NEW YORK 2000: ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM BETWEEN THE BICENTENNIAL AND THE MILLENNIUM

NEW YORK 2000: ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM BETWEEN THE BICENTENNIAL AND THE MILLENNIUM BY ROBERT A. M. STERN, DAVID FISHMAN, AND JACOB TILOVE NEW YORK: MONACELLI PRESS. 1,520 PAGES. $100.

Start Spreading the news: The final installment in Robert A. M. Stern, David Fishman, and Jacob Tilove's five-volume saga of Gotham's architectural and urban development, New York 2000, is a completist's ode to the city spanning twenty-five years, from 1976 to Y2K. Though that's only a quarter-century run, few urban centers can match the onslaught of change experienced by New York during that time. In the mid-'70s, it wasn't very fancy on old Delancey-the Apple was broke, the Bronx (and much of the Lower East Side) was burning, and the parks were open-air shooting galleries. Today, of course, New York is turning into an American version of Macao, completely unaffordable, with cranes clogging every avenue and million-dollar condos going up in Williamsburg. New York 2000 charts how we got from there to justabout here (the book stops short of the World Trade Center attacks, which makes its story seem already a bit dated). It covers the major developments throughout every corner of the city (the Disneyfication of Times Square, the development of Battery Park City) and those that failed (the rebuilding of the Williamsburg Bridge, Westway), while also profiling the city's presence on TV and in film, as well as in the writings of major architecture critics. All that is missing, really, is a section on New York in music, which might start with the Rolling Stones's "Shattered" and Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight," move through to Fear's "New York's Alright if You Like Saxophones" ("New York's alright if you wanna get pushed in front of a subway") and Kurtis Blow's "The Bronx," and conclude with Busta Rhymes's "New York Shit." This volume details how New York carried on-in the poet's words, with "pride and joy and greed and sex"; after all, that's what makes our town the best. -ERIC BANKS