Book Presentation: Sanatorium - Inside the Architectural Cure for Tuberculosis By John Lazzaro
Schedule
Tue May 26 2026 at 06:00 pm to 07:00 pm
UTC-04:00Location
89 Church St, Ste 2, Saranac Lake, NY, United States, New York 12983 | Saranac Lake, NY
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Join us for a special look at Sanatorium: Inside the Architectural Cure for Tuberculosis. The presentation will include photographer and author John Lazzaro's approach to photography, inspiration for the project, and an educational and thought-provoking history of many of the sites visited and photographed for the book.Sanatorium: Inside the Architectural Cure for Tuberculosis is the first book to document the contemporary vestiges of former tuberculosis hospitals in the United States. Commemorating the visionary architecture that played a vital role in combating America's first modern public health crisis, this thought-provoking photographic survey of over 25 sites throughout the country includes the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium in Saranac Lake, New York, America's first sanatorium; Seaside Sanatorium in Waterford, Connecticut, the first children's heliotropic treatment hospital; Molly Stark Sanatorium, Ohio's stunning Spanish Revival-styled tuberculosis hospital; and Sea View Hospital in Staten Island, the site of the pioneering antibiotic research for the cure for TB.
Sanatorium spotlights the historical significance of the existing structures as symbols of progressive ideas and civic responsibility, which were constructed by like-minded physicians, philanthropists, and government officials. Most importantly, the work documents how the quest for a cure led to the visionary architecture of hospitals and captures what remains - edifices of abandoned and left to decay or repurposed and forgotten, before they ultimately disappear.
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John Lazzaro specializes in urban landscape photography and the documentation of the solemn beauty in abandoned buildings and vanishing architecture throughout the country. As an author, photographer, and documentary filmmaker, he is fascinated by history, storytelling, and social awareness. His first book, The Walls Still Talk: A Photographic Journey Through Kings Park Psychiatric Center (self-published, 2019), documented the decades of neglect and decay of Kings Park Psychiatric Center in Kings Park, New York, as a result of deinstitutionalization. His second book, A Vanishing New York: Ruins Across the Empire State (Schiffer, 2022), which includes an essay by renowned architectural historian Thomas Mellins, was the result of a three-year survey of the last remaining abandoned sites representing the diverse history of New York State. Lazzaro draws upon his experiences from documentary filmmaking in order to create a realistic, visual, and enthralling dialogue of historic ruins.
He is a graduate of the University of Vermont and Quinnipiac University and currently resides in Huntington, NY.
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89 Church St, Ste 2, Saranac Lake, NY, United States, New York 12983Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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