Alan Strauber

"I get up in the morning and write until I've backed myself into a corner; the next day I get up and write myself out of that corner." - Anthony Bourdain #writing #food #culinary #publishing #foodwriting

So I got a book deal AND my own BJ's card this week! What a week so far!

I am very excited to share that I signed a publishing contract today for my forthcoming book, Grand Central Terminal and the Rise of Midtown Manhattan, with SUNY Press. Estimated release date is the end of 2028. I know my Dad is smiling down.

Students at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts architecture school in Paris showing me the building models they were working on in the school's basement studios.
photo (c) Alan Strauber
#architecture #design #Paris #France

because we were told that they would probably open after 2 hours and end the mini strike - and they did. I had come a long way - it was well worth the wait!

Waiting in the snow to get into the Louvre during a 2 hour worker strike lockout - not fun

Musee d'Orsay, Paris - Behind one of the exterior clocks
photo (c) Alan Strauber #Paris #Photography #Clocks #France

Louvre, Paris - Napoleon III Apartments - photo (c) Alan Strauber #Paris #Photography #France #InteriorDesign #Louvre

Creme Brulee, the best I've ever had, at L'Emil Brasserie in the Chateau Voltaire Hotel, Paris - photo (c) Alan Strauber
#food #photography #foodphotography #Paris #Travel #France

L’ Ecole des Beaux-Arts - Paris. photo (c) Alan Strauber. One of the most important buildings in Paris, overlooked by tourists. Students have included painters Degas, Renoir, Matisse, Delacroix and Seurat. American architects who've attended include Sullivan, McKim, Carrere & Hastings and Warren.

On the passport line at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam
photo (c) Alan Strauber
#photography #portraits #Amsterdam #babies

Paris launches project for Montparnasse renovation The architect Renzo Piano unveiled his new renovation plan for the shopping center. Construction is hoped to start in 2028.

www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/a...

More from the Louvre, Paris
photo (c) Alan Strauber
#photography #sculpture #Paris #France #Art #Louvre

The Louvre - Paris - Grand salon in the Minister of State apartments, ca. 1850-1860
photo (c) Alan Strauber
#photography #interiordesign #architecturephotography #architecture #frenchhistory

At Musee d'Orsay in Paris last week

Originally known as the American Radiator Building (note the gold flames on the facade & brick tinted to look like coal). Raymond Hood (also designed 30 Rockefeller Plaza/RCA Building), 1924. 40th St near Bryant Park NYC. Georgia O'Keefe painted it! #architecture #photography
photo (c) Alan Strauber

Donald Trump’s bleak, incoherent foreign-policy strategy Allies may panic; despots will cheer

Not a policy or document the Orange Crazyperson could have come up with on his own www.economist.com/united-state...

Frank Gehry, the most celebrated architect of his time, dies at 96 The lauded architect designed such striking buildings as the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

www.lemonde.fr/en/obituarie...

Steve Cropper, guitarist and member of Stax Records' Booker T and the M.G.'s, dies Steve Cropper, who co-wrote classics including "(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay" and "In the Midnight Hour" during his years playing guitar at the legendary Stax Records in Memphis, has died. He was ...

An unsung contributor to American music, guitarist Steve Cropper co-wrote Dock of the Bay with Otis Reading and In the Midnight Hour with Wilson Pickett. He died on Wednesday. www.npr.org/2025/12/03/g...

Frank O. Gehry, Titan of Architecture, Is Dead at 96

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/a...

Boscobel, main house - Garrison, NY, Hudson River side rear view. Construction completed 1808 for States Dyckman, a colorful loyalist to the British during the American Revolution.
photo (c) Alan Strauber

Waldorf Astoria, NYC - Clock commissioned by Queen Victoria for display at the 1893 World's Colombian Exposition in Chicago. It now sits in Peacock Alley, the lobby restaurant bar in the restored Waldorf. #architecture #interiordesign #photography #clocks #nycphotography
photo (c) Alan Strauber

I may be getting better at taking selfies - maybe not

Song composer Cole Porter's piano - Waldorf Astoria, NYC - Hotel management presented him with this Steinway shortly after he moved into the hotel circa 1934. Porter lived in the residential towers of the hotel until his death in 1964. #music #Jazz #piano
photo (c) Alan Strauber

White! To match the new ballroom!

Preservationists sue Trump over plans to paint Eisenhower building The complaint alleges Trump’s plan would ‘permanently alter one of the most architecturally significant and historic structures in the Nation’s Capital’

Historic Preservationists finally stand up to Trump www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

This is the cornet that Louis Armstrong played while at the Colored Waifs Home for Boys in New Orleans after his arrest at 11 for firing a gun on New Years Eve, 1912. New Orleans Jazz Museum #music #jazz #Photography #NOLA

photo (c) Alan Strauber - taken with my Leica D-Lux 8 digital camera

Part of White House Is Reduced to Rubble. Trump’s Ballroom Will Rise in Its Place.

As a historic preservationist, historian and American human being I am disgusted and feel physically ill over this. Plus it's symbolic of what Donald Trump is doing to our country.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/u...

The Case for Mechanical Watches in a Digital Age La Quête du Temps, an elaborate Vacheron Constantin timepiece on display at the Louvre, represents everything there is to love about watchmaking.

Yes! www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Eiffel Tower being struck by lightning - Gabriel Loppe', photographer, 1902. He gifted the print to Gustav Eiffel whose family later presented it to the Musee D'Orsay, Paris.