American Architects and the Mechanics of Fame / / Roxanne Kuter Williamson.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press Complete eBook-Package Pre-2000
• VerfasserIn: Williamson, Roxanne Kuter,
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]; ©1991
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (298 p.)

Why does one talented individual win lasting recognition in a particular field, while another equally talented person does not? While there are many possible reasons, one obvious answer is that something more than talent is requisite to produce fame. The "something more" in the field of architecture, asserts Roxanne Williamson, is the association with a "famous" architect at the moment he or she first receives major publicity or designs the building for which he or she will eventually be celebrated. In this study of more than six hundred American architects who have achieved a place in architectural histories, Williamson finds that only a small minority do not fit the "right person–right time" pattern. She traces the apprenticeship connection in case studies of Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Henry Hobson Richardson, the firm of McKim, Mead & White, Latrobe and his descendants, the Bulfinch and Renwick Lines, the European immigrant masters, and Louis Kahn. Although she acknowledges and discusses the importance of family connections, the right schools, self-promotion, scholarships, design competition awards, and promotion by important journals, Williamson maintains that the apprenticeship connection is the single most important predictor of architectural fame. She offers the intriguing hypothesis that what is transferred in the relationship is not a particular style or approach but rather the courage and self-confidence to be true to one's own vision. Perhaps, she says, this is the case in all the arts. American Architects and the Mechanics of Fame is sure to provoke thought and comment in architecture and other creative fields.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Plates -- Charts -- Tables -- Acknowledgments -- ONE A Network of Connections -- TWO The Time as Well as the Place -- THREE A Consensus of Who Is Famous and Who Is Not: The Index of Fame -- PART I Case Studies: The Apprenticeship Connection -- FOUR Louis Sullivan -- FIVE Frank Lloyd Wright -- SIX Henry Hobson Richardson -- SEVEN McKim, Mead & White -- EIGHT Latrobe and His Descendants -- NINE The Bulfinch and Renwick Lines -- TEN The European Immigrant Masters in the Twentieth Century -- ELEVEN Louis Kahn -- TWELVE The Loners -- PART II Conventional Wisdom about Architects9 Predispositions for Fame -- THIRTEEN Connections: Family, Friends, Schools -- FOURTEEN Self-promotion and Publicity -- FIFTEEN Other, Weaker Patterns -- SIXTEEN The Historians as Fame Makers -- SEVENTEEN Afterword on the Fame-Making System -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index of Architects