Nathan Silver

Early life and education Silver was born to Jewish parents, Isaac, an architect who also taught mechanical drawing at Stuyvesant High School and Libby Nachimowsky, a Hebrew school teacher, who later became a public school teacher. He was raised in Inwood, Manhattan and the Bronx.

Silver attended Stuyvesant High School and later earned a certificate in architecture at Cooper Union, and then studied at Columbia University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in architecture in 1955.

In 1961, Silver began teaching at Columbia University, where in 1964 he curated an exhibition about the city's lost built heritage. The book was a finalist for National Book Award for Nonfiction (History and Biography), and according to Silver, sold 100, 000 copies. He also contributed to Metropolis, Architectural Forum, The Nation, Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Book Review, Encounter, The Sunday Times Magazine, Harpers & Queen, The London Evening Standard and Blueprint.