Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Broadway: A History of New York City in Thirteen Miles
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1966
WEBSITE:
CITY: Brooklyn
STATE: NY
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
Phone: 212-650-5432; https://ssa.ccny.cuny.edu/blog/people/fran-leadon/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1966, in Gainesville, FL.
EDUCATION:University of Florida, B. Design, 1991; Yale University, M. Arch., 1994.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Academic and architect. Balmori Associates, on staff, 1994-96; George Ranalli, on staff, 1996-99; Francois deMenil, on staff, 1998; CWB Architecture, on staff, 1999-2000; Richard Sturgeon Studio, on staff, 1999-2000; Voorsanger Associates, on staff, 2000; Peter Gisolfi Associates, on staff, 2002; and Pouder Design Group, on staff, 2003-05; City College of New York, CUNY, New York, NY, instructor, 2000-06, assistant professor, 2006-12, associate professor, 2012–; sole practitioner, 2006–.
WRITINGS
Contributor to 99th Annual ACSA Conference Proceedings, the Architect’s Newspaper, and Oculus.
SIDELIGHTS
Fran Leadon is an academic and architect. A native of Gainesville, Florida, he graduated from the University of Florida before earning a M.Arch. from Yale University in 1994. Leadon subsequently worked for a number of architectural and design firms, including Balmori Associates, George Ranalli, Francois deMenil, CWB Architecture, Richard Sturgeon Studio, Voorsanger Associates, Peter Gisolfi Associates, and Pouder Design Group. He began working as a sole practitioner in 2006. Leadon served as an instructor at the City College of New York, CUNY, from 2000 until 2006. At that point he was made an assistant professor. In 2012 he became an associate professor. Leadon has published in the 99th Annual ACSA Conference Proceedings, the Architect’s Newspaper, and Oculus. With Norval White and Elliot Willensky, Leadon coedited the fifth edition of the AIA Guide to New York City.
In 2018 Leadon published Broadway: A History of New York City in Thirteen Miles. The account takes a look at the history of New York City as represented by its most famous road, from the Battery to Washington Heights and Inwood. Dating back more than 400 years to Dutch settlers who initially planned it, Broadway has undergone numerous changes throughout its existence. Leadon covers the highs and lows of this historical period and the numerous ages that it experienced.
Booklist contributor Mark Levine found it to be only “a partial history of Broadway.” However, Levine claimed that “it is engagingly written and supplemented by good, easy-to-follow maps at each milestone.” A contributor to Kirkus Reviews pointed out that Leadon “gives space to everyone from the architects who designed Broadway’s iron buildings to the theater world’s stars and impresarios.” The same Kirkus Reviews reviewer called the book “a lively history of one of the most famous streets in America.” A Publishers Weekly contributor insisted that “this is a welcome complement to more daunting and encyclopedic volumes on New York’s history.” The same reviewer found the book to be “entertaining.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 1, 2018, Mark Levine, review of Broadway: A History of New York City in Thirteen Miles, p. 18.
California Bookwatch, August 1, 2010, review of AIA Guide to New York City.
Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2018, review of Broadway.
Publishers Weekly, January 1, 2018, review of Broadway, p. 47.
ONLINE
City College of New York, CUNY, Website, https://ssa.ccny.cuny.edu/ (May 3, 2018), author profile.
FRAN LEADON
Associate Professor
Phone: 212-650-5432
Email: fleadon@ccny.cuny.edu
Office: SSA3M18
Educational Credentials :
M. Arch., Yale University, 1994
B. Design, University of Florida, 1991
Teaching Experience :
Associate Professor, City College of New York, CUNY, 2012-present
Assistant Professor, City College of New York, CUNY, 2006-2012
Instructor, City College of New York, CUNY, 2000-2006
Professional Experience :
Sole practitioner, 2006-present
Pouder Design Group, 2003-2005
Peter Gisolfi Associates, 2002
Voorsanger Associates, 2000
Richard Sturgeon Studio, 1999-2000
CWB Architecture, 1999-2000
Francois deMenil, Architect, 1998
George Ranalli, Architect, 1996-1999
Balmori Associates, 1994-1996
Licenses/Registration :
Architecture License, New York State
Selected Publications and Recent Research :
Broadway: A History of New York City in Thirteen Miles (W. W. Norton, forthcoming 2017)
AIA Guide to New York City, Fifth Edition, with Norval White and Elliot Willensky (Oxford University Press, 2010)
"The Aleatoric Studio: Embracing Chance and Risk in First-Year Design," 99th Annual ACSA Conference Proceedings, March 3-6, 2011.
"Bloomberg Makes Space in New York: Studying the Transformation of Place in New York Under the Bloomberg Administration," book review of Bloomberg's New York: Class and Governance in the Luxury City by Julian Brash, Architect's Newspaper, January 19, 2011.
"Inspecting the Green City," Oculus, Fall 2009.
COURSES
AES 12000: Communication Studio 2
AES 21200: Introduction to the Built Environment of New York City
ARCH 23000: Core Studio 3
ARCH 24000: Core Studio 4
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Fran Leadon is an architect and coauthor of the fifth edition of the AIA Guide to New York City. A native of Gainesville, Florida, he teaches at the City College of New York and lives in Brooklyn.
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Print Marked Items
Broadway: A History of New York City in
Thirteen Miles
Mark Levine
Booklist.
114.13 (Mar. 1, 2018): p18.
COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Broadway: A History of New York City in Thirteen Miles. By Fran Leadon. Apr. 2018. 560p. illus. Norton,
$35 (9780393240108). 974.7.
Architect Leadon provides a historical and cultural tour, with sketches of relevant individuals, up New
York's most famous thoroughfare, from its foot at the Battery north past George M. Cohan's Times Square
and Columbia University to Washington Heights and Inwood. But the city itself is constantly changing, a
challenge to the author, who chooses to focus mainly on Broadway's early years. Along lower Broadway
(Mile One), Leadon describes nineteenth-century parades, pigs, conflagrations, Trinity Church, and more.
His knowledge is expansive; he explains at some length the "bend" in Broadway around Grace Church on
10th Street and the origin of "union" in Union Square, which stems from neither the Civil War nor labor
history. Subways affect Broadway's development and are treated effectively, but cars and traffic are barely
mentioned. As the street works its way up the West Side (partly following the old Bloomingdale Road),
Broadway changes character. Recent major transformations are unfortunately entirely omitted. Except in
Manhatttanville (uptown), the bad times are barely discussed. At best, the book is a partial history of
Broadway, but it is engagingly written and supplemented by good, easy-to-follow maps at each milestone.--
Mark Levine
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Levine, Mark. "Broadway: A History of New York City in Thirteen Miles." Booklist, 1 Mar. 2018, p. 18.
General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532250802/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=904d549b. Accessed 23 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A532250802
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Leadon, Fran: BROADWAY
Kirkus Reviews.
(Feb. 1, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Leadon, Fran BROADWAY Norton (Adult Nonfiction) $35.00 4, 17 ISBN: 978-0-393-24010-8
Four hundred years in the life of a road the original Dutch settlers referred to as Brede Wegh (Broad Way).
For a thoroughfare that, in the early 1600s, had such poor drainage that "the roadbed quickly became a foul
stew of mud and horse manure," Broadway hasn't done too badly for itself over the ensuing centuries. In
this opinionated work, architect Leadon (Architecture/City Univ. of New York) tells the story of Broadway
in Manhattan, from Bowling Green in the south to the Bronx in the north. The book has 13 sections, one per
mile, with stories behind the development of each neighborhood. The author gives space to everyone from
the architects who designed Broadway's iron buildings to the theater world's stars and impresarios. Leadon
calls the area's "lack of coherence" or development strategy "the urban planning equivalent of throwing
dice." This is an impressively detailed history, sometimes overly so. Leadon is fond of long lists--e.g., items
for sale in Constable's department store, "so comprehensively opulent, that it practically defined the Gilded
Age"; the curios producer David Belasco kept in the studio above his theater; the diseases that killed New
Yorkers in the early 19th century--and some readers may tire of repeated references to money: how much a
property cost, the equivalent amount in today's dollars, etc. Still, Leadon offers plenty of entertaining
anecdotes. George M. Cohan "insisted that his dressing room be decorated floor-to-ceiling with American
flags," and Thomas Edison promoted his incandescent bulb in 1882 when he "mounted light bulbs on the
heads of a contingent of militiamen and had them drag a steam engine and dynamo up Broadway." And the
author has a way with a takedown: he notes that John Jacob Astor IV, pampered member of America's
richest family in the 1890s, was known as "Jack Ass" and that his drowsy expression in photos made it
seem "as if submitting to the lens was an hour of yachting lost forever."
A lively history of one of the most famous streets in America.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Leadon, Fran: BROADWAY." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A525461340/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=b7be8d06.
Accessed 23 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A525461340
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Broadway: A History of New York City in
Thirteen Miles
Publishers Weekly.
265.1 (Jan. 1, 2018): p47+.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Broadway: A History of New York City in Thirteen Miles
Fran Leadon. Norton, $35 (560p) ISBN 978-0393-24010-8
Architect Leadon, coauthor of the fifth edition of the AIA Guide to New York City, puts his background to
good use in this entertaining look at how the growth and development of New York City's most famous
street paralleled that of Manhattan. Leadon's method of organizing his rich source material makes the
history more digestible; instead of a predictable chronological approach, he devotes a separate section to
each single mile of the street, from its southernmost starting point in Bowling Green, north through 228th
Street, after which it continues into the Bronx. As with the best popular histories, Leadon enlivens the past
through memorable anecdotes, such as that of the accidental origin of the ticker-tape parade. Colorful
individuals populate the narrative, including Alfred Ely Beach, who without anyone's permission built the
first subway under Broadway, and Martin Molenaor, a septuagenarian who spuriously claimed that he was
the real owner of over 70 acres of prime real estate. Leadon covers other bits of essential ground, detailing
the construction of noteworthy buildings, commenting on the role of mass transit in the life of Manhattan,
and remarking on the changing nature of political protests in Union Square. This is a welcome complement
to more daunting and encyclopedic volumes on New York's history. Maps & illus. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Broadway: A History of New York City in Thirteen Miles." Publishers Weekly, 1 Jan. 2018, p. 47+.
General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A522125003/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=8c8d40f2. Accessed 23 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A522125003
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AIA Guide to New York City, fifth edition
California Bookwatch.
(Aug. 2010):
COPYRIGHT 2010 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Full Text:
AIA Guide to New York City, fifth edition
Norval White & Elliot Willensky with Fran Leadon
Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York NY 10016
9780195383867, $39.95 www.oup.com
The fifth updated edition of AIA Guide to New York City is a dual pick for both architecture and travel
collections It covers each borough of New York City nearly block by block, providing a fine and detailed
record of New York's architecture. It's both an encyclopedia and a visitor's documentation of New York's
architectural wonders, pairing small black and white photos with addresses and histories. A top pick for arts
and New York history libraries alike!
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"AIA Guide to New York City, fifth edition." California Bookwatch, Aug. 2010. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A234714847/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=bc60b9cc.
Accessed 23 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A234714847