Each building’s Lore tab gathers what’s been written and photographed about it: a timeline of dated entries, the sources they come from, and where to find more photographs. Comments are for everything else: memories, questions and tips for visitors.

The timelines are written with AI (Anthropic’s Claude), each entry from one source it cites: Wikipedia, the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s designation reports and the city’s building historians, such as Daytonian in Manhattan, Village Preservation, Forgotten New York, Ephemeral New York, The Bowery Boys and Place Matters. A second pass checks every entry against its source, and a script makes sure no wording is copied from it. Mistakes still slip through, so every entry has a Report a mistake link. A building without a timeline has a button to write one, from its listed sources or from what a web search finds.

The photographs come from the city’s tax photos of about 1940 and the 1980s (NYC Municipal Archives, through 1940s.nyc and 80s.nyc), the New York Public Library’s collection on OldNYC, and Wikimedia Commons; more open on Urban Archive.

Footprints, roof heights and years come from NYC Open Data (Building Footprints, MapPLUTO); addresses and place names from the city’s Address Point and Common Place files; neighborhoods from its 2020 Neighborhood Tabulation Areas, with the ones it lumps together (SoHo, Little Italy and Hudson Square, say) split along the streets that usually divide them. Subway stations come from the MTA, and monuments and public art from NYC Parks and the Public Design Commission. Satellite imagery and the Real 3D view come from Google Maps (Photorealistic 3D Tiles), with NYS ITS Geospatial Services as a backup. Wikipedia links come from Wikidata.

The map covers all one million buildings in New York City. Feedback is appreciated.

Contact: noahlee519@gmail.com
Website: noahdarwinlee.com