Interest in Long Island's architecture has increased in recent years, often focusing on roadside constructions, such as the Big Duck, and on such historic landmarks as the lighthouses that line our shores. Here are essays that provide historical and social contexts, critical evaluations of the Long Island works of some outstanding architects, and the original perspective of practicing architects.

Editor:
Joann P. Krieg is Professor of English at Hofstra University, where she teaches American literature and American Studies. She has edited several Institute publications and is the author of the Institute publication, Long Island and Literature(1989). She is the author of A Whitman Chronology(1998) and Walt Whitman and the Irish(2000).

Publication and Ordering Information:
Long Island Architecture has 168 pages, 107 illustrations, and is indexed. It is $30 in hardcover(ISBN: 1-5787-069-1), and $15 in paperback (1-55787-070-5; LC 90-35695). Mail orders will be filled by the publisher, Heart of the Lakes, P.O. Box 299, Interlaken, NY 14847-0299; HLPbooks@aol.com, (607)532-4497, fax (607)532-4684; the Suffolk County Historical Society, 300 West Main Street, Riverhead, NY 11901; histsoc@suffolklib.ny.us, (631) 727-2881, fax(631)727-3467; and the Long Island Studies Institute (for libraries, museums, schools, and bookstores), Hofstra University, West Campus, 619 Fulton Avenue, Hempstead, NY 11549; LISI@Hofstra.edu, (516)463-6411, fax (516)463-6441.

Contents:
Introduction, by Joann P. Krieg

Reviews:
"The eleven papers presented in this landmark work (the most effective survey of the subject to date) explain what happened, in terms of long Island architecture and the built environment, and why it happened. They do not necessarily pass judgement. They discuss --0 in informed detail, with examples -- two centuries of Long Island architectural style. . . The influence of the automobile and its highways are of particular interest. Lance Mallamo's essay, 'Learning From Long Island: Order and Chaos of the Vehicular Age,' should be read by any suburban or rural resident threatened by the mindless exploitation of highway corridors. He notes that Stony Brook Village, designed to bring order to 'a disheveled Main Street,' and the Big Duck, which graces the highway at Flanders, are examples of architecture geared to the automobile. They are also examples of the sublime and the not-so-sublime." --Wendell Tripp, Editor, New York History, 74 (1994): 234.

"There is truly something here for everyone, with diversity making up for the lack of focus.

"The first section, devoted to planning, includes a short piece by Michael A. LoGrande on the Nassau/Suffolk Bi-County Regional Plan of 1971, which, he contends, foresaw the growth patterns of the 1790s and had a pronounced influence. The plan was certainly prescient, but the extent of its influence seems to this reviewer hard to gauge.

"J. Lance Mallamo, in 'Learning from Long Island: Order and Chaos of the Vehicular Age,' argues for the preservation of roadside landmarks and the Moses-era parkways. Indeed, many of these creations of the first decades of the automotive age are rapidly disappearing and their preservation should be addressed -- but only when their excellence of design or uniqueness merits it. Let us stop short of landmarking every miniature golf course, drive-in, and prewar diner.

"Two other articles under this heading are by the Bentels, the talented family of architects from Locust Valley who were co-sponsors of the conference. Paul Bentel's 'The Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs, 1922-1931: Implications for the Long Island Suburb' is a fascinating look at this early instance of planning, which, in its attempt to deal with urban density, was to foster the suburban sprawl of the postwar period, with far-reaching consequences for the Island.

"Maria and Frederick Bentel, in 'Building for the Community,' trace the evolution of public architecture on Long Island, and their own efforts to create a 'more sensitive, complex, and enriched architecture [that would] value substance and experience, engage history without copying it and build a culture, not a memorial to it.'. . .

"John R. Stevens, a leading expert on Dutch-American buildings, places the 'Dutch Buildings on Long Island' in a regional context, while reminding us that Dutch building traditions continued unabated long after English occupation, enriching the Island's wonderful legacy of vernacular architecture.

"Alistair Gordon, who has done so much to uncover the origins of modern architecture on Long Island, writes of the modernist beach house phenomenon, noting that the 'long thin ribbon of white sand that runs along Long Island's southern shore, its farmland, bays, inlets, ponds and salt water marshes all make ideal settings for the machine-age concepts of the Bauhaus, the DeStijl group, LeCorbusier, and others.'. . .

"Offering new material is Nicholas Langhart's entry on 'Richard H. Smythe's Design Process in Stony Brook.' While he was no Delano, and appears to have owed his entire career to his classmate, Ward Melville, Smythe's work in Stony Brook in the Colonial Revival idiom between 1929 and 1962 amounted to more than seven hundred commissions and is largely responsible for the continuity of design and ambiance still exhibited by that community.

"Rounding out the collection is . . .a contribution by David Christman, 'Architecture as History on the Hofstra Campus.' While Stony Brook owed its coherence to Melville and Smythe, Hofstra had the versatile Aymar Embury, whose work spanned four generations in planning that university's 'loose quadrangles,' with Jefferson's University of Virginia in mind, so that 'the buildings are close enough together to reinforce the appearance of its neighbor in general, but not [in] exact symmetry.'" -- Robert B. MacKay, Director, Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, Long Island Historical Journal 4 (Fall 1991): 124-26.

"This handsome volume is the latest publication released by Hofstra's Long Island Studies Institute. As is the case of several of their previous efforts, Long Island Architecture consists of papers originally read at one of the Institute's conferences, in this case the 1989 conference titled 'Building Long Island, Architecture and Design: Tools and Trades.' As the title indicates, many of the papers are devoted to housing design on the Island. Although placed in a section labelled 'Nineteenth Century,' the earliest period considered is actually the 17th and 18th century with the focus on Dutch housing styles. The bulk of the purely architectural pieces deal with the early and late 20th century. These include an analysis of the architects responsible for many of the North Shore Gold Coast mansions and an investigation of the development of the cubist beach houses which have marred the esthetics of many an East End potato field.

"Many of the articles deal with the subject of planning, either regionally or for select communities. Consequently, the book goes far beyond pure architecture and returns to a perennial favorite in Long Island studies -- suburbanization. The first two pieces in the volume deal with regional planning from the 1920s through 1985. As early as the 1920s, regional planners foresaw that development would spread eastward from New York City and predicted that village boundaries and character would be obliterated and replaced by regional identification. In all planning, according to Paul L. Bentel, the guiding principle 'remains economic viability especially in the real estate industry.'

"Unfortunately, what is good for the real estate industry is not always good for the citizenry. This may explain one reason so many parts of Long Island are increasingly losing the quality of life which attracted so many in the past. Although aware of current trends, neither of the authors reporting on regional planning asks whether -- considering its geographic, topographic and environmental limits -- the Island can tolerate the current volume of development and still retain its identity and ability to attract upwardly mobile people.

"Other articles deal with planning on a smaller scale. Zachary N. Studenroth's tale of a projected model community at Lake Ronkonkoma provides another example of planned villages in the 19th century. This one coupled the era's romantic fascination with the rural ideal with a fad for octagon houses. Land title problems and general funding kept the Lake Ronkonkoma project from advancing beyond one house. Other examples of planned communities were found in Queens. Vincent Seyfried explores attempts to create worker housing around factories in undeveloped parts of the county in the late 19th century. As is true in much of Long Island's development, transportation provided the key. In the cases Seyfried cites, the lack of transport made it incumbent on employers to provide housing if they were to attract and keep their workforce. The most successful of these ventures was that of the Steinway Company which gave its name to an entire section of Astoria. The world famous piano company not only built homes, but even maintained its own street car company for a time.

"The underlying theme in all the articles dealing with planning is the importance of roads and transport, especially the automobile. Suffolk County historian Lance Mallamo examines the effect of automobiles on commercial architecture. According to Mallamo, two contrary styles emerged in response to the vehicularization of the Island. One was the 'Big Duck,' grab your eye and pull you in variety. The other was Ward Melville's revamped Stony Brook Village which was designed to provide automobile access while shielding the community from the direct effects of the automobile onslaught. Mallamo believes that the 'preservation of Long Island's 20th century architectural legacy may well be the region's most important historic preservation issue.'" --Carl Starace, Editor, Long Island Forum, 53 (1991): 79.

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