Search results for ""author thomas mellins""

New York is filled with forsaken buildings, each ravaged by the exploits of modernization, each having fascinating histories. This photographic essay explores over 40 of the most evocative abandoned sites in the Empire State and puts their individual stories in the larger context of New York’s historical legacy. Photographer and author John Lazzaro traveled the state, capturing what's left of such places before they are inevitably swept away by time. Divided by region, these sites, ranging from the Catskills' once-vibrant vacation destinations to Long Island’s melancholy psychiatric centers, reveal deeper social, cultural, and political changes that led to their decay. These abandoned hospitals, schools, churches, railways, and estates offer us a view into a past rapidly dissolving before it disappears completely. With a foreword by architectural historian and author Thomas Mellins, this is a valuable meditation on the nature of decay and progress, remembrance and forgetfulness, past and present.

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New York Rising is an illustrated history of real estate development in Manhattan, a story of speculation and innovation - of the big ideas, big personalities, and big risks that collectively shaped a city like no other. From the first European settlement in the seventeenth century through the skyscrapers and large-scale urban planning schemes of the late twentieth century, this book presents a broad historical survey, illustrated with images drawn largely from the rich archival resources of the Durst Collection at Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. The patriarch of one of New York City's most prominent real estate families, Seymour B. Durst, was a bibliophile and an avid collector of New York memorabilia. His archival holdings - once known as the Old York Library and now the Durst Collection - reflect his fascination with the city's street grid, mass transit, port, parks and open spaces, as well as its monumental buildings and signature skyline. Ten leading scholars - the late Hilary Ballon, Ann Buttenwieser, Andrew Dolkart, David King, Reinhold Martin, Richard Plunz, Lynne B. Sagalyn, Hilary Sample, Russell Shorto, and Carol Willis - delved into the collection to select objects that reflect their own areas of interest and expertise. Using these materials, they have created visual narratives on specific topics, focusing on the Dutch and English governance of Manhattan, the growth of the city according to the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, the emergence of the public transit system, the "race for height," the rise of multi-family and affordable housing, the transformation of Midtown into a commercial center, urban renewal in the Moses era, the revival of Times Square, and the reclaiming of the waterfront as public space. Essays by Kate Ascher and Thomas Mellins provide a framework for exploring these topics. New York Rising is published in association with The Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.

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Rivera, Kahlo, Tamayo, Covarrubias, Weston, Modotti, Bravo, Spratling – names which are closely linked with the internationally celebrated art, photography and design scene of the 1920s and 1930s in the United States and Mexico. This lavishly illustrated publication traces the dynamic cultural exchange which left its mark on both sides of the border. At the beginning of the 20th century a lively and profitable exchange developed between artists in the United States and Mexico. The Americans were full of enthusiasm for the Mexican synthesis of history and modernity and their social commitment, which contrasted strongly with the consumer culture in the U.S. The Mexican artists in turn found important financiers across the border. The volume shows through paintings, drawings, photographs and graphical works from the Harry Ransom Center in Austin and other important museums how this intercultural network brought forth a large number of world-famous artists.

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City Hall is the first book to feature striking contemporary images of the most architecturally significant city halls in the United States. This diverse collection includes New York, the oldest; Philadelphia, once the tallest building in the world; and Boston, the first major brutalist building in the United States. Organized chronologically, the book traces the evolution of American civic architecture from the early 19th century to the present day and represents diverse styles such as Federalist, art deco, and modern. Architects, current and former mayors, historians, and preservationists tell the story of how each city hall came to be, what it says about its city, and why it's important architecturally. With a foreword by noted historian Douglas Brinkley and an essay by architectural writer Thomas Mellins, City Hall spotlights these often underappreciated civic buildings and affirms architecture's unique power to express democratic ideals and inspire civic engagement.

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The first retrospective on a fascinating protagonist of the 1970s Pattern & Decoration movement, who defied Minimalist orthodoxy with humorous multimedia explorations of domesticity and ornament This is the first comprehensive volume on Cynthia Carlson (born 1942), a key artist of the Pattern & Decoration group who responded to Minimalism’s dominance in the 1970s. The work of this group has recently been revisited and reappraised in exhibitions and by art scholarship. A Chicagoan under the influence of the Chicago Imagists, Carlson landed in New York City in 1965 and has exhibited widely (she was included in Lucy Lippard’s seminal 1971 exhibition 26 Contemporary Women Artists at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art). Her interest in the domestic—as a source of shapes and as a realm of familial experiences, chores and memories—intersects with the works of contemporaries ranging from Jennifer Bartlett to Joel Shapiro and Elizabeth Murray. Carlson's utilization of architectural motifs might align at one moment with the vernacular embraced in the buildings of Venturi & Scott Brown and, at another, with the postmodern rehabilitation of Beaux-Arts ornament. Her hand-painted "wallpaper" is considered a significant contribution and influence on contemporary installation art. Carlson’s artistic identity continues to morph: from room-size wallpaper and a life-size gingerbread house to unexpected shaped canvasses, architectural constructions and pet portraits. Whatever she creates, however eccentric, is high-spirited, genial and insightful.

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