Field Condition, a fascinating website that documents the architectural evolution of New York City, silently burst on the scene in September 2013. 

With a singular vision and consistent photographic style, the anonymous author and photographer offer(s) a mesmerizing view of urbanism at the top of the scale. Starchitects, including Herzog and de Meuron; Santiago Calatrava; Stephen Holl; Robert Stern; SHoP; FXFowle; and the like, form the list of usual suspects.

Modestly listed as “construction updates,” the posts are sometimes just that, and sometimes they are in-depth coverage of important new buildings in town. For example, the March 17, 2014 edition visits The New School University Center (below), on Fifth Avenue at 14^th Street, scrutinizing the building’s design and construction details, from its undulating mixed-media façade to the 3-D typography and wayfinding program designed by Ruedi Baur.  

Field Condition sometimes covers a district, such as the Meat Packing-High Line axis, or Hunters Point, Queens, continuously over a period of weeks and months, offering an urban design history in the making. 

The photographer has a distinctive style, shooting large format (that’s a guess) and preferring bright sunny blue skies, which accentuate the color and materials of construction itself, such as the orange barrier mesh and blue kevlar wrapping (see the photo below of 252 East Fifty Seven). An often used device, which is not overused, in which the parallax corrections are jimmied to make tower tops flare out, is unexpected and visually entertaining (examples above). Visit Field Condition here.