
It Happened by Design
The Life and Work of Arthur Q. Davis
Arthur Q. Davis(Author)
University Press of Mississippi
Published on 30. March 2009
Book
Hardback
160 pages
978-1-60473-265-8 (ISBN)
Description
In 1947, a time in which few New Orleans-based architects were designing modern architecture, Arthur Q. Davis (b. 1920) and his partner Nathaniel C. Curtis established their practice in the city. The Curtis and Davis firm is best known for designing the city's iconic Louisiana Superdome and such modernist landmarks as New Orleans's Rivergate Exhibition Center, the Hyatt Regency and Marriott hotels, and the Milton K. Latter Library. Davis has designed public and private works commissioned throughout the United States as well as in Saudi Arabia, Germany, Egypt, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Davis's firm has received more than fifty awards for design excellence and, at age thirty-eight, Davis was made the youngest Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
It Happened by Design provides an affecting and thorough narrative of Davis's life and achievements. After serving in the Navy during World War II, Davis graduated from Harvard University's School of Design on the G.I. Bill, studying with Bauhaus school founder Walter Gropius. In this book, Davis explains how he fused Creole and Beaux-Arts ideas together, filtering those concepts through modernist aesthetics to create new forms while preserving the old.
The book shows Davis challenging the architectural status quo during the Cold War and beyond. Whether discussing the politics of building in postwar Berlin, Vodou masters in the Caribbean, or struggles to modernize the skyline of his beloved New Orleans, Davis crafts a narrative with wit and insight. An introductory essay by J. Richard Gruber places Davis's work in the context of American architecture and provides a thorough summation of the architect's oeuvre.
It Happened by Design provides an affecting and thorough narrative of Davis's life and achievements. After serving in the Navy during World War II, Davis graduated from Harvard University's School of Design on the G.I. Bill, studying with Bauhaus school founder Walter Gropius. In this book, Davis explains how he fused Creole and Beaux-Arts ideas together, filtering those concepts through modernist aesthetics to create new forms while preserving the old.
The book shows Davis challenging the architectural status quo during the Cold War and beyond. Whether discussing the politics of building in postwar Berlin, Vodou masters in the Caribbean, or struggles to modernize the skyline of his beloved New Orleans, Davis crafts a narrative with wit and insight. An introductory essay by J. Richard Gruber places Davis's work in the context of American architecture and provides a thorough summation of the architect's oeuvre.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Jackson
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 266 mm
Width: 261 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
1189 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-60473-265-8 (9781604732658)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Arthur Q. Davis is an award-winning architect based in New Orleans.|J. Richard Gruber is director of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans. He is the author of Stackhouse and American Icons: From Madison to Manhattan: The Art of Benny Andrews, 1948-1997.