Books of the Year

Manhattan in Maps: 1527-1995 by Paul E. Cohen and Robert T. Augustyn (Rizzoli)

Terra-Cotta Skyline: New York's Architectural Ornament by Susan Tunick and Peter Mauss (Princeton Architectural Press)

The jury on Manhattan in Maps:

The illustrations of the maps (many never published before) are lapidary, the weight and touch of the volume's pages a voluptuous pleasure. It is the text, however, brilliantly describing the mind set of the different era's map-makers which makes this book extraordinarily valuable.

The jury on Terra-Cotta Skyline:

Through her patient documentation over fifteen years, with the help of Peter Mauss's astutely positioned camera lens and consummate photographic artistry, Susan Tunick has made a ubiquitous but often unnoticed element of the New York City streets dramatically and enticingly visible to the average New Yorker.