Apparitions: Architecture That Has Disappeared From Our Cities

by T. John Hughes

Architectural Apparitions is a photography project about buildings that that have vanished from our cities. Ghosted pictures of these structures are combined with current photos of their former locations in single images, with informative text panels to outline the design aesthetics. This unique aesthetic approach provides an engaging way of telling stories of change in our built environments, exploring a wonderful historical narrative that commemorates architecture in space and time, a way to showcase the preservation of memory. National in scope and including a variety of building types, Architectural Apparitions comprises photographs from more than sixty cities across the United States.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, History

156 pages, Hardcover

First published June 30, 2015

Reviews

[MKF · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's so sad to see so many buildings destroyed so that cities would be seen as progressive and modern. The ones that were deemed worthless just so they could have another parking lot or parking garages were the worse. If only people could have saved a few of these places like the Frank Lloyd Wright boathouse we could have something for future generations to enjoy.

[Julie lit pour les autres · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un beau livre passionnant, pour qui a un intérêt envers le patrimoine bâti et l'histoire des États-Unis. L'auteur est un photographe spécialisé en architecture, et il livre ici le résultat d'un projet qui l'a occupé durant des années. Des photos d'époque sont surimposées sur des photos récentes, afin que le.la lecteur.lectrice puisse voir où l'immeuble disparu s'insère dans le paysage actuel. On peut y voir la Bibliothèque Carnegie de Seattle, démolie pour construire une bibliothèque moderne. On y voit aussi le magasin général Vonnegut, construit par l'arrière-grand-père du célèbre écrivain Kurt Vonnegut (et où il aurait travaillé lorsqu'il était ado!), transformé en stationnement étagé. Cela nous rappelle le développement accéléré des États-Unis au XXe siècle, en introduisant des notions historiques particulièrement intéressantes qui donnent envie d'en savoir plus (les banques Freedman, pour les esclaves affranchis ; la tentative de développement de HLM à Saint-Louis, qui est maintenant un immense terrain à l'état sauvage).

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

An appalling compendium of architectural tragedy. A sad but important document of architectural rape, pillage and slaughter. There is a war being waged on architectural heritage both in the US and all over the world. As far as I am concerned not one of the buildings ghostly pictured in Mr. Hughes' fine work should have been torn down. What replaced it was usually an odious piece of shit. In any event, well done, even if it makes me sick, sad and mad.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super interesting look at how places have changed around the US. Some of the buildings make sense to have been demolished, making room for something much larger, but nearly all of the old buildings had so much more visual character. A good number burned down or were demolished with changing economics. It was eye-opening to me that in the 60s and 70s a lot of these older buildings seem to have fallen out of style as old-fashioned, with new buildings representing modernity and progress. Today, we look at the replacement mostly glass and steel buildings as plain and ugly; will we change our minds about them in another fifty years? The saddest are the photos where nothing replaced it -- or worse, they tore down a whole building for a parking lot.

Just saying, if my city had the plans for a Frank Lloyd Wright building, I'd find a way to rebuild it 👀 After having someone else review the plans and fix all the leaks 😂

I was impressed by the alignment of the photos -- the photographer did an excellent job taking photos from the same vantage point, which I imagine was challenging in several instances. The historic blurbs for each were the perfect length for my interest -- I might even have taken longer on some, but I think better to err on the side of brevity for a project like this.

[Maria]

Such a fantastic idea for a photography project -- find images of buildings that no longer exist, and take photos of the new buildings (or empty space) in their stead, shot from the same angle; superimpose the "ghost" buildings onto the current-day images. So much incredible architecture lost -- to time, natural disasters, changing fashions, and practicalities. (I don't expect anyone to argue that the Austin parking garage that replaced the Victorian mansion is better for the skyline, though I'm sure it serves more people. In some case, the new structures not only improve upon the previous buildings in practicalities, but also in beauty (such at the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago). Some of the original buildings (such as those built the the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904) were never meant to be permanent structures. The most unusual ghost structure was not a building at all, but the Goodyear Blimp that regularly flew in Milwaukee starting in 1927.

The print edition of this is beautiful, with excellent typography for the descriptions of the buildings. If there is ever an ebook version, I'd love to see the option of looking at each image individually in addition the ghost and modern structure together.

[Iroquois · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a fave for me for several reasons, the foremost being that I was born with a deep nostalgic streak and have always lamented the loss of old books, photos, architecture, etc. It's why I went into librarianship and wanted to work in archives and preservation. So I love this book, which shows edifices of different American cities and what their predecessors of times past looked like. It's a very emotional book for me, I really miss the old ways of building.
Also, there's nothing quite as good for stirring the memory than seeing a place you spent time as child. The old Sears building of downtown SA was one such place for me and is included. Very cool.