Developing expertise : architecture and real estate in metropolitan america / Sara Stevens.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stevens, Sara, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cities and towns--United States--Growth--History--20th century.

Cities and towns.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (289 pages) : illustrations, photographs

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven, Connecticut ; London, [England] : Yale University Press, 2016.

Summary:

Real estate developers are integral to understanding the split narratives of twentieth-century American urban history. Rather than divide the decline of downtowns and the rise of suburbs into separate tales, Sara Stevens uses the figure of the real estate developer to explore how cities found new urban and architectural forms through both suburbanization and urban renewal. Through nuanced discussions of Chicago, Kansas City, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Denver, Washington, D.C., and New York, Stevens explains how real estate developers, though often maligned, have shaped public policy through professional organizations, promoted investment security through design, and brought suburban models to downtowns. In this timely book, she considers how developers partnered with prominent architects, including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and I. M. Pei, to sell their modern urban visions to the public. By viewing real estate developers as a critical link between capital and construction in prewar suburban development and postwar urban renewal, Stevens offers an original and enlightening look at the complex connections among suburbs and downtowns, policy, finance, and architectural history.

Contents:

Cover

Half-title

Title

Copyright

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I: The Suburban Begets the Urban

Chapter 1 J. C. Nichols: Stable Investments in the Suburbs

Chapter 2 The Urban Land Institute: Suburban Logics of Urban Renewal

Part II: Urban Renewal and Large-Scale Financing

Chapter 3 Equitable Life Assurance Society: Urban Renewal as Design by Committee

Chapter 4 Herbert Greenwald: Selling Postwar Modernism

Chapter 5 William Zeckendorf: Entrepreneurial Capitalism

Conclusion: Real Estate as Unstable Merchandise

Notes

Index

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

Illustration Credits.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-300-22143-6