Preservation in Mississippi
Books
MissPres Architectural Word of the Week: Corbel
This is our third MissPres Architectural Word of the Week. If you missed any of the earlier posts, this series was spawned by Malvaney’s post about architectural dictionaries. Our past two words have been Abacus and Bracket. Have you been keeping an eye out for either element or trying to slip the words into everyday … Continue reading
MissPres Architectural Word of the Week: Bracket
This is our second MissPres Architectural Word of the Week. If you missed out on our first post, this series was spawned by Malvaney’s post about architectural dictionaries. I thought it would be fun to have a bi-weekly post that features a different architectural word that relates to a building here in Mississippi. I hope … Continue reading
First Ever MissPres Architectural Word of the Week: Abacus
How many times have you looked at a building and said “What is that thing called? The one thingy above the dew-dad, next to the whats it.” Well if you’re me the answer is a lot! So after reading Malvaney’s post on architectural dictionaries, I thought it would be fun to have a bi-weekly post … Continue reading
When You Absolutely Positively Have to Know What’s a Volute?
Recently I took a second look at the sizable number of architectural dictionaries sitting on my shelves, most within easy reach arm’s length of my computer desk. While it may seem that I know just the right architectural term for every minuscule part of a building, in fact, I regularly pull my architectural mumbo-jumbo out … Continue reading
Books About The City
Check out Simon Jenkins’ recent “Five Best Books About The City” in the Wall Street Journal. It includes Jane Jacobs’ Death and Life of Great American Cities, our very first Book Quotes series here on MissPres.
A Few of Thomas Rosell’s Favorite Things
This Christmas week, the MissPres authors are pulling out some of their favorite posts and re-packaging them with our comments about why they’re our favorites. One of my all time favorite posts is the series regarding the book How Buildings Learn by Stewart Brand. The series has a lot to like, both good subject matter … Continue reading
Travelling by Trolley in Mississippi: Meridian
Today’s post is Chapter 7 in our series re-printing Frank Brooks’ “Travelling by Trolley in Mississippi: Stories about Streetcars,” originally published in 1983. View other posts in the series at the “Streetcars” tab. In place of the 1920 streetcar map in the book, drawn by Gordon Powers, I have inserted two original streetcar maps from … Continue reading
Two New Books For Your Architectural Library
Now that the weather had turned fine, you might feel the urge to curl up with a book, and two new biographies of architects whose work touched Mississippi have just come out to add to your list. In case you hadn’t noticed, our own JRGordon’s name is derived from Texas architect James Riely Gordon (see … Continue reading
Travelling by Trolley in Mississippi: Columbus
Today’s post is Chapter 1 in our series re-printing Frank Brooks’ “Travelling by Trolley in Mississippi: Stories about Streetcars.” View other posts in the series at the “Streetcars” tab. ———————————————- In 1916, the Columbus Railway, Light and Power Company was operating at its height. The company was a system whose railway division included 5 miles … Continue reading
Arcadia’s Gulfport Book
The Sun-Herald announces a new Images of America book for Gulfport.
Tips on choosing an architect, and Eero Saarinen on the purpose of architecture
In the October 1963 issue of Mississippi Architect, Bob Henry’s editorial gives some helpful tips about choosing an architect that are still relevant today. Also worthy of note in this issue is a short clip from Eero Saarinen‘s December 1959 speech to Dickinson College in which he expounds his view of the role and purpose … Continue reading
New Book on Black Architect W.A. Rayfield
Last week, W. White listed some of the architects mentioned in The American School and University publications beginning in the late 1920s. Another architect listed in that same directory but not mentioned last week (because there were no Mississippi buildings noted) is W.A. Rayfield (1874-1941), one of the earliest African American architects in the country. … Continue reading
Out-of-State Architects and Mississippi Architecture from “The American School and University” 1928-1934
Yesterday’s post, “Mississippi Architects and Architecture from ‘The American School and University’ 1928-1934,” covered Mississippi architects and the school buildings they designed in Mississippi (and occasionally elsewhere). Since architectural practices rarely stay inside state lines, today’s post contains the listings of out-of-state architects who, in the directory of “Architects for Educational Buildings” in The American … Continue reading
Mississippi Architects and Architecture from “The American School and University” 1928-1934
From 1928, the first year the American School Publishing Corporation in New York began publishing The American School and University: A Yearbook Devoted to the Design, Construction, Equipment, Utilization, and Maintenance of Educational Buildings and Grounds, until the Sixth Annual Edition in 1933-1934, the educational architecture journal published a section entitled “Architects for Educational Buildings.” According … Continue reading
Civil Rights Sites from Charles E. Cobb Jr.’s “On the Road to Freedom”
I mentioned in the comments section for “Another Vanishing Civil Rights Landmark” that there was a book (that I could not think of at the time) that has a list of various Mississippi Civil Rights Movement sites. That book is Charles E. Cobb Jr.’s On the Road to Freedom: A Guided Tour of the Civil … Continue reading
Help build a list of required Mississippi places
After a recent post about the book 1001 Buildings You Must See Before You Die, W. White suggested that we answer the snub of having no Mississippi buildings included in the book by creating our own list, eliminating one zero to get us to a more manageable 101 Mississippi places. At first I thought the … Continue reading
Miles to go before I sleep
I try to avoid going to Lemuria Books, our independent bookstore here in Jackson, because I always end up spending large sums of money. But I never succeed in staying away for too long. Recently, I grabbed a huge book off the shelf called 1001 Buildings You Must See Before You Die. Weighing in at … Continue reading
The Mysterious Case of the Missing Streetcar Lines
I’ve finally gotten around to reading a book that’s been on my shelf waiting for a while, Crabgrass Frontier by Kenneth T. Jackson. Not a traditional architectural history, the book does explain alot about how American cities and suburbs came to be and to function the way they do. The chapter on streetcars “The Time … Continue reading
History of Art in Mississippi: Modern Office Structures
Today, we continue our Book Quotes series on the 1929 book, History of Art in Mississippi, which devotes a surprising amount of space to architecture. Like the author of the WPA Guide’s chapter on architecture, the ladies who compiled HoAiM found it convenient to skip from the antebellum period into the 1900s. Their analysis is … Continue reading
Book Quotes: History of Art in Mississippi
It’s been a while since our last Book Quotes series, way back in May, when summer had only just begun. Now, here we are in October when summer has yet to end, giving new meaning to that formerly romantic phrase “Endless Summer.” At any rate, I thought it was time for another Book Quotes, but … Continue reading
Preservation in Mississippi Fall Reading List
I know that we are nearly a month into Fall, the season where the weather entices one to go outside and enjoy the air, but that does not mean I cannot publish a reading list for the season. Of course the South usually has only about two or three weeks of Autumn weather squeezed in between Summer … Continue reading
Lost Mansions of Mississippi, The Sequel
I had heard that Mary Carol Miller was writing a sequel to her helpful yet heartbreaking Lost Mansions of Mississippi, but from what I could tell, it wasn’t coming out in stores until October. But as proof that the early bird gets the worm, I spied a whole stack of Lost Mansions of Mississippi, Volume … Continue reading
MissPres News Roundup 7-2-2010
Well, other than an ongoing gusher of oil spilling into our Gulf, destroying wildlife, killing my redfish, fouling beaches and marshes, and an early-season hurricane washing it all in faster, what else has been going on in our Magnolia State this week? I should have known that right after I said something nice about the … Continue reading
Some Sunday Afternoon Reading
Best read while sitting on the porch with a cool beverage: “Ghosts of New York“, Atlantic (June 2010): About architectural ornament salvaged from the demolition sites of the 1950s and 60s, now sitting in the back yard of the Brooklyn Museum “Here Comes the Neighborhood”, Atlantic (June 2010): About changes in demographics and living patterns … Continue reading
An Alabama-Mississippi Architectural Partnership
Multiple times on Preservation in Mississippi, the Meridian City Hall has been discussed. We all know that it was designed by preeminent Meridian architect P. J. Krouse. Or do we? Well, yes he designed it but the story is much more complicated than that and requires a detour back to 1902. During that year, P. … Continue reading
Lost Churches of Mississippi in bookstores
In case you’ve missed the announcements, Lost Churches of Mississippi, a book that I’m sure most of you will want to add to your library has just come out in the last week. Published by University Press of Mississippi, the book’s author, Richard Cawthon, has contributed text for two previous books–Victorian Houses of Mississippi and … Continue reading
The Story of Mississippi’s New Capitol: Git-R-Done
Here’s the third part of the always-exciting “Report of the State House Commission to the Legislature of Mississippi, 1902.” If you’re coming in late, pick up Part 1, in which the commission hires an architect, and Part 2, where the Commission hires a contractor and throws its weight around with the Illinois Central Railroad. ———————————————– … Continue reading
The Story of Mississippi’s New Capitol: Hiring the contractor
Continuing our reading in the “Report of the State House Commission to the Legislature of Mississippi, 1902” . . . In yesterday’s post, we saw the formation of the State House Commission and their almost superhuman speed in hiring an architect. We also found that their paragraphs could be extremely long, not to say Faulknerian. … Continue reading
The Story of Mississippi’s New Capitol: Hiring an architect
Back in December, I mentioned in “More Architect/Builder Pics: Link and Barnes” that I wanted to post more about the New Capitol and how it came to be. That will be our project for this week. Tucked at the back of the booklet called “Dedication of the New Capitol” as an appendix is the “Report … Continue reading
An Architectural Primer for Mississippi
Two articles have gone up on the Mississippi History Now site that will help give a good basic view of architecture in the Magnolia State. For those unfamiliar with it, History Now is the online publication of the Mississippi Historical Society, and is geared toward elementary and secondary history teachers. A lesson plan supplements each … Continue reading
For Your Saturday Reading
An article in the Wall Street Journal about the 150-story Chicago Spire, unfortunately shaped like a screw: “Push to Finish Tallest Tower“ And a strong opinion in the City Journal about Modernist guru Le Corbusier that begins “Le Corbusier was to architecture as Pol Pot was to social reform”: “The Architect as Totalitarian“
Speaking of Churches
While I was writing yesterday’s post on Carrollton’s churches, I came across a review of a book about Mississippi churches that I keep close at hand as a reference, Historic Churches of Mississippi. Published by University Press of Mississippi in 2007, the book is the second collaboration of photographer Sherry Pace with architectural historian Richard Cawthon. Their … Continue reading
MissPres News Roundup 9-11-2009
Another Friday, another MissPres News Roundup, just like clockwork, even though I’ve had a long and arduous week. This week’s featured song is “Nobody Knows the Troubles I’ve Seen.” August something: An article in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal that I initially missed and which in Facebook-like fashion is dated “One Month Ago” tells of the possible … Continue reading
The International Style: Conformity, not Individualism
You have reached the end of a four-part series about The International Style by Henry Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson. If you missed the earlier posts, you can find them here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. ———————————————————— Way back in the 1990s, I picked up an old hardback novel at a book sale in … Continue reading
The International Style: Volume, not Mass
For me, the last concept to click about Hitchcock and Johnson’s definition of the International style was the subject of the very first chapter, “A First Principle: Architecture as Volume.” I’m guess I’m not enough of a physicist or whatever kind of scientist that would be, to have really thought about the difference between “volume” and … Continue reading
Book Quotes: The International Style
It’s been a while since we did a book quote series, and since the three earlier series included a diatribe against Modern planning principles (Jane Jacobs’ Death and Life of the Great American Cities), a polemic against Modern architectural design (Tom Wolfe’s From Bauhaus to Our House) and a complaint about the lack of flexibility of Modern … Continue reading
Lukacs on Modernism, Post-Modernism, and Developers
While we’re on the subject of unexpected architectural commentary, I recently discovered a short, but dense little book called The End of an Age by historian John Lukacs. Lukacs has written extensively about European history, especially World War II (having lived through it himself in his native Hungary before escaping from the Soviets to the … Continue reading
Flashy Palladianism
I love to come across bits of architectural criticism in books or movies where I wouldn’t expect it, and this is one of my favorite passages from my very favorite 20th-century writer, Patrick O’Brian. I got into O’Brian because of the nautical theme in his 20-volume Aubrey-Maturin series, but I know that that same theme … Continue reading
How Buildings Learn: Some Closing Thoughts
After a week of looking back through Stewart Brand’s How Buildings Learn, I’m left with a sense of contradiction in my own thoughts on High Road, Low Road, etc. I completely agree with him about Magazine Architecture and the devastation that Unreal Estate can cause (who can argue with that in our current situation?). And … Continue reading
How Buildings Learn: Defining Vernacular
Well, once again we’ve reached the end of a week, and I have tons more book to cover. But I’m just going to pick out a few bits from Stewart Brand’s chapter called “Vernacular: How Buildings Learn From Each Other.” As I’ve said before, you might want to head over to GoogleVideo and watch the … Continue reading
101 Places to See Before You Die!
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