“Review of The Midwest in American Architecture, edited by John S. Garner”

AboutReviews a festschrift honoring architectural historian Walter L. Creese, who taught at the University of Illinois from 1958 to 1987, summarizing its nine essays on midwestern design. Sies highlights Deborah Slaton's essay on Burnham & Root's Rookery, Craig Zabel's account of George Grant Elmslie's struggle to sustain Louis Sullivan's legacy after their partnership ended, Narciso Menocal's reappraisal of Sullivan's bank buildings, Roula Mouroudellis Geraniotis's argument for German and Austrian influence on Dankmar Adler's design of the Auditorium Theatre (challenging the assumption that the Chicago and Prairie schools were purely indigenous), Christopher Vernon's study of Walter Burley Griffin's landscape work, Ellen Weiss's study of the Bay View, Michigan chautauqua community, John Garner's own reassessment of the company town of Pullman, Susan Appel's history of Midwest brewery architecture, and Ronald Schmitt's account of Sullivanesque terra-cotta manufacturing. Sies frames the collection as extending Creese's own scholarly interests in community planning and the Chicago and Prairie schools, noting the essays are grouped loosely rather than argued as a sustained thesis.

PURL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723%28199306%2980%3A1%3C289%3ATMIAA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8