Urban architecture photos are my passion. Metro-Photo presents images, stats, stories, sources and links to make cities’ buildings your passion, too. Why? Because our metros are living museums of architecture. They have millions of buildings erected over a span of more than four centuries in a fascinating palette of historical and modern styles.
Thousands of architects have toiled to plan a “built environment” for living, learning, working and playing. These mostly unsung heroes have designed so well that their work is mostly invisible. Architects’ creations are taken for granted almost as much as the sidewalks from which they rise. City dwellers routinely walk by historic landmarks without a thought of the effort and care needed to create those treasures.
So here are thousands of images to explore, reveal, and celebrate some famous structures and lesser-known architectural gems. This is a personal, not academic selection. I’ve discovered or re-discovered these buildings and neighborhoods mostly by walking around with my camera and shooting what I like. I usually do my research after I process the photos. Great buildings often have great stories, which I’ve condensed. The links with each page let you go deeper, if you wish. Like the cities themselves, this site is always under construction – at this writing, I have at least another 500 buildings to add!
I hope the photography in these pages inspires you to explore a city – any city, maybe even your own!
The Cities
New York City is where I started my photography, but the metro-photo.com collection now includes:
Albany, originally settled by the Mohicans, is the capital of New York State. The city is rich in colonial history dating back to 1609, when Dutch explorer Henry Hudson reachedEXPLORE NOW
Baltimore was originally settled by the Susquehannock Native Americans. Europeans established Baltimore in 1706 as a tobacco trading port; they established the Town of Baltimore in 1729. Baltimore’s proximity toEXPLORE NOW
Boston was originally settled by the Native America tribe, Massachusett. Puritan settlers from the English town of Boston in Lincolnshire arrived in 1630. They’ve been making history in Beantown everEXPLORE NOW
Buffalo, New York sits at the eastern end of Lake Erie, less than 20 miles from Niagara Falls. Before French explorers roamed the area in the early 1600s, the IroquoisEXPLORE NOW
Cambridge, Massachusetts is so closely tied to Boston that one might forget that it’s an independent city. Boston guidebooks (like the two listed below) routinely cover Cambridge within their pages.EXPLORE NOW
Cincinnati, aka Cincy, aka Queen City, is Ohio’s largest city – though not the capital (which is Columbus). Like Rome, it’s a city of seven hills: Mount Adams, Walnut Hills,EXPLORE NOW
Hartford, the capital of Connecticut, is only the state’s fourth-largest city. It was founded in 1635 and in the centuries since has been on an economic roller coaster, from wealthiestEXPLORE NOW
New Haven is Connecticut’s third-largest city (Bridgeport and Stamford are larger), but considered a part of the New York City metropolitan statistical area. As you probably know, New Haven isEXPLORE NOW
The Bronx – the only borough to have “The” in its official name – is also the only part of New York City to be part of the mainland.* ManhattanEXPLORE NOW
Brooklyn, aka Kings County, is first among firsts. It is the largest borough of New York City by population, and the second-most-densely-populated county in the United States (after New YorkEXPLORE NOW
Fair warning: I was born here, roamed the streets as a kid, so your humble reporter/photographer may be biased. Manhattan, aka New York County, is the core of New YorkEXPLORE NOW
Queens is by far New York City’s largest borough – and it would have been much larger still if it didn’t lose chunks of itself starting in 1899. (See theEXPLORE NOW
Staten Island (aka Richmond) is New York City’s adopted child. It joined the city in 1898, as part of the consolidation that also brought Brooklyn and Queens into the family.EXPLORE NOW
Silly me. I once thought “City of Brotherly Love” was Philadelphia’s nickname, as “Big Apple” and “Windy City” are nicknames for New York City and Chicago. Philadelphia is actually GreekEXPLORE NOW
Providence, the capital of Rhode Island, was founded in 1636 and is among the oldest cities in the United States. Like a number of other colonies, the city was aEXPLORE NOW
Richmond, Virginia’s founder, William Byrd II, named the city after a spot in England where the River Thames view was similar to the view of the James River. English homageEXPLORE NOW
Syracuse is the fifth-largest (by population) city in New York State. The city’s first industry, in the 1700s and 1800s, was salt production from natural brine springs and wells –EXPLORE NOW
Here are the 100 most recent Metro-Photo galleries. Come back often - to find new reasons to love cities!EXPLORE NOW
This site is a labor of love, built over a period of years without advertising. I ask only that you respect my copyright. If you need images for any reason, please use my Order Photos form to request them.
More about metro-photo.com
This started as a retirement hobby in 2011. I had time on my hands and started exploring New York City; I snapped some photos and shared them on Facebook. A friend recommended a book about NYC architecture,* and I became hooked. Buildings are amazing! They’re not just piles of masonry; they have histories, and style. They are collaborations of architects, developers, civic leaders, and urban planners.
I created NewYorkitecture.com, to share architectural photos and stories with a wider audience – not just my Facebook friends. After I started photographing other cities, NewYorkitecture.com became too limiting as a domain name. Metro-Photo.com is more inclusive.
Yes, Amazon pays me a small commission if you buy something from one of my links. That helps defray the cost of this website, which has no other advertising or subscription fees. And all books mentioned are books that I have actually purchased and used myself.
