David W. Dunlap (born 1952) is an American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

who worked as a reporter for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. He wrote a regular column, Building Blocks, that looked at the

New York metropolitan area The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass, at , and one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. The vast metropolitan area ...

through its architecture, infrastructure, spaces, and places.

Career

Born in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, on May 10, 1952, Dunlap extensively documented the rebuilding of the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

in 2001. He began writing about landmarks in 1981, when he was evicted from the

New York Biltmore Hotel The New York Biltmore Hotel was a luxury hotel at 335 Madison Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The hotel was developed by the New York Central Railroad and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad and operated from 1913 to 1981. ...

so that he would not be able to see its interior being demolished. He began his career as a clerk to

James Reston James Barrett Reston (November 3, 1909 – December 6, 1995), nicknamed "Scotty", was an American journalist whose career spanned the mid-1930s to the early 1990s. He was associated for many years with ''The New York Times.'' Early lif ...

in 1975, became a graphics editor in 1976, and then reporter in 1981. Between 1994 and 1999, Dunlap covered

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

, lesbian, and AIDS issues for ''The New York Times''. He was the first reporter to officially cover the "gay and lesbian beat". ''The New York Times'' decided to officially document news about gay and lesbian communities after the AIDS-related death of ''Times'' reporter Jeffrey Schmalz in November 1993. Dunlap was sometimes criticized for covering the news from a politically left-leaning position. He retired from ''The Times'' in December 2017. Dunlap is currently documenting the history of

Provincetown, Massachusetts Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Province ...

, through its architecture, on the website ''Building Provincetown 2020'', which is under construction.

Awards

Dunlap won the Citation of Excellence award from the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...

. In 1992, he received the American Planning Association's New York Metro Chapter journalism award; other winners have included

Brendan Gill Brendan Gill (October 4, 1914 – December 27, 1997) was an American journalist. He wrote for ''The New Yorker'' for more than 60 years. Gill also contributed film criticism for ''Film Comment'', wrote about design and architecture for Architectu ...

Paul Goldberger Paul Goldberger (born in 1950) is an American author, architecture critic and lecturer. He is known for his "Sky Line" column in ''The New Yorker''. Biography Shortly after starting as a reporter at ''The New York Times'' in 1972, he was assign ...

, Kenneth T. Jackson, and

Elizabeth Kolbert Elizabeth Kolbert (born 1961) is an American journalist, author, and visiting fellow at Williams College. She is best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning book '' The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History'', and as an observer and commentator ...

Books

* ''From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan's Houses of Worship''. Columbia University Press, 2004. * ''On Broadway: A Journey Uptown Over Time''. Rizzoli International, 1990. * ''Glory in Gotham: Manhattan's Houses of Worship: A Guide to Their History, Architecture and Legacy''. City and Company, 2004. *''Building Provincetown: A Guide to Its Social and Cultural History, Told Through Its Architecture.'' Town of Provincetown, Provincetown Historical Commission, 2015. *''The City Observed: New York'', by Paul Goldberger. Random House, 1979. (Dunlap was the photographer.)

References

American architecture writers American male journalists American newspaper reporters and correspondents American gay writers American LGBT journalists LGBT people from New York (state) Living people The New York Times columnists Place of birth missing (living people) Yale University alumni 1952 births 21st-century LGBT people {{LGBT-bio-stub

Career

Awards

Books

See also

References