From the Reliance Building and Coney Island to the Kimbell Museum and Disney Hall, the United States has been at the forefront of modern architecture. American life has generated many of the quintessential images of modern life, both generic types and particular buildings. Gwendolyn Wright's USA is an engaging account of this evolution from the late nineteenth century to the twenty-first. Upending conventional arguments about the origin of American modern architecture, Wright shows that it was not a mere offshoot of European modernism brought across the Atlantic Ocean by emigres but rather an exciting, distinctive and mutable hybrid.
USA traces a history that spans from early skyscrapers and suburbs in the aftermath of the American Civil War up to the museums, schools and 'green architecture' of today. Wright takes account of diverse interests that affected design, ranging from politicians and developers to ambitious immigrants and middle-class citizens. Famous and lesser-known buildings across America come together--model dwellings for German workers in rural Massachusetts, New York's Rockefeller Center, Cincinnati's Carew Tower, Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West in the Arizona desert, the University of Miami campus, the Texas Instruments Semiconductor Plant, and the Corning Museum of Glass, among others--to show an extraordinary range of innovation.
Ultimately, Wright reframes the history of American architecture as one of constantly evolving and volatile sensibilities, engaged with commerce, attuned to new media, exploring multiple concepts of freedom. The chapters are organized to show how changes in work life, home life and public life affected architecture--and vice versa. This book provides essential background for contemporary debates about affordable and luxury housing, avant-garde experiments, local identities, inspiring infrastructure and sustainable design.
A clear, concise and richly illustrated account of modern American architecture, this timely book will be essential for all those who wonder about the remarkable legacy of American modernity in its most potent cultural expression.
Industry Reviews
Sure to become a standard in the field, this latest installment in the series ... is critical of the timeworn view that American modernism is simply a wholesale adoption of avant-garde styles imported from Europe. Wright's history is far more rich and complex ... This book is a joy to read and copiously illustrated. Wright's enthusiasm for her topic comes through in her vivid, compelling writing ... Essential. Choice ... inclusive without impeding narrative flow, sensitive to politics, and tuned to the ways opinion and reputations may change over time ... This is a survey to stimulate thought and further investigation. Architects' Journal An engaging overview of American modernism ... Wright's on-air talent for making the arcane accessible translates well into print; this remarkably comprehensive volume is full of telling, even funny details alongside the scholarship ... Deft, knowledgable text. Modernism Magazine In a mere 320 pages, Gwendolyn Wright has managed to pack a staggering amount of information and visual documentation about the modernization of American architecture. She covers the evolving social, cultural, and political context as well. It is a credit to her neat, economical, agile prose and prodigious command of this vast material that she has also succeeded in making it an enthralling narrative and a major piece of criticism... Gwendolyn Wright has produced a classic. Architects Newsletter Lucid and readable... USA is dazzling. Next American City Tackling the history of modern architecture in America - over 140 years of it - in under 300 pages is no easy task. Yet it is one that architecture professor and TV personality Gwendolyn Wright pulls off extremely well in this thorough, concise and often critical look at buildings and their architects from the reconstruction to today. Archidose Gwendolyn Wright's splendid book updates, revises and enriches everything we know about the development and influence of American architecture with new material, brilliant insights, and the perspective of a new century. She makes the story so new and compelling and writes it so well that it will supplant older versions to become the standard reference. -- Ada Louise Huxtable, Pulitzer prize-winning Architecture Critic of The Wall Street Journal I am always amazed at Gwendolyn Wright's ability to bring excitement and positive joy to urbanism and architecture in a rare way. Her enthusiasm for historical examples surely inspires others to take a deeper look and to reflect. In this moment of rapid urbanization worldwide, that reflection is needed more than ever. -- Steven Holl, architect At last, the book I have been waiting for: the story of modern American architecture deeply contextualized in the history of the last century and a half. Wright is that rare scholar who understands how intricately the built environment is laced into larger historical trends. This is a wonderful book for all who care about architecture and the long history of modern work, housing, and public life in the United States. -- Lizabeth Cohen, Professor of History
