The Architecture Of Warren Wetmore

During the first three decades of the twentieth century, Warren & Wetmore was one of the most successful and prolific architectural practices in America.

This book looks at Grand Central Terminal, in the heart of Manhattan. It was built at the beginning of the 20th century by the distignuished partnership of architects Warren and Wetmore.

The first close look at an innovative architect and inventor who held that traditional styles could be successfully adapted for modern times. In the final decade of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, the United States experienced exponential growth and a flourishing economy, and with it, a building boom. Grosvenor Atterbury (1869–1956) produced more than one hundred major projects, including an array of grand mansions, picturesque estates, informal summer cottages, and farm groups. However, it was his role as town planner and civic leader and his work to create model tenements, hospitals, workers’ housing, and town plans for which he is most celebrated. His Forest Hills Gardens, designed in association with the Olmsted Brothers, is lauded as one of the most highly significant community planning projects of its time. As an inventor, Atterbury was responsible for one of the country’s first low-cost, prefabricated concrete construction systems, introducing beauty and inexpensive good design into the lives of the working classes. The Architecture of Grosvenor Atterbury is the first book to showcase the rich and varied repertoire of this prolific architect whose career spanned six decades and whose work affected the course of American architecture, planning, and construction. Illustrated with Jonathan Wallen’s stunning color photographs and over 250 historic drawings, plans, and photographs, it also includes a catalogue raisonné and an employee roster. It is the definitive source on an architect who made an indelible imprint on the American landscape.

The firm of Delano & Aldrich occupied a central place in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century, substantially shaping the architectural climate of the period.

The twelve architects featured in this book designed ninety-four hotels from 1878 to 1948. Many of them worked as apprentices in architect’s offices. Some were lucky enough to study in an architectural college, and some were wealthy enough to attend the École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) in Paris. This school has a history of more than 350 years in training many of the great artists of Europe. Beaux-Arts’s style was modeled on classical antiquities. The origins of the school were drawn from 1648—when the Académe des Beaux-Arts was founded to educate the most talented students in drawing, painting, sculpting, engraving, and architecture. Women were admitted beginning in 1897.

Arranged in alphabetical order, these 5 volumes encompass the history of the cultural development of America with over 2300 entries.