Media Capital explores the mutually reinforcing relationship between New York City and the media industries in constructing the built environment. Tracing the transformation of public and urban life through the dominant media and its dramatic architecture, this book-length project considers architecture alongside more traditional forms of content output. From the nineteenth century to the present day, media buildings have shifted from solid, classically informed structures to more transparent and flexible platforms for multimedia. Yet there remain important historical continuities in the building programs of media corporations. Paying particular attention to the uses of building façades for messaging, Media Capital argues for a broader definition of media that is inclusive of urban architecture. Using architectural plans, trade journals, personal letters of publishers, owners and architects, and press commentary, this research investigates the themes of power, concentration, spectacle, and consumption, and the complexities of the commercial public sphere as a spatial construct.

Aurora Wallace is currently a professor in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communications at New York University. This research was initially undertaken as part of her doctoral work, which was supported by SSHRC and Fulbright fellowships, and which culminated in her dissertation The Architecture of News (McGill University, 2000). She has since published Newspapers and the Making of Modern America (Greenwood, 2005) and articles in Journalism History, Philosophy and Geography, Space and Culture, the Journal of Visual Culture, and Crime, Media, Culture. With the recent developments in media and real estate in New York, now is an opportune time to revisit and update this research for publication.