Review
(EXCERPT) THE new two-volume monograph Carrere & Hastings Architects is the first book to shine a spotlight on an effervescent design team whose legacy in New York has been lasting, from its introduction of the Beaux-Arts style in the 1890s to its debonair skyscraper for the Standard Oil Company on lower Broadway in the 1920s. Published by Acanthus Press, this comprehensive account of the lifework of John Merven Carrere and Thomas Hastings depicts an organization international in scope with works from London to Vicksburg to Rome to Vancouver but at the same time supremely grounded in New York, dedicated to the civilizing possibilities of the new metropolis. The two volumes, with contributions from Mark Alan Hewitt, Kate Lemos, William Morrison and Charles D. Warren, naturally pay great attention to the men s best-known commissions in New York, like the Frick mansion and the New York Public Library. What is unusual is the attention they pay to the other works which form a network suggesting a comprehensive view of what could truly be a City Beautiful. Bringing an intelligence and sophistication to New York that has never been surpassed, the two designers arrived in the early 1880s after several years at the ??cole des Beaux-Arts, white hot with the newest ideas from Paris. They both worked for a few years in the offices of McKim, Mead & White until their professional association began in 1885. (EXCERPT) --The New York Times
The 11-pound, two-volume boxed set...seems to be the product of another era an oevre complete to rival the early twentieth-century four-volume on McKim, Mead & White. The wide margins, heavy stock, and light sheen of the paper that enhance the elegance of the gray-toned historical photographs all suggest that the work of Carrere & Hastings deserves to share the honors accorded their more celebrated contemporaries... the essays of the four authors are substantive...overall architectural quality and civic importance of Carrere & Hastings' work emerges clearly. --Journal of the Society of Architecural Historians
About the Author
MARK ALAN HEWITT is an architect, teacher, and writer with special interests in American architecture, historic preservation, and the classical tradition in art. He has taught at Rice and Columbia universities and at the University of Pennsylvania, and he is currently an adjunct faculty member at Rutgers. His numerous publications on architecture include The Architect and the American Country House (Yale, 1990) and Gustav Stickley s Craftsman Farms (Syracuse, 2001). KATE LEMOS is an architectural historian and preservationist. A native of Newcastle, Maine, she studied architectural history at Brown University. Graduate studies at Columbia University brought her to New York City, where she has resided since 1998. As a preservation consultant and architectural historian, she has worked on a wide range of preservation projects in New York, New Jersey, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C., involving historical research and interpretation, restoration, and innovative modern interventions. WILLIAM MORRISON is a historian and editor of Acanthus Press forthcoming series Elements of Architecture. He is the author of a book on the history and architecture of Broadways theaters, as well as Acanthus Press 2002 release The Main Line: Country Houses of Philadelphia s Storied Suburb. He lives in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. CHARLES D. WARREN is a professional architect and architectural historian. Since 1987, Warren has led his own architectural firm, Charles Warren, Architect, which designs projects in diverse locations from New England to Florida, as well as in metropolitan New York, where the practice is based. In addition, Charles Warren has published numerous essays on architecture.
