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(More customer reviews)Rochester's Downtown Architecture 1950-1975 covers a unique period in urban architecture--a period when the Federal government was encouraging cities to demolish their decaying century-old buildings for new architecture. Author Daniel J. Palmer presents the fascinating story of how urban renewal transformed Rochester. Giant swaths of old buildings were destroyed, and fresh thinking was applied to renewing the vast spaces. It was both a controversial period and an exciting one.
Palmer tells the story largely with crisp, sharp black-and-white photographs that seem to have been resurrected from files unused since the period itself. I have seen very few of them before. But this is so much more than a book of vivid historic photos. Palmer adds compact captions that are remarkably informative. And you're not just looking at shots of completed new buildings. He shows you the street or area before demolition, introduces the various concepts proposed for the site, covers stages of construction, and finally presents the glorious completed structure. Meanwhile, Palmer's brilliant captions have imparted engineering concepts, design criteria, client's demands and architect's proposals, and final solutions. You are introduced to stimulating new architectural styles from Modernism to Brutalism.
Palmer is curious about what makes a skyscraper stand up, how to construct large spaces devoid of columns, what are architects' preferred building materials, what architectural styles work best, how does new architecture relate to old, what is added with parks and sculpture, and on and on. His curiosity leads to our education and enjoyment.
Richard O. Reisem
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Following World War II, many American cities underwent a large-scale modernization to keep up with the changing times in business technology and architecture. With help from federal funding and planning, expansive and low-density modern projects replaced the crowded blocks of century-old buildings. State-of-the-art facilities featured large, open plazas that were the scenes of social and cultural events, attracting private developers to the city's core. Due to its participation in new policies of planning and the efforts of its strong preservation community, Rochester is today an interesting and sometimes perplexing mixture of densely packed, ornamental-19th-century buildings and monumentally scaled and architecturally stark projects of the modern era. Rochester's Downtown Architecture: 1950-1975 tells the story of the peak years of change to the built environment of Rochester's downtown.
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