Indigenous Moderism

If you believe that nationality is the proper taxonomic unit of architectural style, then USA: Modern Architectures in History, by Gwendolyn Wright, makes perfect sense. Everyone else, however, should be wary of Wright’s thesis that American Modernism represents an impossibly broad, yet nearly hermetic, tradition based on endemic influences. Her conception of American Modernism extends roughly from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of next week, and it encompasses nearly everything that is not blantantly vernacular. USA’s dispassionate tone suggests that Wright, a professor at Columbia University, is simply a hired gun in Reaktion Press’ Modern Architectures in History series.

With only brief pauses for historical analysis and almost no mention of ideology, Wright crams in nonjudgmental references to nearly every major architect and building built on American soil since Reconstruction. Chapters correspond to stylistic eras and are divided into formulaic sub-chapters covering commercial, domestic and public buildings. It’s lucid and readable, but mainly because it moves so fast. Never before has John Roebling given way to Thom Mayne quite so abruptly. As trivia, USA is dazzling; as a primer on American architecture, it is adequate. 

As incisive historical inquiry, it does little justice to the tradition that it chronicles.