Banking on Beauty: Millard Sheets and Midcentury Commercial Architecture in California - Hardcover

Arenson, Adam

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1477315292 ISBN 13: 9781477315293

Publisher: University of Texas Press, 2018

Synopsis

Winner, Docomomo US Modernism in America Citation of Merit, 2018
PROSE Award, Architecture and Urban Planning ,Association of American Publishers (AAP), 2019

“I want buildings that will be exciting seventy-five years from now,” financier Howard Ahmanson told visual artist Millard Sheets, offering him complete control of design, subject, decoration, and budget for his Home Savings and Loan branch offices. The partnership between Home Savings—for decades, the nation’s largest savings and loan—and the Millard Sheets Studio produced more than 160 buildings in California, Texas, Florida, New York, Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri over the course of a quarter century. Adorned with murals, mosaics, stained glass, and sculptures, the Home Savings (and Savings of America) branches displayed a celebratory vision of community history and community values that garnered widespread acclaim.

Banking on Beauty presents the first history of this remarkable building program. Drawing extensively on archival materials, site visits, and oral history interviews, Adam Arenson tells a fascinating story of how the architecture and art were created, the politics of where the branches were built, and why the Sheets Studio switched from portraying universal family scenes to celebrating local history amid the dramatic cultural and political changes of the 1960s. Combining urban history, business history, and art and architectural history, Banking on Beauty reveals how these institutions shaped the corporate and cultural landscapes of Southern California, where many of the branches were located. Richly illustrated and beautifully written, Banking on Beauty builds a convincing case for preserving these outstanding examples of Midcentury Modern architecture, which currently face an uncertain future.

About this title

About the Author:

California native Adam Arenson is an associate professor of history and director of the urban studies program at Manhattan College. He has written or coedited three previous books on the history of the American West and the politics and culture of US cities, including the award-winning The Great Heart of the Republic: St. Louis and the Cultural Civil War. Arenson has also written for history blogs, including the New York Times and other national publications.

Review:

"This is a valuable work of original research on a subject that has needed study for decades. Studies of California modern design in this period have been largely focused on residential architecture. Arenson’s book demonstrates that commercial designs are of equal importance for consideration; in some ways they are more important, because they brought modern design to popular audiences in their daily lives. This book will be an important contribution to an ongoing reassessment of California design and architecture in the twentieth century." (Alan Hess, architect and author of Forgotten Modern: California Houses, 1940–1970)

"Millard Sheets and the artists associated with his studio in Southern California created extraordinary works of art for Home Savings and other financial institutions in the middle of the twentieth century. Like the marvelous mosaics, murals, and stained glass illustrated in this book, Adam Arenson’s Banking on Beauty depicts in rich color and detail the relationships between Sheets, his patron Howard Ahmanson, his studio collaborators, and the communities they hoped to serve. For readers interested in the nexus between beauty, commerce, and community, this is a must-read." (Eric John Abrahamson, author of Building Home: Howard F. Ahmanson and the Politics of the American Dream)

"In this deeply researched and broad-ranging study of patronage and artistry, Adam Arenson vividly evokes the civic impulse of private enterprise at midcentury. The Home Savings and Loan buildings emerge as a rich cultural landscape that bridges Art Deco, New Deal, and Modernist aesthetics. Beautifully illustrated, Arenson’s work enhances our understanding and appreciation of this period, and the book will be of great value to historians of American architecture, art, and urban planning." (Elihu Rubin, Yale School of Architecture, author of Insuring the City: The Prudential Center and the Postwar Urban Landscape)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1477315292
• ISBN 13: 9781477315293
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 368