What do you think?
Rate this book
James Gamble Rogers and the Architecture of Pragmatism
foreword by Paul Goldberger
Only recently has the period between the two World Wars emerged as pivotal in the redefinition of American taste. The work of James Gamble Rogers (1867-1947) represents a built expression of the country's cultural elite during these years and comprises a significant chapter in American architectural history. Aaron Betsky covers the entire span of Rogers's career, paying particular attention to his more important buildings. These include the Harkness mansion, the Yale Club, and the buildings of Columbia-Presbyterian in New York; the downtown campus, library, stadium, dormitories and other assorted buildings of Northwestern University; and the Harkness Memorial Quadrangle, residential colleges, Graduate School, Law School, and Sterling Memorial Library at Yale, which with their blending of English medieval and renaissance motifs and their historical associations are perhaps the fullest expression of the neo-Gothic style in America.
Aaron Betsky investigates the central issues of American architecture through Rogers' private house commissions for wealthy clients seeking to define their lives and livelihoods through temples of taste, his corporate structures notable for both lucid organization and symbolic ornamentation, and his designs for universities and hospitals which integrated historical and social metaphors into redefinitions of institutional function.
The American Monograph series.
Only recently has the period between the two World Wars emerged as pivotal in the redefinition of American taste. The work of James Gamble Rogers (1867-1947) represents a built expression of the country's cultural elite during these years and comprises a significant chapter in American architectural history. Aaron Betsky covers the entire span of Rogers's career, paying particular attention to his more important buildings. These include the Harkness mansion, the Yale Club, and the buildings of Columbia-Presbyterian in New York; the downtown campus, library, stadium, dormitories and other assorted buildings of Northwestern University; and the Harkness Memorial Quadrangle, residential colleges, Graduate School, Law School, and Sterling Memorial Library at Yale, which with their blending of English medieval and renaissance motifs and their historical associations are perhaps the fullest expression of the neo-Gothic style in America.
Aaron Betsky investigates the central issues of American architecture through Rogers' private house commissions for wealthy clients seeking to define their lives and livelihoods through temples of taste, his corporate structures notable for both lucid organization and symbolic ornamentation, and his designs for universities and hospitals which integrated historical and social metaphors into redefinitions of institutional function.
The American Monograph series.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published December 20, 1994
3 people want to read
About the author
Aaron Betsky
124 books18 followersAaron Betsky is an American critic on art, architecture and design. He was the director of Virginia Tech School of Architecture + Design until early 2022.
Trained as an architect and in the humanities at Yale University, he is the author of over a dozen books, including Architecture Matters, Making It Modern, Landscrapers: Building With the Land, Scanning: The Aberrant Architectures of Diller + Scofidio, Queer Space, Revelatory Landscapes, and Architecture Must Burn. Internationally known as a lecturer, curator, reviewer and commentator, he writes the blog "Beyond Buildings" for Architect Magazine. Director of the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale, he has also been president and Dean of the School of Architecture at Taliesin (originally the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture), director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (2001-2006) the Cincinnati Art Museum (2006-2014), and was founding Curator of Architecture, Design and Digital Projects at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1995-2001). As an unlicensed architect, he worked for Frank O. Gehry and Associates and Hodgetts + Fung. In 2003, he co-curated "Scanning: The Aberrant Architectures of Diller + Scofidio" at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Trained as an architect and in the humanities at Yale University, he is the author of over a dozen books, including Architecture Matters, Making It Modern, Landscrapers: Building With the Land, Scanning: The Aberrant Architectures of Diller + Scofidio, Queer Space, Revelatory Landscapes, and Architecture Must Burn. Internationally known as a lecturer, curator, reviewer and commentator, he writes the blog "Beyond Buildings" for Architect Magazine. Director of the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale, he has also been president and Dean of the School of Architecture at Taliesin (originally the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture), director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (2001-2006) the Cincinnati Art Museum (2006-2014), and was founding Curator of Architecture, Design and Digital Projects at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1995-2001). As an unlicensed architect, he worked for Frank O. Gehry and Associates and Hodgetts + Fung. In 2003, he co-curated "Scanning: The Aberrant Architectures of Diller + Scofidio" at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
No one has reviewed this book yet.