The Office for Metropolitan History and the Legacy of Christopher Gray

Sam Hightower is a building detective, blueprint wrangler, and the Director of the Office for Metropolitan History. Founded in 1975 by architectural educator, researcher, and writer Christopher Gray, the OMH provides invaluable research on the architectural history of New York buildings.

The office’s wide-ranging archive includes 18,000 photographs, 40,000 photographic negatives, and 8,000 architectural drawings, many of which date back to the late 19th century. Hightower, who oversees the collection, says their favorite element is the trove of fascinating files collated over four decades by Gray as he doggedly pursued citations, photographs, drawings, and much more for the office’s work and his own award-winning writing. This included several books, his “All the Best Places” column for House and Garden, his “Neighborhood” column in Avenue magazine, and, of course, the “Streetscapes” column in the New York Times, whose legacy continues with writer John Freeman Gill.

LW! is honored to be gifted this rare overview by Hightower of the OMH’s impressive private collection. Then, we’ll be treated to an insider’s journey of architectural discovery as they walk us through the research behind several of Gray's original “Streetscapes” columns that focused on the Upper West Side, including an upper Broadway theater and a residential-turned-commercial blockfront on West 72nd Street.