At a time when Park and Fifth Avenues, Sutton Place, and Gracie Square were the ultimate addresses of wealth and power, Italian American architect Rosario Candela designed the neighborhood’s most definitive buildings. Never flashy or ostentatious, these prewar buildings were elegant and discreet, clad in brick or limestone, with setbacks and terraces that afforded owners, especially those living near the top floors, private views of the sky above and the city below.

To this day, Candela’s work defines the Upper East Side’s architecture of luxury, and now — finally — comes a book that gives us not just a photographic record of Candela’s work but also essays on Candela by three design authorities: designer David Netto, architecture critic Paul Goldberger, and architect Peter Pennoyer.