Figures in Stone: Architectural Sculpture in New York City

Combining two previously published photo collections, Figures in Stone (2008) and Animals in Stone (2009), architect King surveys the countless human and animal figures that adorn buildings throughout the city in this wonderful pictorial guide to architecture detail in New York City. Many of the stone busts showcased are products of the Eclecticism architectural movement spanning from the early-19th century to the mid-20th century. Some of the humans are well-known figures, such as painters Rembrandt and Whistler, who appear on a building on East 39th Street, or Theodore Roosevelt, who appears on the facade of a building on Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. in Harlem. Many others are much more mythological, figures of kings, satyrs, and sirens. The stone menagerie is also varied, with squirrels, lions, eagles, rams, dogs, and a doughty turtle. Some have deeper associations; owls adorn schools in their wisdom, and snakes appear in caducei on medical buildings. Architectural historian Barry Lewis notes in the volume’s foreword, “Human ‘head-shots,’ animals of every kind, abstract arabesques, ‘grotesques’ that laughed at us or the human condition—all were acceptable to make the building special.” Most are just grand caprices of ornament for the passerby who happens to look up—or at this book. B&w photos. (May)