Detroit Architecture : A.I.A Guide (American Institute of Architects Guide Series) [Paperback]

Katharine Mattingly Meyer (Author), Martin C. P. McElroy (Editor), W. Hawkins Ferry (Foreword)

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Wayne State University Press; Revised edition (December 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814316514
• ISBN-13: 978-0814316511
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 4.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,132,099 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Superseded, but still good., October 11, 2011

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Jon L. Albee "Faulkner Wannabe" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Detroit Architecture : A.I.A Guide (American Institute of Architects Guide Series) (Paperback)

This was the standard architecture guide for Detroit from the time it was first published in 1971 until it was eventually replaced with a new AIA publication (by Hill and Gallagher) in 2003.

Both are AIA-sponsored, and organized in standard AIA format. Each entry includes a small monochrome photograph and a brief descriptive essay. Even though the photographs are mostly stock and borrowed from other sources, many are good oblique shots that give you a good feeling for the featured structure.

While the new book is more highly concentrated on the center city, this book has more breadth of coverage. It covers the entire city limits, suburbs and includes an excursion to Ann Arbor. Though the coverage is broad, it is not deep. Many HUGE regions of the city are represented by only a few sites, and more than a few of the structures included in this book are no longer standing.

This book is the revised edition published in 1980, and the building selection certainly reflects what was considered in vogue during that time. The authors exhibit a definite tendency to heap praise on any (and all) forms of modernism while dismissing traditional forms. Just to prove how fickle these "movements" can be, the new AIA guide (from 2003) includes almost NONE of the "space-age" modernism featured so prominently here. If you like modernism, you'll like this little book.

This is a good companion volume to the 2003 AIA Guide, as there isn't too much overlap.