Art Deco in Detroit

Art Deco in Detroit PDF Author: Rebecca Binno Savage
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1439614857
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
Since the 1920s, Art Deco, or "The Modern Style," has delighted people with its innovative use of materials and designs that capture the spirit of optimism to create the style of the future. Although the Detroit metro area is primarily known as an industrial region, it boasts some of the finest examples of Art Deco in the country. Art Deco in Detroit explores the wide-ranging variety of these architectural marvels, from world-famous structures like the Fisher and Penobscot Buildings, to commercial buildings, theaters, homes, and churches. Through a panorama of photographs, authors Rebecca Binno Savage and Greg Kowalski take readers on a fascinating tour of this influential movement and its manifestations in and around Detroit. The grandeur evident in some of the major buildings reflects a time when artisans and architects collaborated to craft structures that transcend functionality-they endure as standing works of art.

Art Deco in Detroit

Art Deco in Detroit PDF Author: Rebecca Binno Savage
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1439614857
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Get Book

Book Description
Since the 1920s, Art Deco, or "The Modern Style," has delighted people with its innovative use of materials and designs that capture the spirit of optimism to create the style of the future. Although the Detroit metro area is primarily known as an industrial region, it boasts some of the finest examples of Art Deco in the country. Art Deco in Detroit explores the wide-ranging variety of these architectural marvels, from world-famous structures like the Fisher and Penobscot Buildings, to commercial buildings, theaters, homes, and churches. Through a panorama of photographs, authors Rebecca Binno Savage and Greg Kowalski take readers on a fascinating tour of this influential movement and its manifestations in and around Detroit. The grandeur evident in some of the major buildings reflects a time when artisans and architects collaborated to craft structures that transcend functionality-they endure as standing works of art.

Designing Detroit

Designing Detroit PDF Author: Michael G. Smith
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 0814339808
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 496

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Book Description
In the early 1900s, Detroit was leading the nation in architectural innovation and designer Wirt Rowland was at the forefront of this advancement, yet few are even aware of his substantial contribution to the evolution of architectural style. It is widely believed that celebrated local architect Albert Kahn designed many of Detroit’s structures, such as the General Motors and First National Bank buildings. In fact, while Kahn’s efforts were focused on running his highly successful firm, it was Rowland, his chief designer, who was responsible for the appearance and layout of these buildings—an important point in appreciating the contributions of both Kahn and Rowland. During the early twentieth century, Rowland devised a wholly new or “modern” design for buildings, one not reliant on decorative elements copied from architecture of the past. As buildings became more specialized for their intended use, Rowland met the challenge with entirely new design methodologies and a number of improved technologies and materials that subsequently became commonplace. Designing Detroit: Wirt Rowland and the Rise of Modern American Architecture begins with a brief overview of Rowland’s early life and career. Author Michael G. Smith goes on to analyze Rowland’s achievements in building design and as a leader of Detroit’s architectural community throughout both World Wars and the Great Depression. The interdependence of architecture with the city’s fluctuating economic prosperity and population growth is explored, illuminating the conditions for good architecture and the arts in general. The author identifies the influence of Jay Hambidge’s “dynamic symmetry” in Rowland’s work and how it allowed him to employ color as a modern replacement for traditional ornamentation, leading to the revolutionary design of the Union Trust (Guardian) Building, for which he receives nearly unanimous praise in national media. This book is concerned primarily with Rowland’s influence on Detroit architecture, but spans beyond his work in Michigan to include the designer’s broad reach from New York to Miami. A comprehensive appendix includes extensive lists of Rowland’s publications, locations he had designed, and jobs taken on by his firm during his tenure. This book represents new research and insights not previously discussed in either scholarly or general audience texts and will be of interest to casual readers of Detroit history, as well as architecture historians.

American City

American City PDF Author: Robert Sharoff
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 0814332706
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 154

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Book Description
"In the 1910s and 1920s there was more steel going up in Detroit than anywhere outside of New York and Chicago. The result was the country's first high-tech metropolis, a city of lavish monuments and glittering skyscrapers." "The list of major architects who designed buildings for Detroit includes Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Stanford White, Daniel Burnham, Cass Gilbert, Albert Kahn, Minoru Yamasaki, Philip Johnson, and numerous others." "Detroit's public buildings - its museums, libraries, schools, and monuments - are second to none in terms of their overall scale, materials, and detailing. Hotels, stores, theaters, and other commercial venues display a breezy cosmopolitanism consistent with the city's position as both a technology hub and a crossroads of immigration." "Overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of the buildings they encountered on a 2003 visit to downtown Detroit, writer Robert Sharoff and photographer William Zbaren were inspired to create American City: Detroit Architecture, 1845-2005, the first new large-format book on the city's architecture in more than thirty years." "The fact that many structures are either endangered or marginally in use makes the book all the more compelling. In 2005, the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed "the historic buildings of downtown Detroit" on the list of the country's most endangered landmarks." "The book also includes examples of interesting new architecture as well as numerous historic buildings from the 1920s and earlier that have been maintained or in some cases painstakingly restored."--BOOK JACKET.

The Detroit Public Library

The Detroit Public Library PDF Author: Barbara Madgy Cohn
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 0814342337
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
For the last century, the Detroit Public Library has ranked as one of the most beautiful buildings in Detroit — an important landmark as well as a significant monument serving generations of Detroiters. The Detroit Public Library: An American Classic was born out of “Discover the Wonders,” an art and architectural tour of the main library that began in December 2013. Since the tour’s inception, around seven thousand people have visited this structural gem. The Detroit Public Library was the result of numerous requests for a book that showcases the library’s many artistic and architectural wonders. As the photographs in this book reveal, the Detroit Public Library stands as an enduring symbol of the public library, one of the most democratic institutions in America. The design of the Detroit Public Library was Cass Gilbert’s vision for Detroit’s Early Italian Renaissance-style library. This book honors his work with a chronological and photographic timeline of the conception and building of the 1921 Woodward Avenue Library, the 1963 Cass Avenue addition, and the library as it is today. The book goes through the library’s transformative years, documenting the contributions of local and national artists such as Mary Chase Perry Stratton, Gari Melchers, and John Stephens Coppin, and includes photographs of the rooms they have decorated with murals, mosaics, painted windows, bronze works, architectural elements, and ornamentation. In preparing The Detroit Public Library, the authors had two fundamental desires, as they note in their preface. The first was to celebrate the main library’s design using both historic and contemporary images, the latter contributed by a number of photographers presently working in Detroit. The second was “to share with the world the beauty and elegance of a grand building in a great city that, even through the most difficult times, has sustained one of the most magnificent neo-classical buildings in the country.” The Detroit Public Library unites the interests of history buffs, art enthusiasts, library lovers, and Detroit-area locals with a tribute to one of the city’s most impressive structures. This book will appeal to those looking to learn about the builders, the history, and the stories that brought the Detroit Public Library to fruition.

Michigan Modern

Michigan Modern PDF Author: Brian D. Conway
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780997548976
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Michigan Modern: An Architectural Legacy takes readers on a privileged tour of iconic buildings and interiors designed by some of the world¿s most renowned and celebrated architects and interior designers. Each of the 34 selected projects is carefully documented to record its place in art history and the story behind both its architect and client.

A Language Understood

A Language Understood PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art deco
Languages : en
Pages : 110

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Book Description


Guardians of Detroit

Guardians of Detroit PDF Author: Jeffrey Morrison
Publisher: Painted Turtle
ISBN: 9780814345702
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Building-by-building pictorial and historical survey of the remarkable collection of architectural sculpture found in Detroit.

AIA Detroit

AIA Detroit PDF Author: Eric J. Hill
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 9780814331200
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
A beautifully designed resource that takes readers on a tour of greater Detroit's many architectural wonders and special landmarks.

The Buildings of Detroit

The Buildings of Detroit PDF Author: W. Hawkins Ferry
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 530

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Book Description
The definitive volume on Detroit's architectural history, from the 1700s to the end of the twentieth century. First published in 1968, The Buildings of Detroit: A History by W. Hawkins Ferry is the definitive resource on the architecture of Detroit and its adjacent communities, from pioneering times to the end of the twentieth century. Ferry based his impressive volume on thirteen years of meticulous research, interviews with many prominent architects, and hundreds of photos commissioned specifically for the book. Ferry revised The Buildings of Detroit in 1980, adding the Renaissance Center and other modern works, and this re-released version presents the revised edition adding only a new foreword by John Gallagher. The Buildings of Detroit spans from the early 1700s, when the city was a fur-trading post in the wilderness, to its more contemporary position as the capital of the automotive industry and a major industrial city. Along the way, Ferry offers glimpses of the log cabins of early explorers and soldiers, the Victorian mansions of lumber barons, and the Grosse Pointe and Bloomfield Hills residences of motor magnates. He traces the development of new building techniques that gave rise to the American skyscraper and the modern factory. Ferry details all of downtown's landmark buildings, including many that are no longer standing, and visits fascinating neighborhood structures like movie theaters, hotels, shopping centers, and apartment buildings. In each chapter, readers will meet the visionary architects and clients whose foresight and initiative helped shape the fabric of one of America's great cities. The Buildings of Detroit also includes a selected chronology, maps, references, notes, an extensive index, and 475 illustrations. Previously out of print and difficult to find, this re-released classic will be treasured by Detroit history buffs and architectural historians.

A History of Detroit's Palmer Park

A History of Detroit's Palmer Park PDF Author: Gregory C. Piazza
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1626197849
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
Palmer Park is Detroit's underappreciated architectural jewel. Located around the intersection of McNichols Road (Six Mile) and Woodward Avenue, it embraces every style of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. United States senator Thomas Palmer originally developed the property as farmland and donated it to the city in the 1890s. Between 1924 and 1964, its character changed with some of the best examples of modern apartment living from top local architects, including one of just five buildings credited to the world-renowned Albert Kahn. Author Gregory C. Piazza showcases the exceptional story of building Palmer Park.