In this volume the author analyzes 400 architectural books and articles published over the past 150 years to reveal changing societal preferences in architecture and to measure the reputations of individual architects - the text includes a ranked list of the 100 most famous architects.

Since the Renaissance, books and drawings have been a primary means of communication among architects and their colleagues and clients. In this volume, 12 historians explore the use of books by architects in America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a period when the profession of architecture was first emerging in the United States.

A classic book authored by the foremost architectural historian in America, this fully illustrated history of American architecture and city planning is based on Vincent Scully's conviction that architecture and city planning are inseparably linked and must therefore be treated together. He defines architecture as a continuing dialogue between generations which creates an environment across time. This definitive survey extends beyond the cities themselves to the American scene as a whole, which has inspired the reasonable balanced, closed and ordered forms, and above all the probity, that he feels typifies American architecture.

The work of Walker & Gillette, one of the leading architectural firms of the twentieth century, is documented with an extensive text and over 800 illustrations. These include many unpublished works by the company and by architect Joseph Mordecai Hirschman, whose passion for old world buildings influenced their design. The first half of the twentieth century featured a wide variety of architectural styles, including Classicism, Art Deco, and Modernism, which Walker & Gillette used well. Established in the early twentieth century, this firm would remain active until the 1950s. Over the years, the firm diversified, planning residential country estates, urban mansions, town homes, and apartments. Commercial, corporate, and governmental architecture, Art Deco skyscrapers, and unique commissions are all covered, as are the interiors they created for private yachts, ocean liners, the Playland Amusement Park, and their 1939 New York World's Fair offering. This book has relevance and appeal to architects, artists, historians, and readers who love vibrant American history.

Defines and illustrates architectural terms relating to building style, structural components, and architectural ornaments.

Explores the factors and influences that have enriched American architecture throughout its development from colonial times to the present, covering houses, apartments, factories, and office buildings and the architects who designed them.

"Owning a home is a cornerstone of the American Dream, the ultimate status symbol in the land of the free. But is the dream in crisis? Mass-marketed and endlessly multiplied, the suburban single-family house has become an instrument of global economic calamity and ongoing environmental catastrophe. Never before have we been so badly in need of a reassessment of our cultural values from an architectural perspective."--Back cover.