When you sit down to write a book it feels like you are alone against the blank page. It’s only much later that you stop to appreciate how many others have been sitting quietly in your corner all along. This book is the product of a thousand and one conversations with architects, planners, writers, politicians, developers, preservationists, urban devotees, and New Yorkers who share a fathomless affection for (and often an equally profound ambivalence toward) their city. Some have been particularly generous with their time and insight, even when they had no idea they were contributing to this project: Eric Latzky, Amanda Burden, Janette Sadik-Khan, Carl Weisbrod, Alicia Glen, David Burney, Joseph Salvo, Rachaele Raynoff, Ken Lewis, Jamie Van Klemperer, Roger Duffy, T. J. Gottesdiener, Kenneth Lewis, Elizabeth Kubany, Philippa Polskin, Ken Weine, Jeremy Soffin, Vin Cipolla, Vishaan Chakrabarti, Gregg Pasquarelli, Robert A. M. Stern, Daniel and Nina Libeskind, Michael Manfredi, Marion Weiss, David Childs, Michael Adlerstein, David Fixler, Elizabeth Diller, Jean Nouvel, Claire Weisz, Bjarke Ingels, Raj Patel, Leslie Koch, David Ehrenberg, Andrew Kimball, Regina Myer, Andrew Manshel, Vivian Trakinski, Joanna Lee, Andrew Solomon, Jerry Saltz, Mitchell Moss, Thomas Mellins, Daniel Wakin, and Michael Kimmelman.

Thank you to:

Cindy Spiegel for believing in this book before I did; her wildly efficient assistant and photo wrangler Annie Chagnot; and copy editor extraordinaire Kathy Lord;

My friend first and agent second, Simon Lipskar;

Judy Weinstein for persuading me to donate walking tours at a school auction, setting the whole project in motion;

Ted Moncreiff for his enthusiasm, wisdom, and close reading;

Newsday editors Anthony Marro, Howard Schneider, Phyllis Singer, and John Habich, who gave me the leeway to learn the architecture critic’s trade on the job;

Adam Moss, who has made New York magazine the finest of perches from which to write about New York City; Chris Bonanos, a true writer’s editor, word shepherd, and fellow city geek whom I am implausibly fortunate to have watching over my prose; Jared Hohlt and David Haskell, who suggested ways of looking at the city that would never have occurred to me; former fact-checking queen Rebecca Milzoff and her entire embarrassment-prevention team;

Carol Willis, Eric Gewirtz, James Yolles, Allison Dolegowski, Sylvia Plachy, and Nord Wennerstrom, who helped track down photos and illustrations; Jacob Tugendrajch, Lindsay Turley, Lauren Robinson, and Whitney Donhauser, who put the Museum of the City of New York’s sumptuous photo collection at my disposal;

Allan Ceen, who first showed me how to observe and analyze a city street;

My parents, for leaving their native New York that I might rediscover it on my own; and my in-laws, Burton and Cynthia Budick, who welcomed me when I did. Their Berkshires patio became my writer’s retreat. As a small child, my son, Milo, asked impatiently when “the station with wings” would be finished. He was in college by the time Calatrava’s Oculus opened, and along the way kept me focused on the future while I was meandering into the past.

I can’t even plumb the gratitude I feel to my wife, Ariella Budick. The dorm room conversation we began more than thirty years ago has continued unabated, and her thoughts, words, and ferocious love of New York are tightly woven through these pages.