History, Natural History & the Arts
New York City’s fountains are more than just decorative features — they are historical landmarks, cultural icons, and dynamic works of art that shape the city’s landscape.
In Fabulous Fountains of New York (Fordham University Press, 2025) award-winning author and native New Yorker Stephanie Azzarone takes readers on a captivating journey through the artistry, history, and hidden stories behind these remarkable waterworks. [Read more…] about A New Guide to the Fabulous Fountains of New York
What follows is a July 15, 1871 Scientific American article about the opening of Manhattan’s Grand Central Depot, a predecessor to the current Grand Central Terminal, built on the site of a previous 42nd Street Station. This structure was later expanded and became known as Grand Central Station before its final reincarnation as the current Grand Central Terminal in 1913:
Among all our large commercial buildings, the railroad depots are those of which New Yorkers have least cause to be proud. Discomfort, shabbiness, and dirt, concentrated in ill-ventilated structures, have generally hitherto been all the accommodation to the public that our railroad kings have seen fit to give. [Read more…] about 1871: The New Grand Central Depot at 42nd Street & Fourth Avenue, Manhattan
At the start of the 1880s, Barcelona was an expanding city of about 350,000 people. Its medieval walls had been knocked down only twenty-five years earlier. Capital of the autonomous community of Catalonia, city and region developed into Spain’s economic dynamo. Prosperity mushroomed. A self-confident territory strove to re-establish its identity by invigorating local traditions, culture and language. Barcelona became an engine of change and modernity. [Read more…] about Catalonia in Manhattan: The Architectural Legacy of Rafael Guastavino
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