American Modern: Architecture; Community; Columbus, Indiana

by Matt Shaw, Iwan Baan (photographer)

472 pages, Paperback

Published July 17, 2024

About the author

Matt Shaw grew up in a small Yorkshire village, where he enjoyed an adventurous childhood. Although, let’s be clear about this, he didn’t harm any cats.

He still lives in Yorkshire, and works on a large country estate. This provides him with inspiration for his writing. Blanks is his first novel.

Reviews

[John Schorg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any book about Columbus, Indiana, is going to focus on its architecture, and the best part of this one simply sits back, shows you photos of the landmarks, and lets you just soak it all in. The verbiage around it gets into the kind of detail that can leave you at sea if you are not an expert on building and design. But the photography is wonderful, and that might be enough to justify the weighty price tag here. One thing that doesn't get much attention in this book is how the downtown, with all its wonderful buildings, has very little in the way of restaurants and stores to attract people, especially in the evenings.