User:Epicgenius/Improving NYC building articles

This is a general guide on improving articles on New York City buildings, structures, parks, locations, etc. Surprisingly, many notable NYC locales such as bank buildings, churches, houses, office buildings, etc. do not have articles, even historic landmarks designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Many other pages are merely stubs/redirects even if a wealth of information may exist about them. Please note that this is just a guide, and it does not have to be adhered to strictly. There is no guarantee that an improved article may attain good article status.

General

In general, when writing for an online encyclopedia, you need to use secondary reliable sources, which are mostly books and articles from scholars and reports from news outlets. If you think that you are not going to agree with such sources on a particular topic, don't pursue it. You can't avoid reliable sources, and you can't cherry-pick sources either.

Please note that, while searching for sources, the subject may go under a different name, address, or spelling.

Lead

Infobox

There is no general rule on including infoboxes and, depending on the subject, adding an infobox may be controversial. However, should you choose to add an infobox, the following may be useful:

• {{Infobox building}} - buildings and structures (e.g. Empire State Building)
  • {{Infobox NRHP}} - those on the National Register of Historic Places, regardless of whether they're city landmarks. This does not only have to be buildings (e.g. Park Avenue Viaduct)
  • {{Infobox historic site}} - those which are city landmarks but not on the NRHP (e.g. Helmsley Building)
• {{Infobox protected area}} - parks (e.g. Central Park)
• {{Infobox settlement}} - neighborhoods (e.g. Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan)

Should you choose to include an infobox, ensure you have all basic data to make the infobox useful, such as location, coordinates, dimensions, opening/closing dates (manmade structures), and architect (buildings and structures). Try to avoid "disinfoboxes" without useful information, which are not useful to the reader and are just on the page for the sake of being there.

Prose

The lead is the first thing most people will read upon arriving at an article, and may be the only portion of the article that they read. - quoted from WP:LEAD

The defining aspects of the article go in the first paragraph of the entire article. The first sentence identifies what the subject is in plain terms, without any jargon. According to WP:LEAD: "The lead should stand on its own as a concise overview of the article's topic. It should identify the topic, establish context, explain why the topic is notable, and summarize the most important points, including any prominent controversies." Key points of the article should be mentioned in the lead, both with a neutral point of view and in a format which is easy to understand. For example, in this version of the "224 West 57th Street" article, the lead is excerpted as follows:

224 West 57th Street, also known as the Argonaut Building and formerly as the Demarest and Peerless Company Building, is a commercial building on the southeast corner of Broadway and 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, just south of Columbus Circle. The building consists of two formerly separate structures, the A. T. Demarest & Company Building and the Peerless Motor Car Company Building, both used by automobile companies. Both structures were designed by Francis H. Kimball and erected by the George A. Fuller Company with similar Gothic Revival and Romanesque Revival architectural details.

The portion of the building at the corner of 57th Street and Broadway was built for car manufacturer Aaron T. Demarest and his company. The section belonging to the former Peerless Motor Company is an "L"-shaped structure wrapping around the A. T. Demarest Building. 224 West 57th Street is 11 stories tall; the former Demarest section rises nine stories, while the Peerless section contains a partial tenth floor and an additional two-story tower. 224 West 57th Street contains a steel-frame curtain wall, concrete piers, and a facade of glazed architectural terracotta. Inside, both of the former structures had automotive storerooms at ground level and warehouses and repair facilities on the upper floors.

The Demarest and Peerless buildings were constructed simultaneously in 1909. General Motors (GM) bought both buildings in 1918 and combined them internally. After GM constructed other buildings in Manhattan, 224 West 57th Street was renamed the Argonaut Building to avoid confusion. The Hearst Corporation bought 224 West 57th Street in 1977 and housed its Hearst Magazine department there until 2006. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building as a city landmark in 2000. The building was renovated from 2008 to 2011 and subsequently became the headquarters of Open Society Foundations.

There is no standardized format for writing locale leads, though two to four paragraphs are recommended. WP:LEAD states that "the appropriate length of the lead section depends on the total length of the article. As a general guideline—but not absolute rule—the lead should usually be no longer than four paragraphs." If our lead is accessible enough, the reader will be interested enough to read further. Too much and the reader will leave the article without potentially seeing what they need. Too little and the reader will leave the article because they have not found the page useful.

With regards to content, the order of paragraphs in the lead is dependent on the order of sections in the body. In our 224 West 57th Street example, the second paragraph talks about site and design, and the third paragraph about history, because that is the order of the sections in the body. Note that the lead did not summarize critical reception, even though that is a section in the article. This is because the critical reception section is pretty sparse.

Header arrangement

Generally I put my sections in a certain order.

1. Site: the physical characteristics of a building's site. If possible, neighboring sites that are notable as well. If no neighboring sites exist, see "design" below.
   1. Sometimes, if a site's previous uses are notable (e.g. 28 Liberty Street#Site), then the previous uses may be detailed.
2. Design: the design of a building. If not enough info exists on neighboring buildings, this includes site info as well.
   1. Form: for skyscraper articles mainly. Some skyscrapers will have Setbacks or other weird attributes, such as a public plaza next to a huge slab. So their general shape, or form, is mentioned.
   2. Facade: self-explanatory, but usually NYC landmarks and skyscrapers have detailed info about their facades and exteriors.
   3. Features: structural features, interior, other info that are pertinent (may be level 3-4 as warranted)
      1. Structural features: anything about the substructure (foundation/below ground) or superstructure (aboveground)
      2. Mechanical features: e.g. ventilation, lighting, power, electricity
      3. Interior: notable interior spaces. Particularly pertinent if the building is an interior landmark.
3. History: this is usually flexible, but planning/construction and operation are usually two main parts.
4. Critical reception/impact: if the building had some critical reviews or was notable architecturally, this may be a section worth including.
5. References
   1. Notes: explanatory notes, {{notelist}}
   2. Citations: inline references, {{reflist}}
   3. Sources: multi-page sources. Any reference that uses a {{sfn}}/{{harvnb}} has a footnote that links to something in "Citations", which in turn leads to an anchor to a reference in this section.
      • If a page number is defined solely in an inline reference, then it does not use a {{sfn}}/{{harvnb}}, and so it does not go in here.

Notable exceptions:

• Theaters:
  • These will also have a "notable productions" section. See, for instance, New Amsterdam Theatre#Notable productions. Only productions with articles are linked down there.
  • Critical reception usually fits into some part of the history or design.

References

Be sure to read tertiary and general sources as well. Tertiary sources like encyclopedias and study books can also be used on Wikipedia, but are considered less valuable than secondary sources. However, it is sometimes good to start with tertiary sources, in order to establish what subject matter or scholarly opinions should be covered and to what extent. The LPC has provided an excellent guide for researching historic buildings.

For how to mine your sources most effectively, see WP:SOURCEMINE. After we have acquainted ourselves with our sources, we may come across other sources cited therein, that we had not found yet. These may be foreign-language sources, open source articles, chapters in conference reports, etc. We can then attempt to find those sources, and continue with those. Using sources cited in sources is also known as citation chaining.

Useful general sources

• http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/bsqpm01.jsp - NYC DOB building information system
  • http://www.metrohistory.com/searchfront.htm - Manhattan buildings 1900-1986
• Check to see if it's a landmark.
  • NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
    • Neighborhood Preservation Center
    • http://nyclpc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=93a88691cace4067828b1eede432022b - interactive map
  • NRHP
    • NRHP (gov)
    • NRHP (not gov)
    • http://nysparks.com/shpo/online-tools/ - interactive map
• Use maps to find out basic info.
  • NYC GIS map
  • NYC neighborhoods map (DCP)
  • New York Times Real Estate
  • NYPL Space/Time Directory
    • description
  • NYC Oasis Map
  • MTA walking maps
• Use news databases.
  • Newspapers.com, pro edition is available via Wikipedia:The Wikipedia Library
  • Proquest is available via Wikipedia:The Wikipedia Library
  • http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov - LOC historic newspapers
  • http://www.fultonhistory.com - Fulton History historic newspapers
  • http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/ - New York State Historic Newspapers
  • http://www.nypl.org/collections/articles-databases - New York Public Library databases (note: you must have a NYPL account to use these, so non-NY-based editors will be more limited in resources)
  • https://rerecord.library.columbia.edu/ - archive of the Real Estate Record and Guide (1868-1922)
• Find historic images.
  • https://biggert.cul.columbia.edu/ - apartments pamphlets
  • http://nycma.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet - NYC gov images
  • http://www.archive.gvshp.org/items/browse - images
  • http://www.brooklynvisualheritage.org/ - Brooklyn images
  • https://www.nyhistory.org/library/digital-collections - images in collection of the New-York Historical Society
  • http://collections.mcny.org/Explore/Formats/Photographs - images in collection of the Museum of the City of New York
• Find physical resources.
  • The New York Public Library serves Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island but any NYC resident can get a library card.
    • http://www.nypl.org/locations/schwarzman/art-architecture-collection - the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building's Art and Architecture division
    • http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/dgexplore.cfm?topic=all&col_id=442 - the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building's Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division
    • http://www.oldnyc.org/ - online collection of NYC photographs
    • http://www.nypl.org/locations/schomburg - the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture's collection of African-American history
    • http://www.nypl.org/locations/bronx-library-center- the Bronx Library Center's collection of Latino/Puerto Rican culture
  • For the Brooklyn Public Library and Queens Public Library, see below
  • https://www1.nyc.gov/site/records/about/municipal-archives.page - website of the New York City Municipal Archives (as of 2021 they are at 31 Chambers Street)
  • City register deed records
    • https://acrisweb.csc.nycnet/cp/ - 1966 and after, all boroughs
    • http://www1.nyc.gov/site/finance/about/contact-us-by-visit.page - up to and including 1965, all boroughs except Staten Island store their property records on microfilm at Finance Business Centers
    • http://www.richmondcountyclerk.com/information.htm - up to and including 1965, Staten Island stores its property records at the office of the Richmond County clerk
• Find borough specific resources
  • The Bronx
    • http://bronxhistoricalsociety.org/library-archives/ - Bronx Historical Society (appointment only)
    • http://www.westchesterclerk.com/ - Westchester County holds some Bronx records from the 19th century, as the Bronx used to be part of Westchester.
  • Brooklyn
    • http://www.brooklynhistory.org/library/search.html - Brooklyn Historical Society's collection has Brooklyn Land Conveyance Collection and Brooklyn and Long Island Scrapbook
    • http://www.bklynlibrary.org/brooklyncollection - Brooklyn Public Library's Brooklyn collection
    • http://www.bklynlibrary.org/citydir/ - BPL's Brooklyn city directories 1856-1908, when Brooklyn was a separate city
    • http://bklyn.newspapers.com/ - Brooklyn Daily Eagle archive 1841-1955
  • Queens
    • http://www.queenslibrary.org/research/archives - Queens Public Library's archives, with info on Long Island (particularly Queens but also Brooklyn, as well as Nassau and Suffolk Counties outside NYC)
    • http://www.queenshistoricalsociety.org/library-and-collections.html - Queens Historical Society (appointment only)
    • http://www.baysidehistorical.org/collections.html - Bayside Historical Society's collection on northeastern Queens
  • Staten Island
    • http://www.statenislandmuseum.org/collections/history-archives - Staten Island Museum
    • The St. George Library has various files on SI history. The library may hold some of the only info for pre-1910 buildings in Staten Island because the borough's building files before that date have been destroyed.
    • http://www.historicrichmondtown.org/treasures/collections/archives - Historical Richmond Town (appointment only)

Useful specific sources

• General topic matter
  • Diamonstein-Spielvogel, Barbaralee (2011). The Landmarks of New York (5th ed.). Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-1-4384-3769-9.
  • Federal Writers' Project (1939). New York City Guide. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-1-60354-055-1. (Reprinted by Scholarly Press, 1976; often referred to as WPA Guide to New York City.)
  • Jackson, Kenneth T., ed. (1995). The Encyclopedia of New York City. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300055366.
  • Jackson, Kenneth T., ed. (2010). The Encyclopedia of New York City (2nd ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11465-2.
  • New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; Dolkart, Andrew S.; Postal, Matthew A. (2009). Postal, Matthew A. (ed.). Guide to New York City Landmarks (4th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-28963-1.
  • Stern, Robert A. M.; Fishman, David; Tilove, Jacob (2006). New York 2000: Architecture and Urbanism Between the Bicentennial and the Millennium. New York: Monacelli Press. ISBN 978-1-58093-177-9. OCLC 70267065. OL 22741487M.
  • Stern, Robert A. M.; Gilmartin, Gregory; Massengale, John Montague (1983). New York 1900: Metropolitan Architecture and Urbanism, 1890–1915. New York: Rizzoli. ISBN 0-8478-0511-5. OCLC 9829395.
  • Stern, Robert A. M.; Gilmartin, Patrick; Mellins, Thomas (1987). New York 1930: Architecture and Urbanism Between the Two World Wars. New York: Rizzoli. ISBN 978-0-8478-3096-1. OCLC 13860977.
  • Stern, Robert A. M.; Mellins, Thomas; Fishman, David (1995). New York 1960: Architecture and Urbanism Between the Second World War and the Bicentennial. New York: Monacelli Press. ISBN 1-885254-02-4. OCLC 32159240. OL 1130718M.
  • Stern, Robert A. M.; Mellins, Thomas; Fishman, David (1999). New York 1880: Architecture and Urbanism in the Gilded Age. Monacelli Press. ISBN 978-1-58093-027-7. OCLC 40698653.
  • White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot (2000). AIA Guide to New York City (4th ed.). New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0-8129-3107-5.
  • White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19538-386-7.
  • Wurman, Richard Saul (2000), Access New York City, New York: HarperCollins, ISBN 0-06-277274-0
• Brooklyn
  • Manbeck, John B. (2008), Brooklyn: Historically Speaking, Charleston, South Carolina: The History Press, ISBN 978-1-59629-500-1
  • Jackson, Kenneth T.; Manbeck, John B., eds. (2004). The Neighborhoods of Brooklyn (2nd ed.). New Haven, Connecticut: Citizens for NYC and Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10310-7.
• Central Park
  • Rosenzweig, Roy & Blackmar, Elizabeth (1992). The Park and the People: A History of Central Park. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-9751-5.
• Churches
  • Dunlap, David W. (2004). From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan's Houses of Worship. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-12543-7.
• Early skyscrapers
  • Landau, Sarah; Condit, Carl W. (1996). Rise of the New York Skyscraper, 1865–1913. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-07739-1. OCLC 32819286.
• Geography
  • Kadinsky, Sergey (2016). Hidden Waters of New York City: A History and Guide to 101 Forgotten Lakes, Ponds, Creeks, and Streams in the Five Boroughs. New York, NY: Countryman Press. ISBN 978-1-58157-566-8.
  • Steinberg, Ted (2010). Gotham Unbound: The Ecological History of Greater New York. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-476-74124-6.
• History
  • Burrows, Edwin G. and Wallace, Mike (1999). Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-195-11634-8.
  • Trager, James (2003), The New York Chronology, New York: HarperCollins, ISBN 0-06-074062-0
  • Wallace, Mike (2017), Greater Gotham: A History of New York City from 1898 to 1919, New York: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-511635-9
• Manhattan
  • Cohen, Paul E. and Augustyn, Robert T. (1997). Manhattan in Maps: 1527-1995. New York: Rizzoli International Press. ISBN 0847820521.
  • Feirstein, Sanna (2001). Naming New York: Manhattan Places & How They Got Their Names. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-2712-6.
  • Moscow, Henry (1978). The Street Book: An Encyclopedia of Manhattan's Street Names and Their Origins. New York: Hagstrom Company. ISBN 978-0-8232-1275-0.
• Morningside Heights, Manhattan
  • Dolkart, Andrew S. (1998). Morningside Heights: A History of its Architecture and Development. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-07850-4. OCLC 37843816.
• Subways
  • Raskin, Joseph B. (2013). The Routes Not Taken: A Trip Through New York City's Unbuilt Subway System. New York, New York: Fordham University Press. doi:10.5422/fordham/9780823253692.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-82325-369-2.
• Urbanization
  • Ballon, Hilary, ed. (2013). The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan 1811-2011. New York: Museum of the City of New York and Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-15990-6.
  • Jackson, Kenneth T. (1985). Crabgrass frontier: The suburbanization of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504983-7. OCLC 11785435.
  • Koeppel, Gerard (2015). City on a Grid: How New York Became New York. Boston: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-82284-1.
  • Eldredge, Niles and Horenstein, Sidney (2014). Concrete Jungle: New York City and Our Last Best Hope for a Sustainable Future. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-27015-2.

See also

• I took inspiration from User:Farang Rak Tham/How to create a good article on a Buddhist topic and User:ZKang123/Improving Singapore MRT station articles