Posh Portals: The Entrances to New York's Grandest Apartment Buildings
Description
An illustrated tour of the elegant entrances to New York City’s most celebrated apartment houses
This handsome, oversized book introduces us to the grandest entrances of New York City’s residential buildings. These posh portals come in an array of forms and styles, such as the porte cochère, with a passage to admit carriages or motor cars; the classic awning, originally meant to be retracted in good weather; and Neoclassical, Romanesque, and Gothic revivals.
Architectural historian Andrew Alpern highlights approximately 140 entrances, from the nineteenth century to the present, including those of the Dakota, the first true luxury apartment house in New York; San Remo, one of Central Park West’s most impressive apartment houses; and the Ansonia, at one time the largest hotel in the world. Each entrance is accompanied by a description of its signal features and the history of the building that surrounds it. All are represented in splendid color photographs, and many by charming watercolor drawings.
These ornate entrances offer a glimpse into New York’s past, as well as its future—for today, once again, entryways have begun to feature heavily in the marketing of residential buildings. Posh Portals will be an inspiration for architects and a delight for city dwellers.
Praise for Posh Portals: The Entrances to New York's Grandest Apartment Buildings
Posh Portals is a quintessential coffee table book, brimming with beautiful photographs of some of New York City’s most striking facades, and it is just as elegant. Architectural historian and architect Alpern, an expert on historic New York apartment buildings.
— Booklist
[A] sumptuous new book. . . With its ornate title, minutely detailed photographs, by Kenneth Grant, and whimsical watercolor drawings, by Simon Fieldhouse, Posh Portals is a coffee-table bonbon.
— The New York Times
Architectural historian Alpern (The Dakota) provides a detailed look at ornate entrances to some of New York City’s most impressive and historic residential buildings in this lavish book. . . [A] stylish, sophisticated look at the homes of New York City’s upper crust.
— Publishers Weekly
Architectural historian Andrew Alpern is a treasure to the city of New York, so it’s no surprise that his latest opus is a metropolitan dream. Posh Portals tells the story of Manhattan over the centuries in the most original and delightful way. I devoured each page, filled with stunning photos, detailed illustrations, and, above all, Alpern’s astute observations.
— Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Lions of Fifth Avenue - Author Review
