pure unadulterated architectural self-aggrandizement. completely pretentious crap. some interesting material, but you have to wade through every other sentence of bullshit metaphysical declarations that this guy just pulls out of his ass.

I remember reading 'The Generic City' by Rem Koolhaas (pdf) when I was a masters student and greatly enjoying it. His analysis is entertainingly idiosyncratic and yet curiously illuminating. His selective account of New York’s architectural history is likewise fragmentary yet instructive. It contains a wealth of strange anecdotes, a forest of illustrations, and several underlying theses about the nature of New York City. Inevitably, the most memorable elements are weird details, such as Gaudi’s

The main thing I learned from this book is that architects have incredible freedom in establishing their own narratives. It helps when it is done masterfully, as is the case here.Seemingly unrelated and sometimes arbitrary elements intermingle to produce an intense and inimitable environment...the history of urban life in Manhattan becomes spectacle as seen through the critical eye of the author. Fueled by Koolhaas' precise and colorful verbal descriptions, the book makes good use of historical

This was a wonderful book. Full of great ideas, telling wonderful stories, giving great descriptions. But what was it about? After I read it a dozen more times, I might be able to tell you.Some clues:It is about Manhattanism. Manhattanism was defined concisely once within the book, but I can't find it again. Basically it is a culture of congestion, motivated by greed, which occasionally & accidentally produces wonderful architecture. Two constrictions define Manhattan. The grid map of 1811, whic...

this bastard wrote some truly perfect sentences and I'll never forgive him for it...he's dutch too!!!

Koolhaas has great material. New York is WEIRD. And he paints a wonderful picture of it at various historical and spatial stages.I take issue with his overarching theory. Much like what I refer to as the "things stoners thinking of when watching Wallace and Gromit" school of literary criticism (Baudrillard, Virilio), he prefers wacky style to cogent argument.A good example of his school can be found in this conclusion I came to while stoned and watching Wallace and Gromit..."Really, the wrong tr...

The brilliance and imposture of this book are about as healthily sprinkled as that of New York City itself. Beyond the mountains of fascinating details and images he unearths, Koolhaas' gift as a theorist is his unpredictability (please believe that a section about a random, undistinguished 1930s skyscraper built for an athletic club is one of the most thought-provoking). But while critical reflection over what a "retroactive manifesto" even means in postmodern 1978 would probably be too much to...

Koolhaas, the most influential voice in contemporary architecture, explicated his theory of Manhattanism in "Delirious NY" in 1979. 30 years on, it still stands as a fascinating insight into the culture and architecture that make NY one of the great cities of the world. A very engaging quick read that illuminates NY's signature achievement, the "culture of congestion". Notable chapters include Coney Island: the technology of the fantastic, The Lives of a Block, the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and the

An excellent read not only for readers interested in architecture. The book greatly conveys the feel of unrealistic, almost derilic process of development of "the greatest city on earth". Surprisingly light to read and engaging through many expamles, execellent graphics and interesitng facts.

I will have to give this another read. I truly tried my best to get through most of it, but I found the rhetoric and syntax to be obnoxiously tedious while lacking in cogency and force.

"Retroactive manifesto" supposedly just means history. I love Manhattan. Before I lived in Mexico City, I had not even considered the possibility of settling down anywhere else. Koolhaas does a wonderful job of historicizing some of Manhattan's greatest skyscrapers and their builders. In the process, he also theorizes about "Manhattanism", which, as far as I could gather, is the peculiar kind of creativity/ chaos that arises when millions of human beings are confined to 2028 blocks in an island,...

Definitely changed how I look at New York's architecture. Koolhaus places every building in the city in a phallic, "Promethean," surrealist context. Someone should make a 5-6 minute documentary film about this!

i like this storytelling style shrug we gotta decolonize the shit out of the world

A history lesson, dissertion in urbanism and thought experiment soaked in pretentious intellectualoid blabber. Should be called New York Delusion. Truly brilliant at times, it did make me marvel, but you really have to indulge the writer and power through the text to get to them. It is, I guess, the point of the book, to sell this idea of congestion and manhattanism as an urbanism concept (and I am CERTAINLY not even close to being an expert on the matter), but for me, it mostly felt flat on its...

Delirious New York is a book that gives shape and vision to the endless collisions, accidents, and collaborations that produced the signature architecture of Manhattan. As much a history of schemes and illusions as a lucid extrapolation of the pragmatism that bore out the aesthetics of the skyscraper within the limits of the grid, the zoning law of 1916 and the city's ever present culture of congestion, Koolhaas is dazzling as he reads the formal code of the city's past through its buildings and...

Delirious prose! Wonderful little book on the bizarre, wacky and ridiculous ideas that took Coney Island and Manhattan during the pre-and early sky scraper era.

Koolhaas is the king.

Okay, I didn't read the whole entire book, but I came pretty close. This was a pretty long and dense book, but ultimately it is a fascinating approach to looking at architecture. Retroactively looking at the manifestation of the city as a product of ideals and technological advance is a rather fascinating viewpoint. The biggest critique I have about this approach is that it is very subjective. While Manhattan has the whole "culture of congestion" thing going on, there's nothing stopping someone

Wow. I was prepared to hate this book. Not because I wanted to or thought I'd get some enjoyment out of hating it, but because I've become accustomed to architectural nonsense (re: http://www.ruderal.com/bullshit/bulls...). But I loved it. Yes, it's heavy on theory, but damn is it entertaining. The history of Coney Island is fascinating and his descriptions of Manhattan architecture at the turn of the 20th century capture the ambitions, hopes, and dreams of a city at peak technological optimism....

I'd been pushing the thought of reading this book for so long, since buying it in 2008. Rem definitely is a thinker. Most books on Architecture these days talk about some bullshit ideas, but described through flowery yet complex words. But, Delirious New York is none of those. He tells his reasons for writing the book, explains the retro active manifesto of New York by tracing the history of the place, mentions about the people involved during the time and then concludes with his own projects (c...

There are some very interesting historical tidbits scattered throughout this work, and plenty of architectural diagrams and historical photos to supplement the heady, dense prose. For every sublime, enlightened passage, there are about five paragraphs which manage to revel almost nothing at all that isn't obvious -- but they are redeemed by Koolhaus's surreal, generous insights.The energy of this "manifesto" is compelling and infectious. Koolhaas is an anthropologist as much as an architectural

Delirious New York is fairly heavy-handed in shoving what were perhaps only loosely tied events, developments and histories narratively together. Nevertheless, I cannot help but feel convinced by its arguments. In delineating what it means to live in and create buildings for a metropolis (through an accumulation of dreamlands, business schemes, architectural postering, idiosyncratic visionaries, fantastic renderings, sociopolitical collisions and cultural congestion), Koolhaas created an unquest...

I sometimes read books about architecture even though I don't know much about it. I learned possibly the most obvious thing in the world from this book. At the beginning of the 19th century, Manhattan's commissioners decided on the grid that we know today. The reason for the skyscrapers is that there's no where to go but up. Everyone in the world must have realized that before I did. Koolhaas tells all kinds of crazy true stories about the ideas people had to cram many people into a small space....

In some ways a necessary read for architects, Delirious New York achieves neither balanced historical analysis nor a manifesto that can achieve its intended aim (doesn't all architecture devolve into its own formalism). However, it is significant as an index of architectural theory of its moment, as it articulates a anti-modern idea and program for architecture as it uses 'Manhattan-ism' as its exempla. It is a great collection of New York's architectural/planning monuments and it's chapter on E...

Difficult, but interesting read.The writing is delirious. Koolhaas revels in creating a dreamy, hazy scene for each chapter, which I found quite compelling - in a way, it added character to all the stories and designs. However, in true fashion of a dream state, the writing was also extremely obscure, slightly pretentious and moderately incoherent.Worth reading for the bits on history and designs of former and shelved structures of New York - recommend skimming through to avoid the convoluted wri...

the golden standard of creating your own narrative within architecture. like most of his other writings of this era, approaches the writing from a fictional standpoint which allows him to be a complete ass. the absolute best.

New York City, the city so nice they named it twice, constancy starting up, say giving to say showing how it can. Rem Koolhaas likewise was architect of Cornell University's rebuilding the College of Architecture Art and Planning side of the Arts Quad.

Rem Koolhaas' 'Delirious New York' is not merely a book on architecture, but an investigation into the psychology of what Koolhaas calls the 'culture of congestion' which served to influence 'Manhattanism'—a philosophy to world-building which ushered the golden age of the skyscraper. Two opposing forces are at play during the century of mass culture. There are the architects of 'the people', or, practical city planners who know what's good for the unwashed masses (Le Corbusier, Moses). Then, the...

Seminal written work about architecture and urbanism. Must read. I can't stress this enough.

Swimming between brilliance and arrogance. Koolhaas sweeps over NYC. 3rd reread and it always feel like such a different read.