Customer Reviews

American Splendor: The Residential Architecture of Horace Trumbauer

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
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This is a superior book, and for three reasons.

First, the obvious: Well researched, beautifully presented, excellent high quality images, lots-o-plans, and an engaging text.

Many readers may not consciously notice the second reason, but it makes all the difference in the world. Most architectural monographs (and many books in general) scatter images throughout a book, and it is difficult if not impossible to develop a clear understanding about individual projects. Various rooms will be many pages (and many projects) apart, and with plans grouped together (or not even included). Also, captions will be brief to the extreme, forcing one on a hunt through the text to access more information. Is there anything more irritating? Not so with American Splendor. Author Michael Kathrens and his graphic designer (and editor?) should be applauded for the clarity offered the reader - like an unexpected gift. Each house is presented on concurrent pages, with beautiful (often full page) images, and concluding (mostly) with clear plans. Ahh! Plans! While the captions are short, the relevant text is always nearby. No hunting!

The third reason is another highly useful (even thoughtful) gift to readers, yet also rarely offered. When one concludes reading about each Trumbauer creation, its current status is articulated! One is never left hanging with those two terrible, dreaded, lingering questions: Was this beautiful creation destroyed? (If yes, one wants to weep.) Or is it well loved and maintained? (If yes, a grin spontaneously ensues.) I cannot count the books that don't answer these important questions, or, again, sadistically force the reader to search and search for an answer.

So, American Splendor should be applauded for the usual reasons. But it should also be applauded for reasons that too few authors (and designers and editors) pay attention to.

Michael, thank you for these many gifts.

Mr. Kathrens could not have done a more superb job with this book. His years of research - indeed his passion for his subject matter - are reflected on each and every page. The quality of this book by Acanthus Press is in-and-of itself exceptional. The research is exhaustive and the text is amazingly thorough. The duotone photographs are rare and special. And the floor plans are well drawn, clear, and wonderfully to-scale (even on houses long non-extant).

Horace Trumbauer was, without a doubt, one of the most talented Classical Revival Architects this country has ever seen. He was also one of the least "educated" and is certainly one of the most under-appreciated.

This book will not fail to amaze anyone interested in grand domestic architecture or the decorative arts.

I remember, as a young boy at the library, being enthralled by the gilded age starting with the book, A Night to Remember, about the White Star Liner Titanic which seemed to mark the beginning of an end to a very grand lifestyle. Reading that book gave me a first glimpse at an era of gracious living on a grand scale. The Gilded Age started some twenty years early when the suddenly rich found the need to compete amongst themselves and hired the likes of Richard Morris Hunt, McKim, Mead & White, and, of course Horace Trumbauer to fight their wars of social one-upmanship.

There were other books in the Library that covered the Gilded Age but these were books of general knowledge and included only a smattering of photos. As an adult, some of my dreams have materialized in the publications of books dealing with the works of these famous architects; well famous in my mind at least.

Of the ones in my collection, this one is without a doubt the best. Perhaps this is so because the architect himself was the best. The book describes, in wonderful detail, the creation of the houses and grounds, the lifestyles of those who occupied the houses, and the current state of those houses. It also provides many interior photos, many not previously published (I thought I'd seen them all). What I find most thoughtful is the inclusion of floor plans of nearly each and every home.

It is wonderful and yet sad to have some of these images so close at hand. Wonderfully huge homes built, literally, to compete with other homes for the sole purpose of out-classing other owners of the same station in life - the world's richest people. Sad because we will never see such works of beauty, like Horace Trumbauer's, created even on a smaller scale, because the architects of today simply have lost the art creating such grand structures. It's not their fault really; Times have changed so much - even the wealthy now eat dinner on their coffee tables in the family room, in front of the TV. But with books like this available, the Gilded Age will continue to live on, if only in our imaginations.

Ce volume est l'un des premiers dans le domaine de l'architecture, qui remplie toute les demandes des vrais amateurs de ce genre de lecture. Les images ainsi que les plans rendent bien la grandeur de cet architecte de l'age d'or americain.

This reviewer became fascinated with Horace Trumbauer after a number of visits to both the public and private spaces of the The Elms in Newport. Michael Kathrens' book is among the finest ever published on architecture.
Thirty-eight of Trumbauer's designs are featured in this lavish work with beautiful photographs, floor plans, and fascinating narratives about the houses and their history. Ironically, The Elms, despite its grandeur, pales in comparison to Trumbauers's mind-boggling projects such as Lynnewood, Whitemarsh, and Shadow Lawn. Hopefully, Acanthus Press will begin to publish this masterwork again making its price accessible to architecture buffs, and devotees of Mr. Trumbauer. This book is truly spectacular.

I enjoyed reading the book, and examining what at times were too tiny notations on the floor plans in the book, but not paying for it. At $75 list, it's not a book you'll casually purchase. At $350 in the used market, moreso.

I was a bit surprised at the fact that the authors stayed away, as much as possible, from words used only by architects (loggia, for example) but were able to keep the book both scholorly and entertaining.

As someone who loves books like this, I can honestly say this is perfection. Anyone who thinks Delano and Aldrich, or dare I say McKim, Mead, and White designed the most lavish Guilded age mansions need, no must, buy this book. Horace Traumbaur would give Richard Morris Hunt a run for his money, as a Beaux Art master. I had no idea he designed so many beautiful mansions, I knew he was a great architect and I knew about his masterpiece Whitemarsh and it's disgusting demise, but I didn't grasp the depth of his range nor the breath of his work. I thank the authors for honoring him with this great book and as an admirer of his work I am thrilled to get the chance to own such a great book. The quality of this book is superb and the photos are outstanding. I can only hope that this book saves the rest of his buildings in particular the Widener mansion, let's not allow it to meet the same fate as Whitemarsh, who needs another bland housing tract, what we need are reminders of special talent and amazing buildings, mansions like this will never be built again. The Guilded Age is long over and the talented masons and the great architects who honored the past are all gone, replaced by the likes of Frank Gehry and Rem Koolhaus.

I love this book. Found it by accident in my local library. Was suprised to discover many of Trumbauer's buildings still standing and in my area in PA. All except Whitemarsh Hall, which
is pictured on the cover. I still get sick to my stomach when I think of this masterpiece being demolished. One of his other grand estates, Lynnewood Hall, is also in ruins. Please everyone, support restoration of historic buildings. We spend millions of dollars to travel to Europe to see 800 year old castles, but tear down our own grand estates. I also bought a book called "Great American Mansions" which tells you state by state what places are open to the public. I love old homes and
"American Splendor" is a must read for anyone who appreciates great architecture and preserving it's past. I bought my own copy and plan on visiting as many sites as I can.

This is the first Acanthus Press edition I bought of their ongoing series of great estates. I own many other books on this subject, old and new, by other publishers. I regard this one as among the best of the Acanthus series not least because it chose to document the creations of perhaps the greatest mansion architect of the Gilded Age. Trumbauer was at least the equal Richard Hunt and Charles McKim. And because Trumbauer's mansions were so famous in their day, they were extensively photographed. And here they are again !!
One is saddened by the loss of some of these monuments like Whitemarsh Hall and Lynnewood Hall, and horrified to think that The Elms, as recent as the 1960's, was slated for demolition. What I would give to be able to have seen them in their original glory. But this book will have to do.
A required addition to your collection.

This is a tremendous work, spanning the decades of the gilded age glory of architecture. I first became interested in Trumbauer in researching Whitemarsh Hall, as well as Lynnewood Hall and Miramar, both constructed for the Widener families. In all, thirty-eight of his works are represented, with a fabulous array of photos, floor plans, and written history of each. This is the penultimate coffee table book (but I prefer to shelve it in my library) with great detail and incredible pictures of his prime works. As previously stated in another review,it also details the current state of each of the houses. Sadly, Whitemarsh was demolished in 1980, but sixteen pages are dedicated to the magnificent grandeur that was Whitemarsh Hall. This book is out of print, to the best of my knowledge, and is very expensive, I have seen it on EBay for $500.00. If you are lucky enough to have a copy, treasure it! Trumbauer was an understated genius.