Overview
Cass Gilbert's pioneering buildings injected vitality into skyscraper design, and his ""Gothic skyscraper,"" epitomized by the Woolworth Building, profoundly influenced architects during the first decades of the twentieth century. Now, as the New-York Historical Society mounts a major exhibit documenting his architectural career, the full breadth of Gilbert's achievements is visible in one lavishly illustrated volume. Architect of the Broadway Chambers Building, the US Custom House, the Minnesota State Capitol, the St. Louis Art Museum, and large-scale projects like the city plan for New Haven, Connecticut, Gilbert is most famous for his skyscrapers-""symbols of our national genius and unrestraint""-monuments of the Beaux Arts ""City Beautiful"" aesthetic he embraced throughout his career. Containing essays by major Gilbert scholars, Inventing the Skyline documents fascinating details about the buildings: the color scheme of the main entrance of the Minnesota State Capitol, made to resemble the Byzantine tomb of Galla Placidia in Ravenna; the controversy that erupted over the use of female nudes on the relief of the Essex County Courthouse; and the ill-fated plans for the George Washington Bridge as a Beaux Arts monument with elaborate plazas, fountains, and sculptures.
Full Product Details
Author: Margaret Heilbrun
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 21.60cm
, Height: 2.40cm
, Length: 25.40cm
Weight: 0.879kg
ISBN: 9780231118736
ISBN 10: 0231118732
Pages: 312
Publication Date: 14 July 2004
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Out of stock
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.
Language: English
Reviews
A visually rich book that reproduces numerous photographs, drawings, and plans from the Gilbert archive and presents them together with five scholarly essays by Gilbert authorities...Each of these essays draws richly on material from the archive, is well-documented, and provides real insights into Gilbert's work...for the sobriety of its essays, and even more for its lavish reproductions of plans and drawings, Inventing the Skyline is a necessary addition to any shelf of books on American architecture. -- Francis Morrone The New Criterion
A visually rich book that reproduces numerous photographs, drawings, and plans from the Gilbert archive and presents them together with five scholarly essays by Gilbert authorities...Each of these essays draws richly on material from the archive, is well-documented, and provides real insights into Gilbert's work...for the sobriety of its essays, and even more for its lavish reproductions of plans and drawings, Inventing the Skyline is a necessary addition to any shelf of books on American architecture. -- Francis Morrone, The New Criterion
A visually rich book that reproduces numerous photographs, drawings, and plans from the Gilbert archive and presents them together with five scholarly essays by Gilbert authorities....Each of these essays draws richly on material from the archive, is well-documented, and provides real insights into Gilbert's work....for the sobriety of its essays, and even more for its lavish reproductions of plans and drawings, Inventing the Skyline is a necessary addition to any shelf of books on American architecture. -- Francis Morrone * The New Criterion *
Author Information
Margaret Heilbrun is the library director of the New York Historical Society.
