thanks for the view, mr. mies: lafayette park, detroit

by Danielle Aubert (Editor), Lana Cavar (Editor), Natasha Chandani (Editor)

Lafayette Park, an affordable middle-class residential area in downtown Detroit, is home to the largest collection of buildings designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in the world. Today, it is one of Detroit's most racially integrated and economically stable neighborhoods, although it is surrounded by evidence of a city in financial distress. Through interviews with and essays by residents; reproductions of archival material; and new photographs by Karin Jobst, Vasco Roma, and Corine Vermeulen, and previously unpublished photographs by documentary filmmaker Janine Debann�, Thanks for the View, Mr. Mies examines the way that Lafayette Park residents confront and interact with this unique modernist environment. Lafayette Park has not received the level of international attention that other similar projects by Mies have. This may be due in part to its location in Detroit, a city whose most positive qualities are often overlooked in the media. This book is a reaction against the way that iconic modernist architecture is often represented. Whereas other writers may focus on the design intentions of the architect, authors Aubert, Cavar and Chandani seek to show the organic and idiosyncratic ways that the people who live in Lafayette Park actually use the architecture and how this experience, in turn, affects their everyday lives. While there are many publications about abandoned buildings in Detroit and about the city's prosperous past, this book is about a remarkable part of the city as it exists today, in the twenty-first century."Thanks for the View, Mr. Mies is a superb field guide to the diverse cross-section of inhabitants, the variety of habitats they have constructed within their brilliant biome, the lush and abundant flora and the ground fauna of Lafayette Park. The variety of environments created by each particular species in their words, actions and images is a joy to behold. And like the best field guides, wonderfully instructive." - Phyllis Lambert, founder, Canadian Centre for Architecture

"This beautiful and wonderfully ambitious book tells the comprehensive story of a unique place - Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's magnificent modernist vision built in the midst of a city undergoing the worst of the urban crisis. The story is told through a collage of archival records, insightful essays and, above all, interviews with the residents and photographs of what they have made of Mies. The collision between Mies's purer-than-pure modernism and the realities of Detroit is both comic and tragic - surprising, disturbing and, finally, inspiring." - Robert Fishman, Taubman College of Architecture and Planning, University of Michigan

"Thanks for the View is a surprising paean to human passion and idiosyncrasy, terms not usually associated with the International Style or the architecture of Mies van der Rohe - which in large part is what makes this book all the more welcome. As charming as it is well researched, Thanks for the View celebrates the mutual effect that Mies's Lafayette Park and its longtime residents have had on each other and, by extension, on the city of Detroit." - Joe Scanlan, Visual Arts Program, Princeton University

Genres: History, Architecture, Urban Planning, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2012

Reviews

[Gjacobsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really interesting book on what is largely one of the world's most curious and least understood mixed-income housing developments, Lafayette Park in Detroit. Most ignored among all of Mies van der Rohe's projects, its largely acknowledged that its the only one that has come close to working as Mies, a giant in architecture and planning, intended. The book presents a very contemporary view of the park, including interviews and essays with actual residents. Largely free from architectural jargon, this book showcases a gem in Detroit and one of the most significant urban developments created in the last century.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting book about Lafayette Park in Detroit. The authors focused on the residents, what brought them to the area, why they stayed, and what makes Lafayette Park so unique. So much has changed in Detroit since the book was originally published about 8 years ago, and I would love an update.

[Nicholas Kalogeresis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable book. My only quibble is that I wished the architectural drawings of the Lafayette Park complex were at the beginning of the book not at the end. It would give the reader a sense of all the buildings were laid out to make the following narratives easier to understand.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The inside-out approach of this book to architecture is surprisingly satisfying. And given the signature floor-to-ceiling windows of Mies' design, the voyeurism is oddly appropriate. The authors do a good job of assembling different essays, interviews, photographs, and ephemera about Lafayette Park, its place in Detroit, and the experience of living in buildings designed by a famous architect.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. I have known of Lafayette Park for years and had friends who lived in the apartments there in the 1980s. I didn't think much of them then. I think it is kind of cool that they development has maintained itself through the years.

[Mills College Library]

712.50977 T3673 2012