Thursday, September 27, 2012

What the LW! App has in Common with Vogue Magazine

September brought Fashion Week to New York City.  And, more specifically, to the Upper West Side!  Lincoln Center was transformed, for the seven days between September 6th and 13th, into a kaleidoscopic blend of avant garde people and fashions.  It was an exciting week to be on the West Side!

From Vogue's September issue, Kennedy Fraser's article "The Tented Room" chronicles
1980s movers and shakers at Jean Stein's apartment at the Langham Apartments.
In the fashion vein, September is also the month when Vogue releases its mammoth, multi-pound issue of fall trends.  Imagine LW's giddiness when, between ads for couturiers and jewelers, leather goods and knit wear, we read writer Kennedy Fraser's article "Social History: The Tented Room", which chronicles the social life of West Sider Jean Stein in none other than the Langham Apartments.

Located at 135 Central Park West (between 73rd and 74th Streets), the Langham is an impressive Beaux-Arts apartment building designed by architects Clinton & Russell and built in 1904-07.  In her Vogue piece, Fraser remembers the remarkable bold-face names that came together at Jean Stein's Langham abode, described by the author as "handsome but slightly shabby".  "From Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote to Diane Keaton", Stein's home was a list--constantly in formation--of "Who's Who" in 1980s New York.

With this article, the worlds of Vogue and LW! have something in common: the Langham is one of 30+ sites featured on LW's FREE walking tour app!  Sneak a preview of the app here and then download it for yourself.  It's the next best thing, twenty-some years later, to toasting with Jean Stein herself, wouldn't you say?

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

It's Here ... and It's FREE!


LANDMARK WEST! iPhone Walking Tour App
featuring Manhattan's Upper West Side


In December of 2010, LANDMARK WEST! released the first ever iPhone walking tour app of Manhattan’s Upper West Side developed by Eastmedia, a Manhattan-based firm specializing in web and mobile software.
 
Designed by local experts for people of all ages and interests, Landmark West’s walking tour app is an innovative way to explore the architecture and history of one of New York City’s most beloved and vibrant neighborhoods.

The easy to use, free app tour highlights 35 landmark locations including the legendary Dakota Apartments, Beacon Theatre, Ansonia Hotel and American Museum of Natural History.  Each location features intriguing facts and striking photographs that tell the story of the Upper West Side’s development since the 19th century. The app provides not only serves as a source of useful information about the neighborhood's unique history and resources, but automatic updates on current development issues facing particular sites.  By tapping on a red “alert” screen graphic, users can access timely information via LW’s blog and take immediate action to help protect places they discover on the tour.

LANDMARK WEST! is an award-winning non-profit community organization working to preserve the best of the Upper West Side’s architectural heritage from 59th to 110th Street between Central Park West and Riverside Drive.  Since 1985, we have worked to achieve New York City landmark status for nearly 2,700 individual buildings and historic districts (from only 337 in 1985), help residents and business to be skilled stewards of the built environment, and to safeguard the integrity of New York’s Landmarks Law.