"By bridging histories of technology, media studies, and aesthetics, Electrographic Architecture: New York Color, Las Vegas Light, and America's White Imaginary weaves a critical narrative of the ways in which illuminated light and color play key roles in the formation of America's white imaginary over the course of the last century. The book sheds light on the central question to which media scholars, architects, and historians of technology repeatedly turn: how can we use and speak about light and color in ways that are productive and commemorative, while remaining critical of the systems of white power undergirding them? Electrographic Architecture: New York Color, Las Vegas Light, and America's White Imaginary analyzes the history of electric light technologies in the aesthetic development of Times Square and Las Vegas. The book charts the rise of America's white walls, light empires, and neoclassical buildings in the early twentieth century, through the construction of polychromatic electrographic spectacles by midcentury, and their eclipse by informatically intense, invisible algorithms at the beginning of the new millennium. Drawing from histories of technology, media, and aesthetics, the book shows how the formation of America's electrographic surround runs isomorphic to a new world ethos of power, property, and possession. Drawing on archival research, interviews, and visual analysis, Electrographic Architecture's introduction, six core chapters, and conclusion illustrate how Times Square's polychromatic surround serves as a complex symbol of America's deep-seated dreams of utopic transcendence on the one hand, coupled with fears of loss and obsolescence on the other. In America's twentieth-century imaginary, whiteness aims to become everything but itself: colorful, lit, vibrant, and vital"--

Bridging histories of technology, media studies, and aesthetics, Electrographic Architecture forges a critical narrative of the ways in which illuminated light and color have played key roles in the formation of America's white imaginary. Carolyn L. Kane charts the rise of the country's urban advertisements, light empires, and neoclassical buildings in the early twentieth century; the midcentury construction of polychromatic electrographic spectacles; and their eclipse by informatically intense, invisible algorithms at the dawn of the new millennium. Drawing on archival research, interviews, and visual analysis, Electrographic Architecture shows how the development of America's electrographic surround runs parallel to a new paradigm of power, property, and possession.

Originally published: London: Allen Lane, 1971.

The book that helped spark the retro craze for fifties architecture and introduced the term googie to the world is back! First published by Chronicle in 1986, this key survey of mid-century coffee shop and commercial architecture is still the standard work on the subject Googie Redux is a thoroughly revised and expanded edition of the classic and perennial top-selling book that rekindled the craze for 1950s coffee shop and commercial architecture. Long derided by critics as popular folly, the style - so named after John Lautner's eccentric Los Angeles coffee shop - was emblematic of Southern California's car-oriented architecture. By the time of the first edition's debut, these buildings were being demolished by the score. Alan Hess' 1985 Chronicle book did much not only to educate, legitimize, and popularize the style that characterized this endangered architecture, but it helped spark a resurgence of interest into midcentury modern design. Completely revised and significantly expanded in both text and images (some of them recently unearthed for this edition), this redesigned package features is still an entertaining and informative look at the rise, fall, and resurgence of the commercial architecture that changed the American landscape. Includes a greatly expanded guided tour of the iconic buildings in Southern California.

Containing over 6,000 entries from Aalto to Zwinger and written in a clear and concise style, this authoritative dictionary covers architectural history in detail, from ancient times to the present day. It also includes concise biographies of hundreds of architects from history (excluding living persons), from Sir Francis Bacon and Imhotep to Liang Ssu-ch'eng and Francis Inigo Thomas. The text is complemented by over 260 beautiful and meticulous line drawings, labelled cross-sections, and diagrams. These include precise drawings of typical building features, making it easy for readers to identify particular period styles. This third edition of The Oxford Dictionary of Architecture has been extensively revised and expanded, with over 900 new entries including hundreds of definitions of garden and landscape terms such as Baroque garden, floral clock, hortus conclusus, and Zen garden-design. Each entry is followed by a mini-bibliography, with suggestions for further reading. The full bibliography to the first edition (previously only available online) has also been fully updated and expanded, and incorporated into this new edition. This is an essential work of reference for anyone with an interest in architectural and garden history. With clear descriptions providing in-depth analysis, it is invaluable for students, professional architects, art historians, and anyone interested in architecture and garden design, and provides a fascinating wealth of information for the general reader.

Book Review

Colour is architecture’s sharpest tool in the box. It has indexed everything from the feminine, cosmetic and vulgar to the pure, intrinsic and embodied. Colour has played a central role in the history of architecture. From the polychromy of the ancients to the great white interiors of high modernism. The figurative flourishes of postmodernism to the embedded sublime of contemporary building systems and facades. In contemporary architecture, colour has emerged as something powerful, both a mode of working and a political proposition. The second digital age has brought a fundamental shift in how architects engage colour. Employing the full range of colour puts forth a projective mode of action. It aids the democratisation of visual culture: opening the field to enable subjectivities, bring in new references and embrace new voices. This book explores the function of colour in contemporary architecture and argues it is not to present a vision of an idealised other world, but to prompt new imaginaries. Take in the full spectrum. Features: 100 Architects, Maya Alam, David Batchelor, Galo Canizares, Courtney Coffman, Fala Atelier, Marcelyn Gow, Sauerbruch Hutton, Sam Jacobs, Carolyn Kane, Guto Requena, Paulette Singley, Amanda Williams and Mimi Zeiger.

Color is a ubiquitous yet essential part of the city, creating and shaping urban form. Volume 3 of New Geographies brings together artists and designers, anthropologists, geographers, historians, and philosophers with the aim of exploring the potency, the interaction, and the neglected design possibilities of color at the scale of the city.

An illustrated reevaluation of the seminal architectural manifesto Learning from Las Vegas. It explores the significance of this controversial publication by situating it in the artistic, architectural, and urbanist discourse of the 1960s and '70s, and by evaluating the book's enduring influence of visual studies and architectural research.