New Collection Alert: The Public Buildings Inventory
While not as tall as the Empire State Building or as stolid as Grand Central Station, Public Buildings hold a great deal of sway in New York’s landscape. As bills and civic planning become buildings, the designers and architects of these structures end up greatly influencing our daily lives. In 1976, the New York Landmarks Conservancy released the Public Buildings Inventory, which photographed and cataloged over 760 federal, state, and city-owned buildings of architectural interest in New York City.
It seems obvious to say, but these public spaces shape our daily routines, going to school, jogging around a reservoir, as well as the more dramatic moments of our lives, those that occur in courtrooms and hospitals. Politicians and activists might ensure their creation, but it is the architects and city planners who actually design and build these spaces. By cataloging these Public Buildings, the New York Landmark Conservancy allows us to witness the legacy of centuries of Public building.
We can observe the transformation of courthouses from the High Victorian Gothic style of the Jefferson Market Courthouse to the colossal Art-Deco Criminal Courts building, as a changing city demanded greater utility. Furthermore, with the breadth of the collection, you witness how New York’s neighborhoods’ shape the building themselves. The buildings change with the areas around them.
Whether it is a stately Carnegie Library in the Seward Park or a cozy Prince’s Bay branch, the Public Building Collections shows the diversity of New York’s urban landscapes: a city that contains dense multitudes and sedate suburban sprawls. These buildings are vital in telling New York’s history. Beloved or notorious, beautiful or homely, civic structures often forming the nexuses of communities.
The Public Buildings Inventory brings another vital collection the Urban Archive map. It fills in the buildings, built for the city, that have long played crucial roles throughout the five boroughs. At the same time, it captures an era under-represented on Urban Archive: the 1970s. In doing both these things, the Public Buildings Inventory helps bring more of New York’s history to life on our map. Visit New York Landmarks Conservancy's page on Urban Archive here to explore their images and more of their content.
