A comprehensive architectural history of America's greatest living architectural laboratory.

A survey of the Gilded Age mansions of Newport, Rhode Island, for all who love grand houses. Newport Villas describes the architectural and social development of this summer resort town, the nexus of wealth and fashion at the end of the nineteenth century. All the accoutrements were the best that money could buy, whether it was Parisian frocks, meticulously groomed thoroughbred horses, or meals prepared by imported French chefs. To properly mount their entertainments, Newport's elite built "cottages" that ranged in size from thirty to seventy rooms. The country's most accomplished architects designed these seaside villas, many of them rivaling the great houses of Europe. Pictured here in abundant archival and new photographs, with accompanying floor plans, the houses cover the gamut of revival styles from Colonial Revival to Italian Renaissance Revival, from French Classical Revival to Georgian Revival.

An examination of the ways in which architecture and architects are treated on screen and how these depictions filter and shape the ways we understand the built environment. There are essays from contributors from a range of disciplines and interviews of those working behind the scenes.

In these illustrated essays Portoghesi offers a critical profile of the postmodern movement and explains why it constitutes a decisive turning point in the history of architecture. He reconstructs the theoretical intentions of postmodern architects, analyzes the important projects by Philip Johnson, Michael Graves, Thomas Beeby, Stanley Tigerman, Helmut Jahn, Ricardo Bofill, Massimo Scolari and others.

Why did the colonial Americans give over a significant part of their homes to a grand staircase? Why did the Victorians drape their buildings ornate decoration? And why did American buildings grow so tall in the last decades of the 19th century. This book explores the history of American architecture from prehistoric times to the present, explaining why characteristic architectural forms arose at particular times and in particular places.