Save NYC’s Rizzoli bookstore

Rizzoli Bookstore on West 57th Street, in New York City. (cn.hypebeast.com)

Rizzoli Bookstore on West 57th Street, in New York City. (cn.hypebeast.com)

The Rizzoli Bookstore is the in the middle. (trendhunter.com)

The Rizzoli Bookstore is the in the middle. (trendhunter.com)

I don’t see many petitions I’m inclined to sign but I signed one just a few moments ago. It was a petition to save the building that houses the publisher Rizzoli’s flagship store in a glorious old building on West 57th St. I visited only once, three years ago, but it was with my little boy Billy, who was 2 at the time. We went for a walk down the block and, since I’ve long loved Rizzoli’s list, we popped in. I’d had no idea it had such a wonderful store in a building fully worthy of the elegance of the books it publishes.

Dad and Billy, 2, on W57th, near Rizzoli

Dad and Billy, 2, near Rizzoli

How the New York Landmarks Commission can assert that the building is not worth saving is beyond me. I have not read, at this moment, what is expected to replace it (and the two equally lovely flanking buildings), in all likelihood a ghastly glass residential tower. I do know that tearing these buildings down would be a desecration of the city, and – if the commission has not lost its credibility long ago – of its preservation apparat.

What will the new mayor do? Anything?

Sign this petition. Right here! Many thanks to Gerald Forsburg for posting the petition to the TradArch list!

About David Brussat

This blog was begun in 2009 as a feature of the Providence Journal, where I was on the editorial board and wrote a weekly column of architecture criticism for three decades. Architecture Here and There fights the style wars for classical architecture and against modern architecture, no holds barred. History Press asked me to write and in August 2017 published my first book, "Lost Providence." I am now writing my second book. My freelance writing on architecture and other topics addresses issues of design and culture locally and globally. I am a member of the board of the New England chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, which bestowed an Arthur Ross Award on me in 2002. I work from Providence, R.I., where I live with my wife Victoria, my son Billy and our cat Gato. If you would like to employ my writing and editing to improve your work, please email me at my consultancy, dbrussat@gmail.com, or call 401.351.0457. Testimonial: "Your work is so wonderful - you now enter my mind and write what I would have written." - Nikos Salingaros, mathematician at the University of Texas, architectural theorist and author of many books.
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1 Response to Save NYC’s Rizzoli bookstore

  1. Mary Elliott says:

    Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Social media at it’s best. I’ve signed and shared. xoxo Cousin Mary

    Like

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