The Lost City of Wood

The Lost City of Wood is our term for a vernacular architecture of New York that has been destroyed in the most cruel way, much like a person with advanced dementia: body alive, identity gone. When the Lost City of Wood (LCoW) was at its height, its streetscapes were among the most colorful, charming and coherent of any produced by New York in its history. Without exception, all of the blockfronts that once were full expressions of the Lost City have been drastically altered, now dulled and cloaked with crappy, mismatched materials, with vinyl siding ruling as the dominant element. Of all the dispiriting consequences of New York’s postwar architectural evolution, the least known and the most pointless was the loss of its wood- framed architectural heritage. Without comment or dissent, this legacy was destroyed, but, weirdly the majority of buildings that were its foundation are still in business, effaced but functioning as they were intended.