Main entry:

Fitch, James Marston.

Title & Author:

James Marston Fitch : selected writings on architecture, preservation, and the built environment / James Marston Fitch ; edited by Martica Sawin ; with a foreword by Jane Jacobs.

Publication:

New York ; London : W.W. Norton, ©2006.

Description:

312 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
James Marston Fitch, 1909-2000 : a brief biography -- pt. 1. Criticism. The houses we live in : an anonymous lament ; A building of rugged fundamentals : Kahn's laboratory for the University of Pennsylvania ; Boston's City Hall : end or eve of an era? ; Streetwise highrise : the esthetics of the skyscraper reconsidered yet again ; A funny thing happened -- ; Physical and metaphysical in architectural criticism -- pt. 2. History. The palace, the bridge, and the tower ; Mt. Vernon and Monticello : exemplars of the slave powered plantation ; The lawn : America's greatest architectural achievement ; Mies and the climate of Plato ; The rise of technology, 1929-1939 ; Utopia revisited : the Bauhaus at Dessau forty years later ; Murder at the Modern -- pt. 3. Preservation. The philosophy of restoration : Williamsburg to the present ; The battle for the past : preservation vs. historicism : postmodernism and the theme park ; Position paper on Central Park ; Visual criteria for historic building restoration : determining appropriate repair/cosmetic treatments -- pt. 4. Climate and environment. Microclimatology ; The asymmetry of the external physical environment ; Vernacular paradigms for post-industrial architecture -- pt. 5. Toward a philosophy of building. Architecture and energy ; In defense of the city ; Urban amenity : what the architect can and cannot do ; The future of architecture -- Appendix: James Marston Fitch as architect.

Summary:

James Marston Fitch was hailed by the New York Times at the time of his death in 2000 as "an architect whose writings and teachings helped transform historic preservation from a dilettante's pastime into a vigorous, broadly based cultural movement." In this anthology of his writings, spanning over sixty years of his professional career, Fitch's incisive ideas and observations on a range of subjects are brought to light in a single volume. Whether a lament of the loss of functionalism in the wake of modernism, a celebration of the architectural perfection embodied in the University of Virginia campus, or an appeal to architects to heed factors of climate and environment in their designs, Fitch's essays are both provocative and pragmatic and always deeply rooted in the human element.

ISBN:

9780393732290 (pbk.)
0393732290 (pbk.)
0393731928
9780393731927

Subject:

Architecture.
Historic preservation.
Préservation historique.
historic preservation.
Architecture United States History 20th century.

Added entries:

Sawin, Martica.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 253078
Call No.: BIB 181290
Status: Available