1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
New Ways of Seeing Topography, April 16, 2008
This review is from: The Spectator and the Topographical City (Hardcover)
In this book, Mr. Aurand has achieved the surprising: The Spectator and the Topographical City far exceeds the high quality of his book on quirky Pittsburgh architect, Frederick Scheibler (The Progressive Architecture Of Frederick G. Scheibler, Jr). Aurand leads the reader/spectator on an engrossing tour of Greater Pittsburgh that is insightful, instructive and unexpectedly affectionate from a non-native Pittsburgher. The topography he reveals is physical, metaphysical and metaphoric.
One is immediately impressed with the depth and breadth of the research this work entails. Aurand quotes sources on geology, history, architecture, art, religion, economics and more. This might seem frenetic, except for the skill with which they are used to tell an integrated story.
The book establishes and elucidates the spectator/topography relationships in three principal locations: Downtown Pittsburgh, the Turtle Creek Valley and Oakland. Aurand traces how the natural and man-made topographies continuously shaped one another. He takes the reader through these iterations in the (now) downtown triangle as it morphed through centers of the spiritual, military, residential, industrial, religious, governmental and corporate. Appropriate attention is paid to the city's most important architectural landmark, Henry Hobson Richardson's Allegheny County Buildings.
The story of the Turtle Creek Valley is typical of many industrial centers in the region. Aurand makes it plain, though, that the tale of this production center for iron, steel, railroad and electrical equipment must be told on a heroic scale. Here he deftly weaves history in terms of men (Carnegie and Westinghouse) and movement (industrialization). This is the setting for some of his most picturesque language, especially in evoking the power the great steel mills.
By contrast, Oakland (a section of the city to the east of Downtown) and its surroundings became the locus of cultural and academic institutions, skipping the industrial phase of the other two locations. This account is presented with a concentration on the work of Henry Hornbostel, one of Pittsburgh's most skilled and beloved architects. Here, at two great universities, we learn the topography of large scale architectural design. One can argue that the city's eastern reaches succeeded Downtown as a religious center. In addition to Hornbostel synagogues, it boasts three churches by Ralph Adams Cram, one by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue and one by the immediate successors of Richardson.
The author makes excellent use of art and photographs. The convenience of illustrations visible from their reference in the text is most welcome. The size of illustrations, especially in the case of topographical diagrams, is somewhat small for ideal clarity. Perhaps that is just the engineer in the reviewer talking.
This book will be especially appreciated by those who know something of the history and architecture of Pittsburgh. However, it would be an ideal introduction and basis for a general study of the city's architecture. (Ironically, Aurand's work on Scheibler - a particular architect in a particular era and a particular section of Pittsburgh - was this reviewer's first serious book on architecture.) The value of the book extends far beyond Pittsburgh, though. The author teaches a new way to see topography, in all the forms he reveals, which is invaluable in the study of any architectural context.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A View of a City, January 19, 2007
This review is from: The Spectator and the Topographical City (Hardcover)
Mr. Aurand is an architecture librarian (at Carnegie Mellon University) and brings to this analysis of the city of Pittsburgh an understanding of how the growth and development of the city has been influenced by topography of its location. This book is a collection of illustrations (paintings, drawings, photographs) of parts of the city, concentrating on three areas: Downtown's Golden Triangle, the industrial Turtle Creek Valley, and the cultural and university district of Oakland.
Pittsburgh has a long and varied history. It began as a transportation center as it is in the upper reaches of the Ohio river which begins at the confluence of the Allegheny and the Monongahela. Subsequently Pittsburgh became the quintessential industrial city, and after that a pioneer in the development of a sustainable, green city.
Mr. Aurand presents a rather different view of the city as he discusses the development of the city through its topology.
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