A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Like most human beings, I can be contradictory at times. One area where this manifests is architectural surveys: books that usually collect buildings of a certain typology, but also ones spanning a particular timeframe or through some other theme. I've written a few of them myself , so I don't inherently hate them. But I tend to pass on them when it comes to new books, which most likely boils down to the fact I'm not a practicing architect and therefore don't need to look at, say, a roundup of libraries when I'm designing one. Yet, when it comes to old surveys — as in my latest #archidosereads — I have a hard time saying no to them after spotting them in used bookstores. I think part of their appeal is the way they capture the character of a certain time, and often, with the occasional geographical focus of surveys, a particular place in time. Being seen decades after they were made, the best ones manage to transport me back to a certain place in time — something I...

Michigan Modern: An Architectural Legacy by Brian D. Conway with photographs by James Haefner, published by  Visual Profile Books , 2018. Hardcover, 300 pages. ( Amazon ) [Eero Saarinen's General Motors Technical Center (1956) graces the cover.] When thinking "modern architecture" what places come to mind? In the United States, at least, it's probably the Chicago Loop's commercial architecture, or Southern California's residential architecture, or even Columbus, Indiana's surprising density of modern architecture of all types. But Michigan? Most likely that doesn't bubble to the top. Yet even a cursory glance at this lovely coffee table book of 34 buildings in Michigan from the late 1920s to earlier this decade reveals that is a huge oversight. The state -- or at least concentrated portions of its southern half -- is crammed with some amazing modern architecture. [Frank Lloyd Wright's Dorothy Turkel House (1957) is one of the book's ma...

Dallas Modern: Volume 1, Residences  by Dallas Architecture Forum, published by  Visual Profile Books , 2014. Hardcover, 216 pages. ( Amazon ) Minnesota Modern: Architecture and Life at Midcentury  by Larry Millett, published by  University of Minnesota Press , 2015. Hardcover, 400 pages. ( Amazon ) Last week I reviewed Virginia Savage McAlester's updated Field Guide to American Houses , which devotes numerous pages to modern houses and other recent styles of residential architecture in the United States. It seems natural to follow up that review with one devoted to modern houses in two parts of the country: Dallas and Minnesota. The names and covers may indicate that the books are fairly similar, but, as will be seen, Dallas Modern is a survey of the city's notable houses from the 1950s to the present, while Minnesota Modern  is a history of all sorts of architecture in the state in the middle of the 20th century, yet with a special emphasis o...