About the Artist
John Tauranac
John Tauranac (b. 1939, New York City) writes on New York City history and architecture, he teaches the subject and gives tours of the city, and he designs city maps and transit maps. His first published maps (1972 and 1973) were New York Magazine’s "Undercover Maps," which showed how to navigate passageways through and under buildings in Midtown and Lower Manhattan so you could stay dry in the wet and warm in the cold. He went on to chair the MTA Subway Map Committee that designed the 1979 subway map, which, in addition to depicting the subway in a geographic perspective, simplified the system with the introduction of a color-coding system based on trunk lines. For his dual roles, he was awarded a commendation for design excellence by the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of Transportation. He has since designed dozens of maps, many under the Tauranac imprint, including Manhattan Block By Block: A Street Atlas.
