Synopses & Reviews
The map-plans in this collection of forty cities in Europe, Russia, the United States, and Asia were first published in the mid-nineteenth century by England's Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. These maps were all commissioned and drawn within a period of thirteen years, presenting a unique opportunity to compare urban development among 40 cities in 19 countries at one moment in time. An exquisite feast for the eye, the hand-colored, hand-lettered steel engravings are artistic masterpieces in themselves, representative of an era of exceptional artisanal skill. They are reproduced here in fine detail in an oversized format.
The Atlas of Rare City Maps includes both well-known European and American cities such as Amsterdam, London, Madrid, Moscow, New York, and Venice, as well as smaller cities like Calcutta, Edinburgh, Hamburg, Lisbon, Marseille, Parma, and Stockholm. An introductory essay by Melville C. Branch discusses the historical evolution of urban design, and provides a background on engraving techniques. Branch also evaluates each map-plan, remarking on the details of each engraving and the evolution of the forms of the cities, their histories, and demographic characteristics.
Review
"A superbly illustrated study of the history, nature, and patterns of growth of 40 well-known urban centers in 19 countries, tracing their development up to the 1840s." Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times
Review
"Exquisite four-color steel engravings...efficient texts describe each city's history, demography, and planning trends." Village Voice
Review
"The book, first published in the 1970s, has just been reprinted with a new preface by US planning professor Melville C. Branch. His observations are almost as quaint as the maps." Robert Bevan, Building Design
Review
"Opens to more than 2 feet wide to reveal maps of 40 mid-19th-century cities, including Berlin and Boston, Calcutta and Constantinople, Vienna and Venice." Ron Berthel, Associated Press
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"An absolute must for any map or city lover. Get out that magnifying glass and wander the streets in your imagination for hours." Perspectives on Architecture
Synopsis
Covering the first decades of the Soviet Union, from the Civil War to the end of Stalin's Second Five-Year Plan in the 1930s, the graphic works in Building the Collective provide a remarkable overview of design during one of this century's most politically turbulent and artistically active periods. These designs, from the collection of Merrill C. Berman, challenge assumptions of a monolithic Soviet poster style, conveying the impressive range of graphic design as it responded to a rapidly evolving political situation. Providing historical context and focusing on images of labor, industrialization, and technology, Building the Collective demonstrates how the ideological imperative of imagining a new collective society existed in a fertile and sometimes contradictory relationship with the artists' efforts to redefine their role in post-revolutionary Russia. Building the Collective showcases over 100 posters and other graphic works, representing the talents of a wide variety of artists, from the acclaimed to the anonymous. Color reproductions of works by Gustav Klutsis, Aleksandr Rodchenko, El Lissitzky, and the Stenberg brothers - as well as those of lesser-known but important designers such as Aleksandr Deineka, Viktor Deni, and Elena Semenova - are shown alongside posters created by "brigades" of designers who worked collectively and anonymously in the spirit of the times.
About the Author
Melville C. Branch has been a pioneer in his field for half a century. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the School of Urban Planning and Development, University of Southern California, where he has served since 1966. He is the author of over twenty books on urban and regional planning, including Planning Urban Environment and Comprehensive Planning: General Theories and Principles.