Architects of Power

Architects of Power PDF Author: Philip Terzian
Publisher: Encounter Books
ISBN: 1594033781
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 139

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Book Description
The United States is not a preternaturally inward-looking nation, and isolation is not the natural disposition of Americans. The real question is not whether Americans are prone to isolation or engagement, but how their engagement with the world has evolved, how events have conspired to make the United States toward world power, and how these developments have been guided by political leadership. Indeed, the great debates on foreign affairs in American history have not been about whether to have debates on foreign affairs; they have been between and among the competing visions of American influence in the world. In Architects of Power, Philip Terzian examines two public figures in the 20th century who personify, in their lives, careers and public philosophies, the rise of the United States of America to global leadership: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Terzian reveals how both men recognized and acted on the global threats of their time and questions whether America can rise to the same challenges today. Denied access to a clear vision of the past, our knowledge of the present and perspective on the future may be dangerously myopic. Without a window into the stricken world that Roosevelt inhabited, and Eisenhower understood, we are less likely to see the perils and challenges of the world we have inherited.

Architects of Power

Architects of Power PDF Author: Philip Terzian
Publisher: Encounter Books
ISBN: 1594033781
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 139

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Book Description
The United States is not a preternaturally inward-looking nation, and isolation is not the natural disposition of Americans. The real question is not whether Americans are prone to isolation or engagement, but how their engagement with the world has evolved, how events have conspired to make the United States toward world power, and how these developments have been guided by political leadership. Indeed, the great debates on foreign affairs in American history have not been about whether to have debates on foreign affairs; they have been between and among the competing visions of American influence in the world. In Architects of Power, Philip Terzian examines two public figures in the 20th century who personify, in their lives, careers and public philosophies, the rise of the United States of America to global leadership: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Terzian reveals how both men recognized and acted on the global threats of their time and questions whether America can rise to the same challenges today. Denied access to a clear vision of the past, our knowledge of the present and perspective on the future may be dangerously myopic. Without a window into the stricken world that Roosevelt inhabited, and Eisenhower understood, we are less likely to see the perils and challenges of the world we have inherited.

Power and Architecture

Power and Architecture PDF Author: Michael Minkenberg
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1782380108
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Capital cities have been the seat of political power and central stage for their state’s political conflicts and rituals throughout the ages. In the modern era, they provide symbols for and confer meaning to the state, thereby contributing to the “invention” of the nation. Capitals capture the imagination of natives, visitors and outsiders alike, yet also express the outcomes of power struggles within the political systems in which they operate. This volume addresses the reciprocal relationships between identity, regime formation, urban planning, and public architecture in the Western world. It examines the role of urban design and architecture in expressing (or hiding) ideological beliefs and political agenda. Case studies include “old” capitals such as Rome, Vienna, Berlin and Warsaw; “new” ones such as Washington DC, Ottawa, Canberra, Ankara, Bonn, and Brasília; and the “European” capital Brussels. Each case reflects the authors’ different disciplinary backgrounds in architecture, history, political science, and urban studies, demonstrating the value of an interdisciplinary approach to studying cities.

Why We Build

Why We Build PDF Author: Rowan Moore
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062277596
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
In an era of brash, expensive, provocative new buildings, a prominent critic argues that emotions—such as hope, power, sex, and our changing relationship to the idea of home—are the most powerful force behind architecture, yesterday and (especially) today. We are living in the most dramatic period in architectural history in more than half a century: a time when cityscapes are being redrawn on a yearly basis, architects are testing the very idea of what a building is, and whole cities are being invented overnight in exotic locales or here in the United States. Now, in a bold and wide-ranging new work, Rowan Moore—former director of the Architecture Foundation, now the architecture critic for The Observer—explores the reasons behind these changes in our built environment, and how they in turn are changing the way we live in the world. Taking as his starting point dramatic examples such as the High Line in New York City and the outrageous island experiment of Dubai, Moore then reaches far and wide: back in time to explore the Covent Garden brothels of eighteenth-century London and the fetishistic minimalism of Adolf Loos; across the world to assess a software magnate’s grandiose mansion in Atlanta and Daniel Libeskind’s failed design for the World Trade Center site; and finally to the deeply naturalistic work of Lina Bo Bardi, whom he celebrates as the most underrated architect of the modern era.

Stalin's Architect

Stalin's Architect PDF Author: Deyan Sudjic
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262369443
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
The story of Boris Iofan—designer of the iconic but unbuilt Palace of the Soviets—whose buildings came to define the language of Soviet architecture. What would an architect do for the chance to build the tallest building in the world? What would he sacrifice to stay alive in the midst of Stalin’s murderous purges? This is the first major publication on the remarkable life and career of Boris Iofan (1891–1976), state architect to Joseph Stalin. Iofan’s story is an insight into the troubled relationship of all successful architects with power. A gifted designer and a committed Communist, Iofan became the Soviet Union’s most celebrated architect after Alexei Rykov, Lenin’s successor, persuaded him to return to Moscow from Rome with his aristocratic wife, Olga Sasso-Ruffo. Iofan was at the heart of political life in the Soviet Union and his work is key to understanding its official culture. When Stalin’s henchmen crushed the architectural avant-garde, it was Iofan who created the new national style, from the grand projects he realized—including the House on the Embankment, a megastructure of 505 homes for the Soviet elite—to even more ambitious unbuilt projects, in particular the Palace of the Soviets, a baroque Stalinist dream whose image was reproduced throughout the Soviet Union. His career took him to New York and Paris, and to the destroyed city of Stalingrad. He was a friend of Frank Lloyd Wright; a rival of Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Erich Mendelsohn; and an enemy of Hitler’s architect Albert Speer, whose Nazi pavilion faced Iofan’s Soviet one at the Paris Expo in 1937. He kept silent when Stalin executed his friends, including Rykov; he also sacrificed his own talent by following the dictator’s instructions to the letter in creating the regime’s landmarks. Generously illustrated, with a wide range of previously unpublished material, this book is an exploration of architecture as an instrument of statecraft. It is an insight into the key moments of 20th-century politics and culture from a unique perspective, and the personal story of a remarkable individual who witnessed many of the most dramatic turning points of modern history.

The Power of Existing Buildings

The Power of Existing Buildings PDF Author: Robert Sroufe
Publisher:
ISBN: 164283050X
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
In The Power of Existing Buildings, academic sustainability expert Robert Sroufe, and construction and building experts Craig Stevenson and Beth Eckenrode, explain how to realize the potential of existing buildings and make them perform like new. This step-by-step guide will help readers to: understand where to start a project; develop financial models and realize costs savings; assemble an expert team; and align goals with numerous sustainability programs. The Power of Existing Buildings will challenge you to rethink spaces where people work and play, while determining how existing buildings can save the world. The insights and practical experience of Sroufe, Stevenson, and Eckenrode, along with the project case study examples, provide new insights on investing in existing buildings for building owners, engineers, occupants, architects, and real estate and construction professionals.

Buildings and Power

Buildings and Power PDF Author: Thomas A. Markus
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136130845
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
The material and cultural world in which we now live perhaps represents the end of a process created out of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. The battles fought over class, ideology and language are represented most clearly in the explosion of new building types during the Century of Revolutions. Lavishly illustrated with photographs, drawings, maps and plans, Buildings and Power analyses architectural form, function and space to explore the reproduction and the subversion of power in the modern city.

The Edifice Complex

The Edifice Complex PDF Author: Deyan Sudjic
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1440649324
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
A provocative look at architecture-"exceptionally intelligent and original" (Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World) Deyan Sudjic-"probably the most influential figure in architecture you've never heard of" - argues that architecture, far from being auteur art, must be understood as a naked expression of power. From the grandiose projects of Stalin and Hitler to the "theme park" excess of today's presidential libraries, Sudjic goes behind the scenes of history's great manipulators of building propaganda-and exposes Rem Koolhaas, Frank Gehry, and other architects in a disturbing new light. This controversial book is essential reading for all those interested in the power of architecture-or the architecture of power. * A Washington Post Book World Best Book of the Year

The Power of Pro Bono

The Power of Pro Bono PDF Author: John Cary
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781935202189
Category : Architects
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book presents 40 pro bono design projects produced by many of the leading architects working today. The clients include grassroots community organizations like the Homeless Prenatal Program of San Francisco, as well as national and international nonprofits, among them Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity and Planned Parenthood.

The Power of Buildings, 1920-1950

The Power of Buildings, 1920-1950 PDF Author: Hugh Ferriss
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486136183
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 114

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Book Description
Trained as an architect in the early twentieth century, Hugh Ferriss possessed a vision of form that surpassed the traditional blueprints of his peers—and it showed in his distinctively moody renderings. A master of light and shadow, he managed to capture the spirit of each building with a heightened sense of perspective and design. By the 1920s, he was well on his way to becoming America's greatest architectural draftsman. Ferriss' remarkable style, which influenced generations of builders, is highlighted in this illustrated journey through three decades of American architecture. Accompanied by illuminating text and captions, this collection of sixty of his extraordinary drawings includes: Rockefeller Center, a stunning symbol of modern Art Deco style; California's Shasta Dam, ranked as one of the great civil engineering feats of the world; the Perisphere and Trylon from New York's 1939 World's Fair; Taliesin-in-Arizona, Frank Lloyd Wright's breathtaking winter home; and Denver's Red Rocks Amphitheater, a dramatic structure that incorporates natural elements and rock formations. Plus, there are illustrations of the Empire State Building, the United Nations headquarters, airports, grain elevators, bomb shelters, and more. Architects, draftsmen, and designers of all ages will savor the wonder and imagination in this magnificent volume.

Palazzos of Power

Palazzos of Power PDF Author: Aaron V. Wunsch
Publisher: Chronicle Books
ISBN: 1616895624
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
"If it isn't Electric, it isn't Modern." Such was the slogan of the Philadelphia Electric Company, developer of an unprecedented network of massive metropolitan power stations servicing greater Philadelphia at the turn of the twentieth century. These once-brilliant sentinels of civic utility and activity were designed to convey "solidity and immensity" in an age of deep public skepticism. They now stand vacant and decaying, a "blight" in the eyes of city planners and a beacon to urban explorers. The first book on the buildings and machines that made possible the electrification of the United States, Palazzos of Power offers a visual and analytical exploration of architecture, technology, place, loss, and reuse. With a foreword by David Nye, this collection of Joseph Elliott's beautiful large-format photographs reveal the urban landscape, monumental spaces, giant machinery, and intricate controls that made up the central station. Aaron Wunsch's essay provides historical context on the social and political climate.