The best work of the late Herbert Muschamp, former architecture critic of The New York Times, and one of the most outspoken, lively, and influential voices in architectural criticism.
Gathered here are pieces from The New Republic, The New York Times, and Artforum, as well as fragments of the book left unfinished.
Muschamp drew on film, literature, and popular culture to write pieces that were passionate and personal, changing the landscape of architectural criticism in the process. He made it a subject
accessible for everyone when, because of the heated debate between modernists and postmodernists, architecture had become part of a larger public dialogue. He reviewed architecture and design
shows; he compared Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao to the body of Marilyn Monroe; he waxed poetic about a new design for Manhattan’s manhole covers. Early on he championed the work of Gehry,
Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel, and Santiago Calatrava, and was drawn to the theoretical writings of architects such as Peter Eisenman. Included is his brilliant and poignant
six-thousand-word piece about gay culture and Edward Durrell Stone’s museum at 2 Columbus Circle.
Timely and often prescient, Hearts of the City is a dazzling collection of critical writing about the cityscapes that profoundly affect our lives.
