About the Book
If there is anything to be learned from the history of American architecture it is that it reflects the American adventure in creativity and inventiveness, and the desire to be unique and expressive. In The Groundbreakers, Charles E. Dagit, Jr. examines pioneering American architects and the historical events and trends that gave rise to their achievements. These architects, the caliber of Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry, created their own distinct, personal styles, and represented the rich heritages of their specific geographical regions.
The American pioneer spirit of individualism is alive and well in the architectural world, and like other American innovations, architecture as practiced in the United States is constantly renewing itself and finding new ways to capture the imagination. This book will be of interest to historians, architects, and students in American studies. Illustrations add dimension to the author's observations.
Table of Contents:
Foreword by Peter Q. Bohlin
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The American Dream
2. Beginnings of American Architecture
3. Early History: Two Colonies, Two Capitals
4. William Buckland: The First American Architect
5. The Search for an American Architecture, Thomas Jefferson, a Romantic Rationalist, North and South
6. Boston, the Cradle of Invention, Henry Hobson Richardson
7. Philadelphia, the Generator of Institutions, Frank Furness
8. Chicago, the Prairie Innovations, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright
9. Pasadena and the Railroad Hotel, the Western Legacy of Greene and Greene
10. San Francisco, Berkeley and the Gold Rush, Bernard Maybeck
11. Tulsa, Oil and Cattle, Bruce Goff
12. Detroit, the Economic Engine, the Automobile, Eero Sarrinen
13. Los Angeles and the Birth of the Film Industry, Rudolph Schindler, the Beginnings of Abstract Modernism,
Mies van der Rohe
14. Philadelphia, the Philadelphia School, the Emergence of the Intellectual Revolution, Louis I. Kahn, Romaldo
Giurgola, Robert Venturi
15. The International Style, The Americans: Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo, I. M. Pei, Philip Johnson
16. The New York Five, "the Whites," The Ultramodernists and Their Conversion, Richard Meier, Michael Graves
17. Architects Out of Context, Charles Moore, Robert A. M. Stern, Peter Bohlin, James Polshek, Antoine Predock,
Cesar Pelli
18. Global Architecture and the Architecture of the Bizarre, The Tech-Fantasticism Movement, Eric Owen Moss,
Frank Gehry, Los Angeles and the Culture of Fantasy
19. On the Brink, Kieran Timberlake, Steven Holl, Tod Williams Billie Tsien
20. Observations on History and the Future, The American Spirit
Illustration Credits
Illustrations Index
Index
About the Author :
Charles E. Dagit, Jr. taught at Temple University, USA, the University of Pennsylvania, USA, and Drexel University, USA, and was awarded the American Institute of Architects Pennsylvania's Medal of Distinction. His work has been published in Progressive Architect, Interiors Magazine, and Yale Perspecta.
Review :
-What he wanted to achieve in his book was to place each architect richly in his historic moment, so readers would gain a sense of how history shapes the work of even the most original thinkers. . . . Dagit's ideas about creativity, and about architecture are richly imagined and as daring as the man himself.-
--Olivia Lehman, Main Line Media News
-In the future, architecture will need to face extraordinary challenges of climate change, the crowding of people, the use, production, and distribution of energy, and the interaction of cultures. The Groundbreakers, by showing us how our country's innovative, daring, entrepreneurial spirit has given birth to and nurtured groundbreaking architects and the treasures of our built environment, helps lead the way to a more focused, thoughtful, and inspired approach to those imperatives.-
--Peter Q. Bohlin, American Institute of Architects Gold Medal recipient
-In a time when architecture has become ever more narcissistic and autonomous, Charles reminds us that the best and most unique American architecture is not only deeply embedded in its socio-economic context, but indeed springs from it. This book is a brilliant civic lesson for us all.-
--Michael Dennis, MIT
"What he wanted to achieve in his book was to place each architect richly in his historic moment, so readers would gain a sense of how history shapes the work of even the most original thinkers. . . . Dagit's ideas about creativity, and about architecture are richly imagined and as daring as the man himself."
--Olivia Lehman, Main Line Media News
"In the future, architecture will need to face extraordinary challenges of climate change, the crowding of people, the use, production, and distribution of energy, and the interaction of cultures. The Groundbreakers, by showing us how our country's innovative, daring, entrepreneurial spirit has given birth to and nurtured groundbreaking architects and the treasures of our built environment, helps lead the way to a more focused, thoughtful, and inspired approach to those imperatives."
--Peter Q. Bohlin, American Institute of Architects Gold Medal recipient
"In a time when architecture has become ever more narcissistic and autonomous, Charles reminds us that the best and most unique American architecture is not only deeply embedded in its socio-economic context, but indeed springs from it. This book is a brilliant civic lesson for us all."
--Michael Dennis, MIT
"What he wanted to achieve in his book was to place each architect richly in his historic moment, so readers would gain a sense of how history shapes the work of even the most original thinkers. . . . Dagit's ideas about creativity, and about architecture are richly imagined and as daring as the man himself."
--Olivia Lehman, Main Line Media News
"In the future, architecture will need to face extraordinary challenges of climate change, the crowding of people, the use, production, and distribution of energy, and the interaction of cultures. The Groundbreakers, by showing us how our country's innovative, daring, entrepreneurial spirit has given birth to and nurtured groundbreaking architects and the treasures of our built environment, helps lead the way to a more focused, thoughtful, and inspired approach to those imperatives."
--Peter Q. Bohlin, American Institute of Architects Gold Medal recipient
"In a time when architecture has become ever more narcissistic and autonomous, Charles reminds us that the best and most unique American architecture is not only deeply embedded in its socio-economic context, but indeed springs from it. This book is a brilliant civic lesson for us all."
--Michael Dennis, MIT
"In the future, architecture will need to face extraordinary challenges of climate change, the crowding of people, the use, production, and distribution of energy, and the interaction of cultures. The Groundbreakers, by showing us how our country's innovative, daring, entrepreneurial spirit has given birth to and nurtured groundbreaking architects and the treasures of our built environment, helps lead the way to a more focused, thoughtful, and inspired approach to those imperatives."
--Peter Q. Bohlin, American Institute of Architects Gold Medal recipient
"In a time when architecture has become ever more narcissistic and autonomous, Charles reminds us that the best and most unique American architecture is not only deeply embedded in its socio-economic context, but indeed springs from it. This book is a brilliant civic lesson for us all."
--Michael Dennis, MIT
