Customer Reviews

The Metropolis of Tomorrow

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

 

 

I think that generally Dover Books are to be congratulated on reprinting many books that otherwise might never be seen again and priced very reasonably too. I don't think any plaudits are in order on this book though. I found the text very dull and the pictures gave an overall impression of blackness.

Hugh Ferris managed to develop a wonderful rendering technique (being trained as an architect no doubt helped) that seemed so suited to commercial buildings of size, especially skyscrapers. His black and white artwork is simply stunning but it needs to be printed on quality paper to bring out the subtleties of grey shading. The main problem with the book is the paper does nothing for his work and I was really made aware of this when I recently bought Power in Buildings a lovely reprint of his 1953 book. The fourth of his famous renderings from Evolution of the Set-back Building appears in both books but in the 'Power' edition the image looks so right.

His writing in 'Metropolis' came across as very long-winded, for example, this is from the last page of the book:
'As for personal and specific proposals, the author well knows how many parapets, other than the one we are now leaving, overlook the imaginary "Metropolis of Tomorrow" and he shares the common belief that few of the many visualizations currently being formulated can contribute more than a particle to the ultimate actuality'
The ten pages of words and pictures devoted to Set-back I thought the most interesting part of what he had to say.

Get his 'Power' book for a much better appreciation of his architectural thoughts and the fifty main renderings really look beautiful on good paper.

To say that this 1920's classic is anything other than a masterpiece would be proof of insanity. By "interpreting" a Law, (NY Zoning 1917), Ferriss found beauty in the hope of what might be. In today's world of 3D CAD and computers, Ferriss was able to use canvas to convey not merely ideas and requirements, but opportunities and emotions. There are few books that inspire architects more than this. The value of original prints of this is evident in that single plates are sold in New York for $20 apiece by street vendors Architects are usually too caught up in the details to appreciate the beauty of buildings. Leave it then, to a painter to bring out the beauty and grace of buildings that were meant to inspire, or were not meant to be.

Ferriss's drawings had an immediate impact on architecture. Some of his projections are the purest distilling of Art Deco application to buildings one can find from the age. But Ferriss's effect on cinema and illustration has been very powerful as well, and far less documented. The 1-star-off is because the reproduction quality -- quite good, no doubt -- leaves some to be desired, nonetheless: the sfumato effects appear more like soft-focus than atmosphere and the graininess brings to mind infra-red film more than the grit of a huge city fueled by leaded gas and coal.

Hugh Ferriss was an architectural renderer whose style and vision evoke memories of what we now call the gothic and art deco periods of American architecture. The book also deals with some of the urban problems that building on such a large scale could bring about. The drawings have a dream-like quality to them that stuck in my mind when I first saw them many years ago. The book is a valuable addition to my library.

"The Metropolis of Tomorrow by Hugh Ferris a great example of how any field, taking upon it a vision of the future, ultimately tries to create a new system of benign government. Ferris was an architect who, in 1929, published a series of sketches about what cities could and should look like. Plainly stating that architecture affects people's actions at the subconcious level, he creates an environment within which people might just act better.

In spirit this is so much like Thomas More's Utopia or Edward Bellamy's Looking backward that it's freaky.

Ferriss's city is enourmous. The base of its largest buildings take up eight blocks. They're so big and specially purposed that he says the word "building" no longer fits--they should be called "centers." There's a business, government, art and science center. Each building is its own city with banks, gyms, shops, restaurants.

In the city of the future, religions act in harmony. They're housed in a triple building. One is for the executive offices, the next for "aspirational activities" and the third, and the highest, is for charities.

The description of the Science Zone is a poem:

"Buildings like crystals.
Walls of translucent glass.
Sheer glass blocks sheathing a steel grill.
No Gothic branch: no Acanthus leaf: no recollection of the plant world.
A mineral kingdom.
Gleaming stalagmites.
Forms as cold as ice.
Mathematics.
Night in the Science Zone."

And yet for all the artificiality of it -- the buildings are concrete and the layout is geometric -- Ferris embeds organic aspects. Between the huge centers, buildings climb no more than six stories and they ascend insize towards the centers like "foothills." The roofs are covered in two feet of soil so trees can grow.

Ferris concludes his work: "Are we to imagine that this city is populated by human beings who value emotion and mind equally with the senses, and have therefore disposed their art, science and business centers in such a way that all three would participate equally in the government of the city?"

Ferris did much to influence our ideas about what the city of tomorrow should look like. But as new as his ideas were, it's clear that they're compelling for how they embody our ancient ideals, hopes and fears.