Gilded Age Mansions
Between roughly 1870 and 1900, industrialization sparked a rapid expansion of the American economy, resulting in a period of opulent wealth known as the Gilded Age. Industry tycoons who profited from the booming steel, oil, and railroad industries built extravagant houses across the country, with the highest concentration of these Gilded Age mansions lining Fifth Avenue in New York City. Despite the money, ingenuity, and craftsmanship that went into constructing this monumental architecture, many no longer exist today, leaving little to no trace of their presence in the ever-changing New York City landscape.
Gilded Age Mansions of New York City is a data visualization project that investigates the rise and fall of these pieces of American history using open-source data[1]. The project consists of two parts—a static infographic that could be used for print, and a corresponding website that allows users to interact with the same data. Together, these visualizations highlight interesting correlations between each mansion’s location, the architect who designed it, and its current preservation status. A corresponding map enables readers to locate mansions that still exist today and identify the sites of those that have been demolished.
