Elizabeth Macaulay

The first detailed study of "Neo-Antique" architecture applies an archeological lens to the study of the NYC's structures. 

Since the city's inception, New Yorkers have deliberately and purposefully engaged with ancient architecture to design and erect many of its most iconic buildings and monuments, including Grand Central Terminal and the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch in Brooklyn, as well as forgotten gems such as Snug Harbor on Staten Island and the Gould Memorial Library in the Bronx.  Antiquity in Gotham interprets the various ways ancient architecture was reconceived in New York City from the 18th century to the early 21st century. 

Contextualizing New York's Neo-Antique architecture within larger American architectural trends, author Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis applies an archeological lens to the study of the New York buildings that incorporated these various models in their design, bringing together these diverse sources of inspiration into a single continuum.  Antiquity in Gotham explores how ancient architecture communicated the political ideals of the new Republic through the adaptation of Greek and Roman architecture; how Egyptian temples conveyed the city's new technological achievements; and how the ancient Near East served many artistic masters, decorating the interiors of glitzy Gilded Age restaurants and the tops of skyscrapers. Rather than classifying neo-classical (and Greek Revival), Egyptianizing, and architecture inspired by the ancient Near East into distinct categories, the Neo-Antique framework considers the similarities and differences intellectually, conceptually, and chronologically amongst the reception of these different architectural traditions.

This fundamentally interdisciplinary project draws upon all available evidence and archival materials such as the letters and memos of architects and their patrons, and the commentary in contemporary newspapers and magazines to provide a lively multi-dimensional analysis that examines not only the city's ancient buildings and rooms themselves, but also how New Yorkers envisaged them, lived in them, talked about them, and reacted to them. Antiquity offered New Yorkers architecture with flexible aesthetic, functional, cultural, and intellectual resonances whether it be the democratic ideals of Periclean Athens, the technological might of Pharaonic Egypt, or the majesty of Imperial Rome. The result of these dialogues with ancient architectural forms was the creation of innovative architecture that has defined New York City's skyline throughout its history.

During the rise of New York from the capital of an upstart nation to a global metropolis, the visual language of Greek and Roman antiquity played a formative role in the development of the city’s art and architecture. This compilation of essays offers a survey of diverse reinterpretations of classical forms in some of New York’s most iconic buildings, public monuments, and civic spaces.

Classical New York examines the influence of Greco-Roman thought and design from the Greek Revival of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries through the late-nineteenth-century American Renaissance and Beaux Arts period and into the twentieth century’s Art Deco. At every juncture, New Yorkers looked to the classical past for knowledge and inspiration in seeking out new ways to cultivate a civic identity, to design their buildings and monuments, and to structure their public and private spaces.
 
Specialists from a range of disciplines―archaeology, architectural history, art history, classics, and history― focus on how classical art and architecture are repurposed to help shape many of New York City’s most evocative buildings and works of art. Federal Hall evoked the Parthenon as an architectural and democratic model; the Pantheon served as a model for the creation of Libraries at New York University and Columbia University; Pennsylvania Station derived its form from the Baths of Caracalla; and Atlas and Prometheus of Rockefeller Center recast ancient myths in a new light during the Great Depression.
 
Designed to add breadth and depth to the exchange of ideas about the place and meaning of ancient Greece and Rome in our experience of New York City today, this examination of post-Revolutionary art, politics, and philosophy enriches the conversation about how we shape space―be it civic, religious, academic, theatrical, or domestic―and how we make use of that space and the objects in it.

Macaulay-Lewis is an assistant professor of liberal studies and the acting executive officer of the M.A. Program in Liberal Studies at The Graduate Center.

One of the largest and most important palatial houses of late 18th- and early 19th-century Damascus belonged to the Farhi family, who served as financial administrators to successive Ottoman governors in Damascus and Acre. The conversion of Bayt Farhi to a hotel provided a unique opportunity to make a detailed examination of its architecture, which is comparable to those of affluent Christians and Muslims, and decorated with high quality materials in the latest styles.

Bayt Farhi's outstanding architecture and decoration is documented and presented in this first comprehensive analysis of it and Damascus's other prominent Sephardic mansions Matkab 'Anbar, Bayt Dahdah, Bayt Stambouli, and Bayt Lisbona. Lavishly illustrated with extensive color photographs, plans, and reconstruction drawings the book brings to life the home environment of the lost elite Sephardic community of Ottoman Damascus. It will be an essential resource for those studying the architecture, history, and culture of Syria and the Ottoman Empire. Co-published with Manar al-Athar, University of Oxford.

Katharine T. von Stackelberg and Elizabeth Macaulay Lewis, editors

This book offers the first major study of the reception of ancient (Classical and Egyptian) architecture to focus on domestic space in a holistic way, combining studies on exterior façades and streetscapes, interior decoration, and landscaping. It proposes the Neo-antique" as a new framework through which to analyze the reception of ancient architectural styles rather than simply Neo-Classical or Neo-Egyptian. And it supplies a variety of critical interpretative frameworks via case studies that move reception studies beyond the field of textual analysis into material culture.