McKim, Mead and White, Architects (Icon Editions) [Hardcover]

Leland M. Roth (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 441 pages
• Publisher: Icon (Harpe); 1st edition (November 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0064384918
• ISBN-13: 978-0064384919
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,674,449 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent history of a famous firm, January 7, 2009

By 

ct reader "logos.hfd" (ct) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mckim, Mead & White, Architects (Hardcover)

This is the cardinal profile of an American architectural powerhouse. Three partners (William Rutherford Mead, Charles Follen McKim, Stanford White) contributed distinct skills in a collaboration that was unique. Starting as employees of Russell Sturgis (Mead) and Henry Hobson Richardson (McKim and White), they formed (1879) one of the most successful, prolific firms of the late 19C.

The firm ingeniously introduced works based on Renaissance neoclassicism to compete with (replace rival) `Richardson Romanesque.' Theirs was a golden age of reinvention, and they found unparalleled success. It began with the Villard House (1882-85; a house for a railroad magnate in NYC).

Subsequent years brought the Boston Public Library (1887-95); Madison Square Garden, NYC (1887-91); the Agriculture Building at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1891-93); the Rhode Island State Capital (1891-1903); the community of Naugatuck CT (1891-1905); Columbia University (1892-94); Boston Symphony Hall (1893-1901; the first building designed with Wallace Sabine, founder of acoustical engineering); the Senate Park Commission for Washington DC (1901-02); the White House Renovations in Washington DC (1902-03); and the Morgan Library NYC (1903-). They became the premier architects for the most powerful bankers and the US government.

McKim, Mead & White managed to integrate functional and physical constraints with new technology (steel structures, elevators, etc) seamlessly into their vision, and their buildings remain highly prized. Many are illustrated in this work (369 illustrations -most 1/4 page size or less - grace my 1983 Harper & Row hardcover edition), but this is not a photographic (or graphic) monograph.

As one might expect, the firm's history holds a few scandals. One was the petulant rivalry between Charles Follen McKim and his able younger fellow École des Beaux Arts alumni Ernest Flagg, architect of the US Naval Academy and the 47-story Singer Tower in NYC - the tallest skyscraper of the day (1906: for that see `Ernest Flagg: Beaux-Arts Architect and Urban Reformer' by Mardges Bacon, MIT 1986). A second scandal may seem more familiar (it engendered `The Girl on the Red Velvet Swing'): Stanford White's friendship with a beautiful model, and his sensational death at the hands of her husband Harry Kendall Thaw 25 Jun 1906

Highly recommended for those who desire a portrait of an influential firm that thrived in an ever-more empowered country.