A History of Housing in New York is an indispensable book, and not just for those interested specifically in housing in NYC. If your subject is the history of New York City or urban housing anywhere, Richard Plunz's book is a 'must read'. It provides an expert introduction to a touchstone New York issue, the supply and affordability of housing, and incisively surveys an inventive portfolio of solutions to dense, urban living.
Hillary Ballon, New York University Richard Plunz's landmark history offers a critical overview of how the complex and often pioneering housing industry has developed in the great metropolis of New York City. His new preface and chapter, which cover the last 25 years, enable readers to understand how the current housing reality came into being and what the future might hold for it. New York City, Plunz explains, plays the role the American frontier had played in the American imagination in the nineteenth century, the opening of the door to possibility...it must continue to do so.
Kenneth T. Jackson, Columbia University Plunz provides an erudite, revealing, and relentlessly engaging portrait of a great urban place and its people. One would think the recollection of so many cycles of high-mindedness, ruthless exploitation, and damned foolishness would only exacerbate the discouragement we feel in the face of the intractable housing problems of our times. Somehow, that is not the case, for one is more impressed by the energy and the ingenuity, and the funny mix of social vision and business acumen upon which New York has been so unsatisfactorily but magnificently built.
Kent Barwick, President, The Municipal Art Society of New York