Robert Sharoff and William Zbaren are much more than today's finest writer/photographer team now producing books on American architecture. They are urban archeologists who methodically examine their chosen subjects and then thoughtfully construct narratives that shed new light on their meaning. Their genius is not just in the way they reinterpret a city's familiar signature buildings - it's also in the attention and affection they lavish on structures that are much less known and appreciated. In so doing they reveal the true breadth and depth of a city's cultural and commercial ambitions. Every American city has its crown jewels, buildings and spaces designed to tell the world that they are indeed a prosperous and proud place. But it is the lesser structures - public schools, municipal offices, factories, office buildings and the civic art of public spaces - that expose the true level of commitment that community leaders and residents have made to their city and their culture, and the belief they have in their future.
In "American City: Detroit Architecture," Sharoff and Zbaren covered the Motor City's grand structures designed by well known masters - the Detroit Public Library by Cass Gilbert, the Dime Building by D. H. Burnham and Company, Cadillac Place by Albert Kahn and John Portman's iconic Renaissance Center. However, it was the relatively unknown structures that Sharoff and Zbaren included - the Women's City Club by William Stratton, the Banker's Trust Company Building by Smith, Hinchman and Grylls and Cobo Hall and the Convention Center by Giffels and Rossetti - that truly spoke to Detroit's ambitions, grandeur and prowess.
"American City: St. Louis Architecture" continues this approach. Yes, Saarinen's great arch is given its due, but it is also shown its proper place - its two page spread is the same number of pages that the authors devote to Harris Armstrong's enigmatic Grant Clinic. Minoru Yamasaki's magnificent Lambert Field Main Terminal is featured, but turn the page and you find Fumihiko Maki's sublime Steinberg Hall. Sullivan's seminal Wainwright Building gets two full spreads, but so does William Ittner's peerless brick palace for children, Patrick Henry School.
Collectively, these images and words reintroduce to the world to a remarkable city. Like it's great rival, Chicago, St. Louis was also most decidedly a "city on the make" in the years following the Civil War. In the post-fire decades that Chicago was topping off one new landmark building after another, so too was St. Louis, but in its own distinctive style and manner. Moreover, the building boom in St. Louis didn't stop with the 1904 World's Fair (frequently referenced as the city's zenith), as evidenced by the striking buildings the book features from the City Beautiful era.
In the end, I think Sharoff and Zbaren are telling a story about St. Louis that is timely and long overdue:
"You may think you know what this city. Or, perhaps you've never given St. Louis a moment's thought. It's possible that you have ideas and perceptions that have been informed by the never ending stream of today's Rustbelt ruin porn. But you should take another look at St. Louis This a unique place with a formidable history of doing and being. If you want to see how an American city can function as a work of civic art in the future, take a look at what St. Louis built during its most dynamic and prosperous years."
Sharoff and Zbaren have started a new conversation about St. Louis, one that has been greatly enhanced by their words and images. In so doing, they and their patrons have given St. Louis a magnificent gift - a compelling narrative of the city's most enduring and endearing cultural artifacts. The thread they have started is open for continued discussion. One hopes that someone or some institution in St. Louis understands the remarkable opportunity this book gives them to celebrate and showcase their city. And, once they do, that the celebration continues for a long time. American City: St. Louis Architecture: Three Centuries of Design (American City Series)
I live in St Louis. I ordered the book after hearing an interview with the authors on local public radio. I AM PLEASED TO ADVISE THAT IT DOES NOT DISAPPOINT! I knew many of the buildings included in the book but many I did not, and the photographs are so beautiful and the narrative so engaging that I am sure it will cause me to look at everything with new eyes. It is raining today or I would be out and about with the book and maybe a friend or two checking it all out.
The book would also be terrific for visitors who have limited time to identify and visit the very best buildings here.
I only wish the authors didn't have to stop at 50 buildings.
I am going to buy the book on Detroit too and if it is half as good as this one, I will visit there with the book in hand and have a great time at it.
This book is a masterful tribute to the beauty, mystery, and architectural integrity that define and distinguish St. Louis. Providing history, context, and stylistic interpretation, Robert Sharoff's descriptions of the buildings are revelatory and at times satisfyingly acerbic. Shimmering compositions of shadow, light, and otherworldly cloud formations, William Zbaren's photographs capture the dignity of the city's classical structures and the geometric curves and angles of its modern abstractions. This book is smart and elevating. It makes me feel as if I am flying high beneath that seductive Arch.
Like Baltimore and New Orleans, Pittsburgh and Richmond, St. Louis is a city that is a small blip on the radar screen economically, but is off the charts culturally. For those of you who take the time to visit, or even live in St. Louis as I did back in the 1990s, you're in for a shock and a real architectural feast. Few places ON EARTH can match the cultural and architectural ensemble that is St. Louis. I applaud the authors' selection of the city for their book.Other reviewers have provided potential readers with thoughtful information about this lovely book, so I will not repeat them here. There are a few things I'd like to add.First, the number of entries included in this extremely selective catalog is small - 50, to be precise. About 30 of these entries I would call historic, while the others are overtly modern. The photography is the real feature here, as the text contains a twinge of classical contrivance inappropriate to the structures being discussed. This is NOT a book of classical architecture, nor is it a catalog of historic buildings. In fact, more than a few of the entries aren't buildings at all.Second, I'm a bit disappointed that the book includes not a SINGLE church. I can only conclude that the authors have done this intentionally, as St. Louis is a city absolutely crammed with breath-taking ecclesiastical architecture. No entry for the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica? What happened there? Huge, important, classical, beautiful, one of the largest churches in the world and the largest mosaic tile interior on the planet... and entirely absent. Neglecting this amazing landmark is like writing a book about Washington, DC and ignoring the White House. Private houses are also neglected, and entirely absent. Not a single house makes this list.So, while I really like this book, the building selection confuses me. While it seems that the authors want to give the reader the impression that the selection is diverse and somewhat representative, that can't explain why they have purposefully avoided churches and cathedrals in a city where those structures are SO important, beautiful and numerous. The entries are mostly commercial structures and public landmarks. If you think my review isn't "helpful," then you probably have some reservations about traditional form. I love traditional form, and I think it should be PRESERVED, including ecclesiastical form, which is so important to American history.Many of the entires are well-known, and the ones you expect are here, but I think St. Louis deserves a better, more comprehensive book.'
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