第1段

In , Jason Barr takes the reader through a detailed history of New York City. The book combines geology, history, economics, and a lot of data to explain why business clusters developed where they did and how the early decisions of workers and firms shaped the skyline we see today.  is organized into two distinct parts. The first is primarily historical and addresses New York’s settlement and growth from 1609 to 1900; the second deals primarily with the 20th century and is a compilation of chapters commenting on different aspects of New York’s urban development. The tone and organization of the book changes somewhat between the first and second parts, as the latter chapters incorporate aspects of Barr’s related research papers.

第2段

Barr begins chapter one by taking the reader on a ‘helicopter time-machine’ ride – giving a fascinating account of how the New York landscape in 1609 might have looked from the sky. He then moves on to a subterranean walking tour of the city, indicating the location of rock and water below the subsoil, before taking the reader back to the surface. His love of the city comes through as he describes various fun facts about the location of the New York residence of early 19th-century vice-president Aaron Burr as well as a number of legends about the city.

第3段

Chapters two and three take the reader up to the Civil War (1861–1865), with chapter two focusing on the early development of land and the implementation of a grid system in 1811. Chapter three focuses on land use before the Civil War. Both chapters are informative and well researched and set the stage for the economic analysis that comes later in the book. I would have liked Barr to expand upon his claim that existing tenements prevented skyscrapers in certain neighborhoods because ‘likely no skyscraper developer was interested in performing the necessary “slum clearance”’. Later in the book, Barr makes the claim that the depth of bedrock was not a limiting factor for developers, as foundation costs were a small fraction of the cost of development. At first glance, it is not obvious why slum clearance would be limiting, while more expensive foundations would not.

第4段

Chapter four focuses on immigration and the location of neighborhoods and tenements in the late 19th century. Barr identifies four primary immigrant enclaves and analyzes their locations in terms of the amenities available in the area. Most of these enclaves were located on the least valuable land, between the industries located on the waterfront and the wealthy neighborhoods bordering Central Park.

第5段

Part two of the book begins with a discussion of the economics of skyscraper height. In chapter five, Barr distinguishes between engineering height, economic height, and developer height — where engineering height is the tallest building that can be safely made at a given time, economic height is the height that is most efficient from society’s point of view, and developer height is the actual height chosen by the developer, who is attempting to maximize return on investment.

第6段

Chapter five also has an interesting discussion of the technological advances that led to the construction of skyscrapers. For example, the introduction of iron and steel skeletal frames made thick, load-bearing walls unnecessary, expanding the usable square footage of buildings and increasing the use of windows and availability of natural light. Chapter six then presents data on building height throughout the 20th century and uses regression analysis to ‘predict’ building construction. While less technical than the research paper on which the chapter is based, it is probably more technical than would be preferred by a general audience.

第7段

Chapter seven tackles the ‘bedrock myth’, the assumption that the absence of bedrock close to the surface between Downtown and Midtown New York is the reason for skyscrapers not being built between the two urban centers. Rather, Barr argues that while deeper bedrock does increase foundation costs, these costs were neither prohibitively high nor were they large compared to the overall cost of building a skyscraper. What I enjoyed the most about this chapter was Barr’s discussion of how foundations are actually built. He describes the use of caissons, which enable workers to dig down for considerable distances, often below the water table, until they reach bedrock. Barr’s thorough technological history discusses not only how caissons work, but also the dangers involved. While this chapter references empirical research papers, it is a relatively easy read.

第8段

Chapters eight and nine focus on the birth of Midtown and the building boom of the 1920s. Chapter eight contains lengthy discussions of urban economic theory that may serve as a distraction to readers primarily interested in New York. However, they would be well-suited for undergraduates learning about the economics of cities. In the next chapter, Barr considers two of the primary explanations for the building boom of the 1920s — the first being exuberance, and the second being financing. He uses data to assess the viability of these two explanations and finds that supply and demand factors explain much of the development of the 1920s; though it enabled the boom, cheap credit was not, he argues, the primary cause.

第9段

In the final chapter (chapter 10), Barr discusses another of his empirical papers that estimates Manhattan land values from the mid-19th century to the present day. The data work that went into these estimations is particularly impressive. Toward the end of the chapter, Barr assesses ‘whether skyscrapers are a cause or an effect of high land values’. He finds that changes in land values predict future building height, but the reverse is not true. The book ends with an epilogue, in which Barr discusses the impact of climate change on the city and makes policy suggestions for New York going forward.

《纽约市发展史》是Jason Barr所著的一本详细介绍纽约市历史的书籍。这本书结合了地质学、历史学、经济学和大量的数据，解释了为什么商业集群会在特定地点发展，并且讲述了早期工人和企业的决策如何塑造了我们今天所见到的天际线。该书分为两个不同的部分。第一部分主要是历史性的，讲述了从1609年到1900年纽约的定居和发展；第二部分主要讲述了20世纪的内容，是关于纽约城市发展的各个方面的章节的汇编。书的语调和组织在第一部分和第二部分之间有些变化，因为后面的章节融入了Barr相关研究论文的方面。

Barr在第一章中采用“直升机时光机”的方式，带领读者踏上一段迷人的旅程，描述了1609年纽约的天空从空中看可能是什么样子。然后，他带领读者进行了一次地下的步行之旅，指出了地下岩石和水的位置，然后又将读者带回地面。他对这座城市的热爱通过描述19世纪初期美国副总统亚伦·伯尔的纽约住所的位置以及关于这座城市的一些传说得到了体现。

第二章和第三章将读者带到了内战时期（1861-1865年），其中第二章重点讲述了1811年土地的早期开发和网格系统的实施。第三章则着重讲述内战前土地的利用。这两章内容丰富而研究充分，为后面的经济分析做好了铺垫。我希望Barr能够进一步阐述他的观点，即现有的廉租公寓阻止了在某些社区建造摩天大楼，因为“可能没有摩天大楼开发商对进行必要的‘肃清贫民窟’感兴趣”。在书的后面，Barr声称基岩的深度并不是开发商的限制因素，因为地基成本只占开发成本的一小部分。乍一看，不明显为什么肃清贫民窟会受到限制，而更昂贵的地基不会。

第四章着重讲述19世纪末移民和社区及廉租公寓的位置。Barr确定了四个主要的移民聚居区，并分析了这些区域的设施情况。这些聚居区大多位于价值最低的土地上，位于滨水工业区和环绕中央公园的富裕社区之间。

本书的第二部分从讨论摩天大楼高度的经济学角度开始。在第五章中，Barr区分了工程高度、经济高度和开发商高度——工程高度是在给定时间内可以安全建造的最高建筑物，经济高度是从社会角度来看最有效率的高度，而开发商高度则是开发商选择的实际高度，开发商试图最大化投资回报。

第五章还对导致摩天大楼建设的技术进步进行了有趣的讨论。例如，引入了铁和钢的骨架框架使得厚重的承重墙不再需要，扩大了建筑物可利用的平方英尺，增加了窗户的使用和自然光的可用性。第六章则提供了20世纪建筑高度的数据，并使用回归分析来“预测”建筑建设。虽然比起该章节所基于的研究论文来说，它可能对普通读者来说稍微有些技术性。

第七章解决了“基岩神话”问题，即在下城和中城纽约之间地表附近缺乏基岩是摩天大楼未能在两个城市中心之间建造的原因。相反，Barr认为，虽然更深的基岩会增加地基成本，但这些成本既不是不可承受的高昂，也不大于建造摩天大楼的总成本。我最喜欢这一章节的是Barr对地基实际是如何建造的讨论。他描述了使用桩基的方法，使工人能够深入地下，经常深入水位以下，直到达到基岩。Barr的技术史研究不仅讨论了桩基的工作原理，还讲述了其中的危险。虽然这一章节引用了经验性的研究论文，但它相对来说比较容易阅读。

第八章和第九章重点讲述了中城的诞生和20世纪20年代的建筑热潮。第八章详细讨论了城市经济理论，可能会分散对纽约感兴趣的读者的注意力。然而，它们非常适合学习城市经济学的本科生。在接下来的一章中，Barr考虑了20世纪20年代建筑热潮的两个主要解释，第一个是狂热，第二个是融资。他使用数据评估了这两种解释的可行性，并发现供求因素解释了20世纪20年代的大部分发展；尽管廉价信贷促使了热潮，但他认为廉价信贷并不是主要原因。

在最后一章（第十章）中，Barr讨论了他的另一篇实证论文，估计了19世纪中叶以来曼哈顿土地价值。这些估计涉及的数据工作非常令人印象深刻。在这一章的最后，Barr评估了“摩天大楼是高地价的原因还是结果”的问题。他发现，土地价值的变化可以预测未来的建筑高度，但反过来则不成立。书以一个总结篇章结束，Barr在其中讨论了气候变化对纽约市的影响，并为未来的纽约提出了政策建议。