From a Cause to a Style : Modernist Architecture's Encounter with the American City

by Glazer, Nathan

• ISBN13: 9781400827589
• ISBN10: 1400827582
• Copyright: 2008-09-02
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Modernism in architecture and urban design has failed the American city. This is the decisive conclusion that renowned public intellectual Nathan Glazer has drawn from two decades of writing and thinking about what this architectural movement will bequeath to future generations. InFrom a Cause to a Style, he proclaims his disappointment with modernism and its impact on the American city. Writing in the tradition of legendary American architectural critics Lewis Mumford and Jane Jacobs, Glazer contends that modernism, this new urban form that signaled not just a radical revolution in style but a social ambition to enhance the conditions under which ordinary people lived, has fallen short on all counts. The articles and essays collected here--some never published before, all updated--reflect his ideas on subjects ranging from the livable city and public housing to building design, public memorials, and the uses of public space. Glazer, an undisputed giant among public intellectuals, is perhaps best known for his writings on ethnicity and social policy, where the unflinching honesty and independence of thought that he brought to bear on tough social questions has earned him respect from both the Left and the Right. Here, he challenges us to face some difficult truths about the public places that, for better or worse, define who we are as a society. From a Cause to a Styleis an exhilarating and thought-provoking book that raises important questions about modernist architecture and the larger social aims it was supposed to have addressed-and those it has abandoned.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
The Public Face of Architecture	p. 21
Building for the Public: What Has Gone Wrong?	p. 23
The Prince, the People, and the Architects	p. 48
"Subverting the Context": Olmsted's Parks and Serra's Sculpture	p. 67
Monuments in an Age without Heroes	p. 93
Modernism and Classicism on the National Mall	p. 117
Daniel P. Moynihan and Federal Architecture	p. 146
The New York Case	p. 163
What Happened in East Harlem	p. 165
Amenity in New York City	p. 192
Planning for New York City: Is It Possible?	p. 228
The Professions: From Social Vision to Postmodernism	p. 253
What Has Happened to the City Planner?	p. 255
The Social Agenda of Architecture	p. 271
Index	p. 293
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