Customer Reviews

The Houses of McKim, Mead & White

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The point of this review is to correct an error in Steven Goldstein's review of this book. McKim, Mead, & White were not involved in the construction of the Metropolitan Opera, as he states.

This is a wonderful, ravishing book, although I suppose some readers might be disappointed that the author has limited himself to surviving examples of McKim, Mead, & White's work, with current photographs ... all of them gorgeous. Vintage photographs, where available, would have been a nice addition. For example, it would be interesting, if possible, to compare the Pulitzer mansion in New York as originally built with the current photos ... it has been divided into something like 9 condominiums!

Speaking as a practicing architect and longtime admirer of the works of Stanford White, I found this book was nonetheless a revelation. Gorgeously photographed, it shows a broader spectrum of the residential work of this illustrious firm. McKim Mead and White have a well-deserved reputation for grand public buildings (Penn Station, Madison Square Garden to name two that have sadly been demolished) but are less known for these spectacular houses built for the robber barons of the Gilded Age among whom Stanford White circulated. What is suprising is the facility with which they moved from lavish and elegantly detailed city houses to surprisingly unpretentious inviting summer homes on Long Island and elsewhere. If you love Beaux Arts architecture, skip this book at your peril.

This book combines rich visual appeal with a serious analysis of the residential work of McKim, Mead & White. The introduction is particularly valuable for its succinct survey of the firm's development and its discussion of the collaboration of the partners.

I must confess I enjoyed this book, it may not be the burning bush, but the text was insightful and I thought the photos where nicely laid out. It is amazing to see the breathe of Mckim, Mead, and Whites work, they really where THE Gilded Age architects. Lord knows there where other great architects of the time, like Horace Trumbaur and Carrere and Hastings to name a few, but no firm had a better P.R. machine than this firm, namely Stanford White, it can be debated whether they where the best of the architects of the time, but nobody can debate their preeminence during the Gilded Age. Nice book, I recomended it.

This book has beautiful photography, detailed descriptions and accounts of the work of McKim Mead and White. It would be great to have or as a gift for someone interested in architecture of this period, but is not academic per se. It is a chatty and conversational book--an easy and fun read. It does seems that the author may be confused on the term SUPERPOSE as it deals with the classical orders. He used the term superIMposed which is to lay or place (something) on or over something else. But within the classical idiom SUPERPOSE is the accepted and appropriate term which--by definition is to set or place (one thing) over or ABOVE something else. A small point but worth clarifying.

This book has some nice photographs but adds nothing to already published scholarship on this topic. The author is not a professional architectural historian; he is a descendant of Stanford White. His text is gushy and uncritical, and makes only scant mention of the social and economic forces that contributed to the rise and decline of these grandiose houses.