FROM THE PRESS
Book Reviews
Subway Style
“…a succinct and wryly amusing text that relates subway developments to other cultural happenings and isn’t too proud to explain specialized terms. It’s the kind of book that makes the evolution of turnstiles sound fascinating….”
Classics of American Architecture: The World Trade Center
“Mr. Robins’s collection [of original documents] evokes this same spirit and adds a rich dimension to trade center history.”
— David Dunlap, “New Glimpses of the Twin Towers’ Past,” New York Times
Grand Central Terminal:100 Years of a New York Landmark
“This February, NYC’s Transit Museum is celebrating the 100 year anniversary of a national landmark, The Grand Central Terminal. To kick it off, they’ve published a stunning hardcover book entitled Grand Central Terminal: 100 Years of a New York Landmark. The book is thoroughly researched and reads like a library of design, lifestyles, art and trivia that even New Yorkers don’t know.”
— NY Arts – the international guide to the art world
“The Transit Museum and Anthony W. Robins have distinctively captured the life of the building in an approach that integrates the powerful voices that shaped the time with illustrative quotes and commentary that complements Robins’ focused and beautifully refined narrative.
— Maxinne Rhea Leighton, Oculus Magazine (AIA New York)
Various
“In the last decade, apartment buildings have been putting together increasingly ambitious histories, some extensively researched and hard-bound with photographs. But it is difficult to find anything as accomplished as the one prepared by the architectural historian Anthony W. Robins for the Hotel Albert, the 1882 apartment house at University Place and 11th Street.”
— Christopher Gray, “Streetscapes: The Albert Hotel Addresses Its Myths,” New York Times, on the history of the Hotel Albert, a Greenwich Village institution that housed, at various times, writers, artists and musicians, as well as political radicals.
“An excellent text by Anthony Robins”
— Herbert Muschamp, “Critic’s Notebook; Cass Gilbert And the City Eclectic,” New York Times, on the Downtown Open House self-guided tour booklet devoted to Cass Gilbert buildings, sponsored by the Alliance for Downtown New York.
Lectures and Tours
“And if you happen to see a walking tour coming your way under the confident leadership of a man in a Bailey Dalton safari hat — well, that’s Mr. Robins.”
— David Dunlap, “New Glimpses of the Twin Towers’ Past,” New York Times
“Anthony, with his wide brim hat, fast-talking New York accent and contagious enthusiasm… [showed me that] the very real and iconic New York terminal is the magical place to be discovered…. In the four years I have lived in New York I must have walked through Grand Central Terminal more than a dozen times…. It wasn’t until Anthony was at the helm, escorting me back through history, introducing me to all the important characters that designed it, funded it and fought hard to restore it during a landmark movement of the 1970s (including Jacqueline Onassis) taking it all the way to the Supreme Court, that I realised this iconic building was so much more than a grand train station.”
— Shannon O’Meara, Mail Online
“Nearly 50 members of the Foreign Press Association recently turned out for a presentation about the history of Lower Manhattan hosted by New York City historian and architectural expert Tony Robins…. Members who attended the event represented publications from as far away as Nigeria, Japan, Israel, Uruguay, Germany and Poland – to name a few…. ‘It’s exciting to learn about the history and architecture of the Downtown Financial District,’ Gisiger [Chris Gisiger, U.S. editor of the Zurich-based Finanz und Wirtschaft] said.’Robins really brought the history to life.’ …Robins delivered a visually compelling presentation, with highlights of the neighborhood’s nearly 400-year-old history.”
— Members of the Foreign Press Association, New York Condo Blog
Anthony Robins’s “art and architecture of the New York subway” tour is one of “The 5 Best Art Walks In New York”
“Mr. Robins presented a brisk [and] highly entertaining historical slide tour of Broadway’s early days.”
— Entertainment Insider