The reasons New York’s Dakota remains the world’s best-known apartment building are two: It was the thinly disguised location for Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby and the site of John Lennon’s murder. Curiously, author Andrew Alpern mentions neither. Instead, he chronicles the rise of high-end apartment dwelling in Manhattan; numerous floor plans for the Dakota and other buildings are included along with interesting vintage photos and reproductions of early 1960s magazine spreads on the Dakota. The omissions are odd, on par with a history of the U.S. that leaves out Vietnam and 9/11, yet Alpern’s history will be useful for students of architecture and urban development.
