The National Mall

Rethinking Washington's Monumental Core
Erscheinungsjahr 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8018-8805-2
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 232 Seiten, Format (B × H): 213 mm x 261 mm, Gewicht: 875 g

The National Mall in Washington, D.C., has held an important place in the American psyche since the early nineteenth century. Home to monuments and museums dedicated to the ideals upon which the United States rests, the Mall serves as a gathering place for public protest and celebration. But as the nation ages and the population diversifies, demands for additional structures and uses have sparked debates over the Mall's future and the necessity of preserving its legacy and the vision of its designers.

The National Mall addresses these issues with a novel and compelling collection of essays, the work of leading design professionals, historians, and social scientists. Supplemented by eye-catching illustrations and photographs, this cross-disciplinary examination follows the discussion over the Mall's design and use, from its conceptual origins as part of Pierre Charles L'Enfant's vision for the capital to the 1902 McMillan Plan to the present day and beyond. It assesses how architectural, societal, and political changes have altered the park-like space between the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial and explores the influence that disparate interest groups and creeping corporatism have already had on—and are likely to exert upon—America's public square.

The National Mall presents an overarching account of how a democratic society plans, creates, and expands a national ceremonial space, opening the way for a broadly based inquiry into the Mall as it was, is, and will become. Urban planners, architectural and design historians, and engaged citizens will be challenged and well served by the thoughtful essays collected by Nathan Glazer and Cynthia R. Field.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Glazer, Nathan

Field, Cynthia R

Weitere Mitwirkende

Cooper, James F.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword
Introduction
Part I: The Design of the Mall
Chapter 1. The Idea of the American Mall
Chapter 2. American Renaissance: Charles Follen McKim and the Aesthetic Ideal
Chapter 3. When Dignity and Beauty Were the Order of the Day: The Contribution of Daniel H. Burnham
Chapter 4. "A Simple Space of Turf": Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.'s Idea for the Mall
Part II: The Nation's Gathering Place
Chapter 5. The People's Home Ground
Chapter 6. Washington as a Pilgrimage Site
Chapter 7. Culture of, by, and for the People: The Smithsonian Folklife Festival
Part III: Monuments for the Future
Chapter 8. Monuments, Modernism, and the Mall
Chapter 9. Turning Point: The Problematics of Building on the Mall Today
Chapter 10. Planning beyond the Monumental Core
Biographical Notes
A Chronology of the Mall
Notes
Selected Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Field, Cynthia R
Cynthia R. Field is the architectural historian emerita at the Smithsonian Institution and a faculty member at the Corcoran College of Art. She is the coauthor of The Castle: An Illustrated History of the Smithsonian Building.

Glazer, Nathan
Nathan Glazer is an emeritus professor of sociology and education at Harvard University. He is the author or editor of many books on public policy and urban problems, among them The Public Face of Architecture and From a Cause to a Style: Modernist Architecture's Encounter with the American City.

Nathan Glazer is an emeritus professor of sociology and education at Harvard University. He is the author or editor of many books on public policy and urban problems, among them The Public Face of Architecture and From a Cause to a Style: Modernist Architecture's Encounter with the American City. Cynthia R. Field is the architectural historian emerita at the Smithsonian Institution and a faculty member at the Corcoran College of Art. She is the coauthor of The Castle: An Illustrated History of the Smithsonian Building.