The Metropolis of Tomorrow, Hugh Ferriss 1929 Architecture. Modern City Planning

Description: The Metropolis of Tomorrow, Hugh Ferriss 1929 Architecture. Modern City Planning The Metropolis of Tomorrow by Hugh Ferriss Ives Washburn, New York, 1929. First edition. Hardcover. Black cloth with silver lettering on spine and front. Tall quarto, 140, [4] pages. Color plates. [The first printing has silver titles; the second has red titles.] The Metropolis of Tomorrow The Metropolis of Tomorrow is a 1929 book written and illustrated by Hugh Ferriss. Prominently featuring 60 of Ferriss' drawings, the book is divided into three sections. The first, "Cities of Today", underscores the lack of planning in contemporary cities and the powerful psychological impact that cities have on their inhabitants while also profiling 18 influential modern buildings in five cities. The second section, "Projected Trends", prominently discusses practical concerns related to population density and traffic congestion, demonstrates Ferriss' adherence to some of the key elements of modern architecture (especially functionalism), and then analyzes projected trends in urban design that he supports, as well as a few that he opposes. The third and final section, "An Imaginary Metropolis", describes an ideal future city complete with towering skyscrapers spaced well apart from each other, broad avenues, and a strongly geometric city layout based around centers and sub-centers of buildings that are segregated by function. First published by Ives Washburn in 1929, The Metropolis of Tomorrow was out of print long before the Princeton Architectural Press republished it in 1986. Contemporary critical reception to the book was mostly positive and enthusiastic, and generally regarded Ferriss' ideas for the future city as credible and even practical. While in the minority, negative contemporary reviews of the book significantly came mostly from proponents of the regional planning movement. Writing with the benefit of hindsight in 1986, architectural historian Carol Willis noted the strong connections between the first and second sections of the book ("Cities of Today" and "Projected Trends"), but criticized the final section ("An Imaginary Metropolis") as a flight of fantasy, both impracticable and lacking in nuance. Similarly, more recent reviewers have concentrated on "An Imaginary Metropolis", which they generally view as a fantasy which has had a strong influence on later architects and urban planners, and has also been influential to the appearance of futuristic cities in comic books and films. Hugh Macomber Ferriss (July 12, 1889 – January 28, 1962) was an American architect, illustrator, and poet. He was associated with exploring the psychological condition of modern urban life, a common cultural enquiry of the first decades of the twentieth century. After his death a colleague said he 'influenced my generation of architects' more than any other man." Ferriss also influenced popular culture, for example Gotham City (the setting for Batman) and Kerry Conran's Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Hugh Ferriss was born in 1889 and trained as an architect at Washington University in his native St. Louis, Missouri. Career Early in his career, Ferriss began to specialize in creating architectural renderings for other architects' work rather than designing buildings himself. As a delineator, his task was to create a perspective drawing of a building or project. This was done either as part of the sales process for a project, or, more commonly, to advertise or promote the project to a wider audience. Thus, his drawings were frequently destined for annual shows or advertisements. As a result of this, his works were often published (rather than just given to the architect's client), and Ferriss acquired a reputation. After he had set up as a free-lance artist, he found himself much sought after. In 1912, Ferriss arrived in New York City and was soon employed as a delineator for Cass Gilbert. Some of his earliest drawings are of Gilbert's Woolworth Building; they reveal that Ferriss's illustrations had not yet developed his signature dark, moody appearance. In 1915, with Gilbert's blessing, he left the firm and set up shop as an independent architectural delineator. In 1914, Ferriss married Dorothy Lapham, an editor and artist for Vanity Fair. By 1920, Ferriss had begun to develop his own style, frequently presenting the building at night, lit up by spotlights, or in a fog, as if photographed with a soft focus. The shadows cast by and on the building became almost as important as the revealed surfaces. His style elicited emotional responses from the viewer. His drawings were being regularly featured by such diverse publications as the Century Magazine, the Christian Science Monitor, Harper's Magazine, and Vanity Fair. His writings also began to appear in various publications. In 1916, New York City had passed landmark zoning laws that regulated and limited the massing of buildings according to a formula. The reason was to counteract the tendency for buildings to occupy the whole of their lot and go straight up as far as was possible. Since many architects were not sure exactly what these laws meant for their designs, in 1922 the skyscraper architect Harvey Wiley Corbett commissioned Ferriss to draw a series of four step-by-step perspectives demonstrating the architectural consequences of the zoning law. These four drawings would later be used in his 1929 book The Metropolis of Tomorrow. This book illustrated many conte crayon sketches of tall buildings. Some of the sketches were theoretical studies of possible setback variations within the 1916 zoning laws. Some were renderings for other architect's skyscrapers. And at the end of the book was a sequence of views in Manhattan emerged in an almost Babylonian guise. His writing in the book betrayed an ambivalence to the rapid urbanization of America: There are occasional mornings when, with an early fog not yet dispersed, one finds oneself, on stepping onto the parapet, the spectator of an even more nebulous panorama. Literally, there is nothing to be seen but mist; not a tower has yet been revealed below, and except for the immediate parapet rail . . . there is no suggestion of either locality or solidity for the coming scene. To an imaginative spectator, it might seem that he is perched in some elevated stage box to witness some gigantic spectacle, some cyclopean drama of forms; and that the curtain has not yet risen . . . there could not fail to be at least a moment of wonder. What apocalypse is about to be revealed? What is its setting? And what will be the purport of this modern metropolitan drama? CONDITION: Very Good+. (Covers have shelfwear with rubbing at spine ends, light soil, some loss of silver in spine lettering. Original owner’s stamp on front pastedown, several tiny spots on rear endpaper and pastedown. The Contents including all plates are Fine.) Check our other auctions and store listings for additional unusual items Check our other auctions and store listings for additional unusual items Listing and template services provided by inkFrog

Price: 360 USD

Location: NJ

End Time: 2024-11-11T04:30:35.000Z

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