BUILT IN USA
A SURVEY OF CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE SINCE 1932
Elizabeth Mock [Editor]
Elizabeth Mock [Editor]: BUILT IN USA: A SURVEY OF CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE SINCE 1932. New York: Simon & Schuster/Museum of Modern Art, May 1944. First edition. Photo illustrated perfect bound and stitched wrappers. 128 pp. 206 black and white images. Wrappers lightly age toned and trivial wear to spine junctures, thus a nearly fine copy of the first edition.
7.25 x 9.75 softcover book with 128 pages and 206 black and white plates. Important early monograph detailing the inroads that the European modern ideology was making into the American architectural industry. Traces the development and assimilation of the International Style into American culture, with some Art Deco and Streamline Moderne thrown in for good measure.
The Biographical Index and Architectural Exhibitions and Publications listings are excellent bibliographical resources that highlight the missionary zeal that the Museum of Modern Art bought to the evolving modernist dialogue in America during the closing days of World War II.
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- Built in USA -- Since 1932
- Examples
- Biographical Index
- Architectural Exhibitions and Publications
- Glossary
Some of the architects, designers, and artists whose works are shown and/or discussed in this volume include: Gregory Ain, Robert Alexander, Lawrence Anderson, Herbert Beckwith, Pietro Belluschi, Marcel Breuer, Ralph Burk, Thomas Church, Nicholas Cirino, Harvey Corbett, Gardner Dailey, Allston Dana, J.Andre Fouilhoux, Charles Franklin, John Funk, William Ganster,Philip Goodwin, Walter Gropius, Harwell Hamilton Harris, Wallace Harrison, Henry Hofmeister, Raymond Hood, S. Clements Horsley, George Howe, Burnham Hoyt, Huson Jackson, Robert Allan Jacobs, Philip Johnson, Albert Kahn, Ely Jacques Kahn, Louis Kahn, Vincent Kling, Carl Koch, Ernest Kump, William Lescaze, Edwin Merrill, John Merrill, Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, Richard Neutra, N. A. Owings, William Pereira, Lawrence Perkins, L. Andrew Reinhard, Eero Saarinen, Eliel Saarinen, Louis Skidmore, Raphael Soriano, Clarence Stein, Edward Durrell Stone, Oscar Stonorov, Hugh Stubbins, Harry Thomsen, E. Todd Wheeler, Philip Will, Lewis Wilson, Frank Lloyd Wright, William Wilson Wurster, John Yeon and others.
“The year 1932 was the date of the Museum’s famous international exhibition of Modern Architecture. For the first time in this country, popular attention was directed toward the exciting developments which had taken place since 1922. The American public, amateur and professional, was strongly, if not cordially, interested in the Museum's presentation of the new architecture. The immediate and extremely important influence, however, was on students, to whom the new way of building came as the revelation of a brave and wonderfully successful new world.
“The modern architect has a broad view of the scope and social responsibilities of his profession, so that architecture becomes more than a matter of designing the shells of individual buildings. The architect deals with mechanical equipment, with furniture, textiles and utensils; he deals with the space around buildings and with the relationship of one building to another. The architectural process of rational analysis and creative synthesis logically carries over without break into design for the crafts and for industry, and into landscaping and city planning.
“The fresh approach of the progressive architect has already benefited each of these fields but he struggles against popular apathy and mistrust even though he sees clearly the exacting role which he must play if we are to have a more satisfactory environment. Many architects feel that their position in the post-war world will be indeed precarious if they do not take vigorous initiative in social and technical problems, while at the same time maintaining their traditional concern for excellence of design.” — Elizabeth Mock
Terence Riley noted that the early tastemakers at MoMA understood their job was to separate “the wheat from the chaff.” Few people rose to that challenge with more vigor than Philip Johnson, the young head of the Department of Architecture and Design. Alfred Barr’s insistence on including Architecture and Design as a fully functioning department within MoMA was a radical curatorial departure, which seems only obvious today.
Philip Johnson, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. and Henry-Russell Hitchcock codified their observations about modern architecture in the 1932 landmark Museum of Modern Art show "The International Style: Architecture Since 1922." The show was profoundly influential and is seen as the introduction of modern architecture and architects Le Corbusier, Gropius, and Mies van der Rohe to the American public. The exhibition was also notable for a controversy: architect Frank Lloyd Wright withdrew his entries in pique that he was not more prominently featured.
As critic Pater Blake has stated, the importance of this show in shaping American architecture in the century "cannot be overstated." In the book accompanying the show, coauthored with Hitchcock, Johnson argued that the new modern style maintained three formal principles: 1. an emphasis on architectural volume over mass (planes rather than solidity) 2. a rejection of symmetry and 3. rejection of applied decoration. The definition of the movement as a "style" with distinct formal characteristics has been seen by some critics as downplaying the social and political bent that many of the European practitioners shared. Mock expands on this premise in BUILT IN USA, as well as showcasing the best examples of the Americanized International Style Residential Architecture built before 1944.