This walk will look at lettering in a former industrial/commercial section of Lower Manhattan that has been undergoing a rapid transformation into a residential neighborhood for the wealthy. It is a chance to see what still survives of the area’s 19th century and early 20th century lettering before condoization scrubs everything clean. The tour will stray into parts of Tribeca East and Chinatown before concluding in the Civic Center near City Hall. The lettering will be a mix of slab serifs, grotesques, classical Roman capitals, and at least one ornate Tuscan. There will also be little gems such as the nameplates of cast-iron manufacturers and decorative address plates.

Cosponsored by Legacy of Letters

Paul Shaw is a designer and a design historian. He has been leading lettering tours of New York City neighborhoods for 10 years and of other cities, both here and in Italy, since 1997. As a designer he specializes in letterforms from calligraphy to type design. Paul has designed or co-designed 18 fonts, including Kolo, Donatello and Old Claude. As a historian he has written or lectured about Bartolomeo Sanvito, W.A. Dwiggins, Oswald Cooper, Frederic W. Goudy, George Salter, Phil Gruskin, Hermann Zapf and others.

Meeting place and itinerary will be emailed a few days in advance of the tour.

Tickets at Eventbrite

This event is being held in association with NYCxDesign.