Search results for ""author henry hope reed""

The New York Public Library, one of the nation's architectural wonders, is possibly our finest classical building. Designed by John Merven Carrère and Thomas Hastings, and inspired by the great classical buildings in Paris and Rome, it was completed in 1911. The library boasts a magnificent exterior, but that is only the beginning. In the interior, one splendid hall follows another, an awesome gallery leads to richly decorated rooms, and stairways are vaulted in marble. From the terrace to the breathtaking Main Reading Room is a triumphal way. All the devices of the classical tradition, the main artistic current of Western civilization, are brought into play. Maidens, cherubs, and satyr masks look down from ceilings. Lions' heads, paws, rams' heads, and griffins are on every side. In this beautiful volume, featuring new color photography by Anne Day, every facet of the building is described, including its inception and construction.

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A controversial manifesto on the role of classical principles in architecture critically examined for relevance today. First published in 1959, The Golden City is a seminal, critical document that developed one of the earliest and most compelling arguments against the then-dominant hegemony of modernism by reawakening interest in the value of our country's built patrimony, particularly with respect to its notable classical architecture, classical sculpture, and ornament in the built environment. The book's argument remains valuable today. The Golden City can be credited with building the constituency for the preservation movement in the United States in general, and in New York City in particular. That constituency coalesced around Reed's powerful polemic, eventually contributing to the formulation in 1965 of New York City's groundbreaking Landmark Law, one of the most important milestones in the preservation movement in the United States.

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