensable guide to the historical forces and architectural imaginings that transformed the cityscape of New York during a delirious period punctuated by more world historical crises than any comparable twenty year period in the city’s history. At a thousand and half pages, it is also a city in itself, in words, images and ideas, and for any student of New York or any walker in the city, it is a rapturous invitation to wander. To have such a biography, on this scale and with this ambition, of the physical form of the greatest city on earth is little short of a miracle.’ – Ric Burns, Filmmaker‘Robert Stern and his collaborators have created yet another gorgeous, definitive, delicious and nutritious chronicle as ‘unique, cosmopolitan, mighty and unparalleled’ (quoting E.B. White on New York) as its subject. A book to wander through, learn from, converse with, and treasure.’ – Kurt Andersen, author of Evil Geniuses and Fantasyland‘Readers will be awed by this stunning view of New York’s relentless dynamism.’ – Publishers Weekly, STARRED Review‘New York 2020 is a tour de force. Impressive in its comprehensive coverage enhanced by thousands of color photographs, this capstone volume of Robert Stern’s New York series deftly explains how development and preservation have shaped and reshaped the physical landscape in each of New York’s five boroughs. The broad community of urbanists, architects, and city planners, as well as New Yorkers curious to understand the architectural evolution of their neighborhood, will relish the insightful detail chronicling the city’s ever evolving change.’ – Lynne B. Sagalyn, Earle W. Kazis and Benjamin Schore Professor Emerita of Real Estate at Columbia School of Business and author of Power at Ground Zero: Politics, Money, and the Remaking of Lower Manhattan‘Architects, planners, developers, and perhaps even politicos will anxiously search the index of this book for their names— and they will find them. New York 2020 is an encyclopedic chronicle of two decades of architecture and urbanism, from Brooklyn Bridge Park to Hudson Yards and the supertalls. The good, the bad, and the, well you know; they’re all here.’ – Witold Rybczynski, author of The Story of Architecture.‘As the Second Millennium dawned, architectural history collided spectacularly with world history, when terrorists, alive to the symbolic power of the American skyscraper, obliterated New York City’s World Trade Center. It’s at that heart-stopping moment that this sixth and final volume of Robert A. M. Stern’s architectural history of New York takes up the tale, recounting how architects and city planners set about rebuilding and reinvigorating the metropolis in the two decades since. That multi-stranded saga, told by one of skyscraper architecture’s masters and his co-authors, makes this sumptuously illustrated and richly informative book a riveting capstone to an indispensable classic.’ – Myron Magnet, Editor-at-Large, City Journal