By Katie Uva Since their inception in the mid-19th century, world’s fairs have been major cultural touchstones. While fairs have typically had malleable themes and many different types of activities and displays on offer, one of the signature features of world’s fairs has been their role as industrial showcases. Fairs present new technology and inventions and promote the goals of their funders. In the mid-20th century, many of those goals centered on reshaping America’s cities. At the 1939 World’s Fair, several exhibits sought to awe visitors with a picture of prosperous regions anchored by cities, sculpted by highways, and based in suburban family living. By 1964, these ideas and the public-private cooperation they demanded had remade American life. The 1964 World’s Fair aimed to celebrate and perpetuate an already powerful mode of thinking about America’s cities, but in doing so also became a major target for criticism. Read this in its original format here.

Aerial view of the 1964 World’s Fair grounds, including the Unisphere and pavilions, 1964.

2020 marks HDC's 50th anniversary! To celebrate 50 years of preserving history, we've picked out 10 sites (two from each borough) to highlight. The sites selected highlight the diverse and varied types of buildings and structures that HDC works to honor and promote.

My Archive Summer 2019 “My great aunt Mary saved all the family photos that eventually got passed down to me. She, in the World's Fair photo, is the one on the left.” —Paul Demonte

April — better known as the month of showers, Frederick Law Olmsted’s birthday, and Earth Day — has also been designated National Landscape Architect month. Aside from Olmsted, however, landscape architects continue to fly largely under the radar. A case in point: Clarke and Rapuano, a firm with enormous impact on New York City’s urban landscape, whose name is hardly known outside the profession.

It's Valentine's Day! Here are some of our favorite images of lovebirds throughout the years in a few of our city's most romantic places.