All the walks can be walked, or just be read for pleasure, by know-it-all New Yorkers or anyone else. The book includes new walks through LGBTQ Greenwich Village, through Forest Hills, Queens, and Mott Haven, in the Bronx. The walks unpacked the essence of urban life and its social fabric-the history, plans, laws, feats of structural engineering, architectural highlights, and everyday realities that make up a place Kimmelman calls “humanity’s greatest achievement.”įilled with stunning photographs documenting the city during the era of COVID, The Intimate City is the ultimate insider’s guide.

These intimate, funny, richly detailed conversations between Kimmelman and his companions became anchors for millions of Times readers during the pandemic. What began with a lighthearted trip to explore Broadway’s shuttered theater district and a stroll along Museum Mile when the museums were closed soon took on a much larger meaning and ambition. At a scary moment when everything seemed uncertain, walking around New York served as a reminder of all the ways the city was still a rock, joy, and inspiration. Wherever they liked, he wrote-preferably someplace meaningful to them, someplace that illuminated the city and what they loved about it. “‘ The Intimate City’ is a joyful miscellany of people seeing things in the urban landscape, the streets alive with remembrances and ideas even when those streets are relatively empty of people.” -Robert Sullivan, New York Times Book Reviewįrom the New York Times architecture critic, his celebrated walking tours of New York City, now expanded, covering four of the five boroughs and some 540 million years of history, accompanied by some of the people who know it bestĪs New York came to a halt with COVID, Michael Kimmelman composed an email to a group of architects, historians, writers, and friends, inviting them to take a walk.

Michael kimmelman the intimate city