Incorporating architects : how American architecture became a practice of empire / Aaron Cayer.

Main entry:

Cayer, Aaron, author.

Title & Author:

Incorporating architects : how American architecture became a practice of empire / Aaron Cayer.

Publication:

Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2025]
© 2025

Description:

xii, 345 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 24 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction -- Profession : shattering tradition -- Firm : corporate conglomeration -- Building : enclosing indeterminacy -- Contract : developing architects -- Portfolio : valuing practice -- Archive : keeping secrets -- Conclusion.

Summary:

"By the end of the twentieth century, US architecture and engineering firms held more capital than entire countries, employed more people than were housed in most cities, and rented offices in more nations than comprised the UN. Within them, architects were designing not single buildings but urban systems, including the multinational infrastructures, legal codes, and financial mechanisms on which those systems came to depend. However, despite the extraordinary power of these architects, their histories remain shrouded in myth and concealed--by design. This forensic analysis traces a history of architects at one such firm, AECOM, as they assembled their own multinational corporation and embedded themselves in the operations of American empire after World War II, shielding themselves from the instabilities of a postwar political economy. Incorporating Architects reveals how architects, through their businesses more than their drawings or buildings, modulated the political economy, gripped the reins of their profession, and produced the global injustices that define our neoliberal present"-- Provided by publisher.

ISBN:

9780520400863 hardcover
0520400860 hardcover
9780520400870 paperback
0520400879 paperback
electronic book
9780520400887

Subject:

AECOM (Firm) History 20th century.
AECOM (Firm)
Architecture Political aspects United States History 20th century.
Architecture Aspect politique États-Unis Histoire 20e siècle.
Architecture Political aspects
United States

Holdings:

Location: Library main 322384
Call No.: 322384
Copy: 1
Status: Available

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