Us Commission of Fine Arts A Century of Design: A History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts

Review The important work of the Commission of Fine Arts touches on questions of politics, design, urban planning, environmental planning, architectural history, and cultural history. While its work primarily concerns Washington, D.C., the capital often has served as a laboratory for what happens in the rest of the country, and this volume should appeal to both professional and lay readers interested in these varied fields.--Susan L. Klaus, author of A Modern Arcadia: Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and the Plan for Forest Hills GardensThis richly illustrated history will reconnect you with the city, make you look at the built environment with new eyes, and let you wander the streets, parks and ceremonial byways of the nation's capital alert to what might have been, what might be much worse, and the convoluted process that led to the city we know today. Luebke's book immediately joins the shortlist of essential texts about Washington design and architecture.--The Washington PostParticularly valuable are the narrative histories for hundreds of individual buildings, parks, and monuments, often quite detailed and illustrated with multiple images. Beyond its grand scope, Civic Art is notable for its thoughtful treatment of Washington's transformations in recent decades, reacting to needs for historic preservation alongside security and sustainability. This comprehensive publication encompasses American art, architecture, urban planning, history, politics, memory, and national identity--superlatively delivering on its stated purpose of providing a foundation for future research.--Art Libraries Society of North AmericaThis highly detailed, monumental work is an important resource covering Washington's history and the processes that have created the capital's built culture since 1910. Highly recommended.--Choice Product Description <p>From a hodgepodge provincial city of brick buildings into an ordered array of white classical temples, Washington, D.C., was transformed by visionary planning and Herculean implementation in response to the political and artistic movements of the early twentieth century. The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts was created by Congress in 1910 to guide this transformation and has continued to advise on the capital city’s design and other national symbols for a century. The impetus for this seven-member, presidentially appointed commission on design can be traced to the Senate Park Commission of 1901, whose grand plan focused on the Mall as the symbolic core of the capital—and the nation—proposing that it be a formal, public space framed by Neoclassical architecture to express the ideals of the American democracy. </p> <p>This book explores the role of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts in the design and architecture of Washington, as well as the city’s memorials and commemorative sites that represent the nation. It examines the social and political contexts that fostered the commission’s creation and the subsequent trends that have informed its decisions. As design philosophies and styles changed over the century, the commission also shifted its emphasis—from Beaux-Arts architecture and planning principles to the modernist pragmatism of mid-century, the urban redevelopment and historicist trends of the late twentieth century, and the contemporary era characterised by issues of security, sustainability, and information technology. </p> About the Author Thomas Luebke has served as Secretary of the U. S. Commission of Fine Arts since 2005. He is an architect with over twenty years' experience in design, planning, and historic preservation in both public and private sectors and was the design leader in the development of the 2009 Monumental Core Framework Plan for Washington, D.C. He served previously as the executive director of the Mayors' Institute on City Design; as City Architect for Alexandria, Virginia; and as a designer for numerous award-winning projects in architect