History of the UWS Apartment House PLUS A-round Columbus Circle 
**2 Great Programs in 1 Afternoon. LW! Partner Members 2-for-1 Tickets**

Thursday, November 29th, 1:00pm - 4:30pm
Macaulay Honors College, 35 W. 67th Street  2nd Floor Screening Room

                                                                                                      photo: Stephen Harmon

When the Dakota was built in 1884, it was the first luxury apartment house on the Upper West Side.  It stood alone for a few years, as the upper middle classes decided what they thought about those "French" ways of apartment living - but soon the answer to the "domestic problem" (allowing the building management to handle maid and dining services, for instance) and an assortment of outré amenities helped launch apartment house development in a big way.  The "West Side Boom" of the late 19th/early 20th centuries changed the look and feel of the UWS forever.  Many grand mansions along Riverside Drive that looked set to last a century were gone in a decade.  West End Avenue was transformed from a line of row houses into one of the city's great apartment house thoroughfares.  

Social historian Tom Miller (aka the "Daytonian in Manhattan") traces the history of how the Upper West Side became a hotbed of NYC apartment architecture and culture. He'll take us on a fascinating journey from tenements to French flats, residence hotels to transitional hotel-to-apartment buildings. Learn how legislation guaranteeing light and air (what a concept!) combined with changing styles of living and the arrival of the Broadway IRT subway brought about the end of rowhouse construction and created today's uniquely recognizable Upper West Side landscape.  Spoiler alert:  There will be fab photos and histories of many of the UWS's greatest apartment buildings!

The afternoon continues with...

LW! Executive Director Sean Khorsandi is our guide for the development of lower Central Park West, beginning with Columbus Circle.  He'll take us on a virtual walk (via glorious historic photos - no boots or umbrellas needed) a-round the Circle (get it?) and up CPW.  We'll return to the days when The Circle had eight(!) entrances/exits and traffic moved in both directions.  Remember the New York Coliseum and Automobile Row?  We'll spin from the T***p Tower to buildings by Hardenbergh, Stern, Candella and Roth, learning more about the architectural and social legacy of buildings of various eras and styles along lower Central Park West, one of NYC's finest residential streets. 

There's no more enjoyable way to explore the architectural history of the Upper West Side than with Landmark West!  

Note: This is a special afternoon of two programs that are offered as Continuing Education Credit for real estate professionals, but the public is very welcome to enjoy them, too! Real estate professionals can receive receive New York State certification for 3.0 hours of study approved by the Secretary of State in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 868 of the Laws of 1977. 

Speakers

Tom Miller, a historian and preservationist, is the voice of “Daytonian in Manhattan”, a hugely popular blog started seven years ago, in which he has covered more than 2,000 Manhattan buildings, statues, fountains and “other points of interest that make Manhattan fascinating”.  He is the author of Seeking New York: The Stories Behind the Historic Architecture of Manhattan--One Building at a Time (Pimpernel Press, 2015).   He is currently working on a companion book, Seeking Chicago. 

Sean Khorsandi is the Executive Director of LANDMARK WEST!. He earned his Bachelor's of Architecture degree at the Cooper Union and his Master’s of Architecture from Yale University, where he assisted in processing the Eero Saarinen archive. He spent a decade working as an architectural designer and project manager, and two years as Director of Advocacy for LW!  He teaches courses on the history and theory of architecture at the New York Institute of Technology and is completing a book on Paul Rudolph.