Like his fellow Precisionists, Louis Lozowick developed a carefully reasoned abstraction reducing architectural and industrial themes to their basic geometric shapes. For Lozowick, forms of modern technology possessed inherent qualities that lent themselves to abstraction, but were also symbols that could be used to celebrate the achievements of machine-age America.

New York is based on Lozowick's memory of an elevated train line that he passed daily as a student at the National Academy. "It towered above the street," he wrote, "and was tremendously impressive as it turned the corner." In the 1920s, after attending college, serving in the army, and temporarily settling in Europe, Lozowick resumed his interrupted career. The memory of the elevated line returned and he made a painting of it, adding his memory of the Brooklyn Bridge and several skyscrapers.