John Tauranac: “I seldom think macroscopically; I think microscopically.‪”‬ Very Expensive Maps

Manhattan writer and cartographer John Tauranac on his first maps of Midtown’s pedestrian passages, a public debate with Massimo Vignelli (“His geography was egregious”), working at a very different MTA (they used to have an aesthetics committee?), the “no improvements” made to the subway map since he chaired the 1979 MTA map committee, guiding Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s helicopter photo surveys of Manhattan, walking every block and learning Illustrator to create his acclaimed 176-page Manhattan tourist guide, how to make a usable bus map, New York’s vanished map stores, and a longitudinal view of the business: “plus ça change, plus c'est la même bull████.” See his work at johntauranac.com


Tauranac Maps
Manhattan Block By Block: A Street Atlas
Bauhaus vs. Beaux-Arts
Vignelli’s 1972 NYC subway map
Tauranac’s 1979 NYC subway map
The 2023 NYC subway map
Nobu Siraisi
John explains his subway map design choices
Yann Arthus-Bertrand
DeLorme Maps
Alex McPhee’s giant maps of Canada