"New York Air", a New Photobook That Gives an Aerial Portrait of the City

Photograph by George Steinmetz @geosteinmetz / @thephotosociety Catching a little sun in sight of the water is easy if you happen to live in Mercedes House, on the west side of Manhattan. This 2009 building designed by Enrique Norten has an unusual reverse “Z” footprint, generous patios, and waterfront views that look like they could be in Miami.

Photograph by George Steinmetz @geosteinmetz / @thephotosociety Washington Square Park is one of New York City’s great public spaces, perhaps best known as a congregating place for musicians during the folk music revival of the 1950s and ‘60s. Stanford White’s arch of 1892 was inspired by Paris’s Arc de Triomphe.

Photograph by George Steinmetz @geosteinmetz / @thephotosociety “Reflecting Absence” is the centerpiece of the 9/11 Memorial and has made the voids left by the destruction the primary symbols of our loss. How starkly this message is communicated depends on the time of year: when the plaza’s groves of sweet gum and swamp white oaks are in leaf, a sense of life flickers across the space.

Photograph by George Steinmetz @geosteinmetz / @thephotosociety McCarren Pool was the eighth of eleven giant pools built by the #WorksProgressAdministration and opened in 1936. The city’s first outdoor public swimming pools were attached to baths and dated from the turn of the twentieth century; before that, there were floating baths in the Hudson and East Rivers.

Photograph by George Steinmetz @geosteinmetz / @thephotosociety Sunset reflects off the H&M building in this view looking east on 42nd St. towards Midtown in New York City.

Photograph by George Steinmetz @geosteinmetz / @thephotosociety Through the 1950s, a million people might squeeze onto New York City's Coney Island Beach on a hot summer day and newspapers would send photographers to Coney Island on the 4th of July to capture the festive scene—in some pictures, you can’t see the sand for the people. Today, relaxed sunbathers have more room to stretch out. #airconditioning

Photograph by George Steinmetz @geosteinmetz / @thephotosociety The steps from the Low Library to College Walk are a great place to hang out at Columbia University. The Morningside campus is the turn-of-the century masterpiece by the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White.

Photograph by George Steinmetz @geosteinmetz / @thephotosociety
It’s a long wait for a good fare at JFK’s Central Taxi Hold lot. According to the 2014 Taxi Factbook, people traveling to and from the city’s airports represent 5% of all taxi trips, and about 10% of all passengers arriving at and departing from #JFK use a taxi.

Photograph by George Steinmetz @geosteinmetz / @thephotosociety New York City’s #DreamHotel was the formerly the National Maritime Union building. New Orleans-based architect Albert C. Ledner designed three buildings for the National Maritime Union of America in the 1960s, all white buildings that prominently featured portholes as an architectural feature. Ledner’s creation is now re-clad in metal and thoroughly renovated, with an artificial beach and glass-bottom pool that has portholes of its own.

Photograph by George Steinmetz @geosteinmetz / @thephotosociety The flight deck at the USS Intrepid, a WW2 era aircraft carrier, that was converted into a Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City with a heavy dose of generosity from real-estate developer Zachary Fisher.

Photograph by George Steinmetz @geosteinmetz / @thephotosociety One of the NYC’s newest neighborhoods, Spring Creek Nehemiah is home to 233 first-time homeowners who won a lottery sponsored by the city. Located in Brooklyn’s East New York, it is composed of prefabricated one-, two- and three-family homes assembled at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Homeowners put down as little as $8,000 to purchase their houses, which ranged in price from $158,000 to $488,000.

Photograph by George Steinmetz @geosteinmetz / @thephotosociety Chess Manhattan style … on the rooftop at #TheGreystone, 2454 Broadway, in #NewYorkCity. The building was originally constructed in 1923 as a stately hotel and renovated into luxury apartments.

Photograph by George Steinmetz @geosteinmetz / @thephotosociety It may look by a new work the artist Christo, but this Hurricane Sandy restoration project in Jamaica Bay was supervised by the Army Corps of Engineers. The orange barrier diminishes wave erosion to help marsh plants get established and serve as a haven for fish and wildlife. Hard to believe this is #NewYorkCity, but if you look carefully #OneWorldTrade is visible in upper right.

Photograph by George Steinmetz @geosteinmetz / @thephotosociety Brooklyn’s Prospect-Lefferts Gardens was originally a Dutch farmstead in northern Flatbush Village. James Lefferts divided a portion of his property into 600 building lots in 1893, at a time of rapid urbanization, when Brooklyn was the third largest city in the U.S. By the time most of the houses were built, it had become part of the City of Greater New York (1896) and the subway had reached this section of Brooklyn (1905). #Lefferts insisted on deed restrictions that required the new houses to be brick or stone single-family residences, at least two stories with a cellar, selling for more than five thousand dollars.

Photograph by George Steinmetz @geosteinmetz / @thephotosociety There are many hidden worlds above the streets of New York City, like this rooftop oasis at Columbus Ave. and W100th St., which is part of a luxury apartment complex.

Photograph by George Steinmetz @geosteinmetz / @thephotosociety Bernard Tschumi’s innovative 2007 BLUE residential tower on Manhattan’s Lower East Side uses angled walls and roof to allow for maximum floor space on the upper floors. BLUE introduced a new element to a neighborhood whose every-day character is expressed by the storefronts along Delancey Street.

A new photobook is coming out full of amazing aerial photographs of the City by esteemed aerial photographer George Steinmetz

The book is titled New York Air: The View from Above and features amazing captures from all around the City.

Shooting in all seasons and from dawn to dusk, Steinmetz captures the thrilling complexity and romance of 21st-century New York, with its new skyline and waterfront landscape, dazzling contemporary architecture and historic buildings—along with parks and streets and rooftops used for every possible purpose, and the massive infrastructure that keeps it all going.

Of course, amazing Manhattan photos of the touristy places are included, but there are captures of other great once-a-year activities included as well.

Included are such iconic places as Central Park and Times Square, new landmarks such as the High Line and the September 11 Memorial, One World Trade Center and other additions to the exclusive list of the world’s tallest buildings, and intriguing sites throughout the five boroughs.

New York Air: The View from Above is available for pre-order on Amazon.

Matt Coneybeare

Editor in Chief

Matt enjoys exploring the City's with his partner and son. He is an avid marathon runner, and spends most of his time eating, running, and working on cool stuff.

Posts by Matt Coneybeare

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