Cass Gilbert, Life and Work: Architect of the Public Domain

by Barbara S. Christen (Editor), Steven Flanders (Editor), Robert A. M. Stern (Introduction)

Overview

Nineteen essays, by a diverse group of historians and others who experience and study Gilbert's buildings in their professional lives, detail the intricate relationship between Gilbert's work and the longstanding tradition of public architecture in America.

This volume examines Gilbert's work in five unique categories: the building of a national practice, an evaluation of his Minnesota State Capitol as "a defining moment" in American civic architecture, his New York career, his response to civic ideals in his plans for towns and universities, and his work in the public domain.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393730654
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	11/17/2001
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	8.70(w) x 10.60(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Barbara S. Christen is an architectural historian who specializes in the history of Cass Gilbert’s architectural work and the history of campus and preservation planning. In recent years, she has served as technical advisor for the Society of College and University Planning (SCUP) Campus Heritage Discovery Project, examining the campus heritage projects funded between 2002 and 2007 by the Getty Foundation (www.campusheritage.org). She has also led the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) Historic Campus Architecture Project, which created an inventory of historic campus architecture and landscape design regarding 2100 cultural heritage sites at nearly 400 campuses of independent colleges and universities across the United States (www.cic.edu/hcap). She received her Ph.D. in art and architectural history from the City University of New York Graduate Center.

Steven Flanders, a consultant in court administration, lives in Pelham, New York.

Table of Contents

	Preface	9
	Introduction	15
Part 1.	A National Practice Built from the "Northwest"	25
1.	Architectural Education and Minnesota Career	27
2.	Launching a Career: Residential and Ecclesiastical Work from the St. Paul Office	46
3.	The Politics of Public Architecture	62
4.	The Aesthetics of an Eclectic Architect	73
Part 2.	A Defining Moment in American Civic Architecture	85
5.	The Minnesota State Capitol: Thinking Internationally, Designing Locally	87
6.	The Civilization of the West	100
7.	High Culture by the Square Foot	113
8.	The Restoration and Preservation of Minnesota's Showplace	125
Part 3.	Monumentality in New York	135
9.	The Image of the City: The Woolworth Building and the Creation of the New York Skyline	137
10.	In the Camera's Eye: The Woolworth Building and American Avant-Garde Photography and Film	149
11.	"Great Gray Buildings": The United States Army Supply Base	163
Part 4.	Ideals in Planning	175
12.	A "New" New England: Proposals for New Haven and Waterbury, Connecticut	177
13.	The University of Texas: Vision and Ambition	192
14.	Oberlin: The Grand Collaboration	206
15.	A British Response to American Classicism: Cass Gilbert and Charles Reilly	220
Part 5.	Gilbert and the Public Domain	233
16.	St. Louis: Public Architecture, Civic Ideals	235
17.	"A Difficult and Perplexing Matter": The Louisiana Purchase Exposition	252
18.	A User's Viewpoint: Gilbert and His Public	265
19.	Representing American Justice: The United States Supreme Court	272
	Postscript	289
	Notes	293
	Contributors	311
	Index	313

Editorial Reviews

"This fine volume is a worthy addition…providing a richly detailed picture of a too long neglected American architect."

JSAH - Elizabeth Meredith Dowling

"A considerable feat of scholarship…what makes this book special are a number of unusual perspectives it offers…an extremely important book on a leading American architect that has contemporary relevance as well."

APT Bulletin - Richard Guy Wilson