City Hall: Masterpieces of American Civic Architecture

City Hall is the first book to feature striking contemporary images of the most architecturally significant city halls in the United States. This diverse collection includes New York, the oldest; Philadelphia, once the tallest building in the world; and Boston, the first major brutalist building in the United States. Organised chronologically, the book traces the evolution of American civic architecture from the early 19th century to the present day and represents diverse styles such as Federalist, art deco, and modern. Architects, current and former mayors, historians, and preservationists tell the story about how each city hall came to be, what it says about its city, and why it’s important architecturally. City Hall spotlights these often under-appreciated civic buildings and affirms architecture’s unique power to express democratic ideals and inspire civic engagement. AUTHOR: Arthur Drooker is the author and photographer of American Ruins (Merrell, 2007), Lost Worlds: Ruins of the Americas (ACC, 2011), Pie Town Revisited (UNM Press, 2015) and Conventional Wisdom (Glitterati, 2016).
88 colour and b/w images