{"product_id":"civic-art-a-centennial-history-of-the-us-commission-of-fine-arts-9780160897023","title":"Civic Art: A Centennial History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom an incomplete composition of brick buildings and informal gardens into an ordered landscape of white classical temples  the image of Washington  D.C.  was transformed by visionary planning and implementation in response to the political and artistic movements of the early twentieth century. The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts was created by Congress in 1910 as an independent design review agency to guide the ongoing work of representing national ideals in the design of the capital city.  The establishment of this seven-member  presidentially appointed commission on design can be traced to the Senate Park Commission of 1901  whose grand plan focused on the Mall as the symbolic core of the capitaland the nationand proposed that it be a formal  public space framed by monumental architecture to express the political aspirations of the American democracy. Comprised of distinguished architects  landscape and urban designers  artists  and lay people  the Commission of Fine Arts has worked for more than a century to promote excellence in design through changing power politics  pressures of public opinion  and prevailing aesthetic sensibilities to achieve a built environment that reflects  with grace and dignity  the history and ideals of this country. Like many other undertakings in the nations capital  there have been exemplary successes  difficult compromises  and even blunderswhether in the design of American coins  federal buildings  overseas cemeteries  or the always-controversial national memorials.  This comprehensive history explores the evolving role of the Commission of Fine Arts in the context of the artistic  social  and political circumstances that fostered the commissions creation and the subsequent trends that have informed its decisions. As design philosophies and styles changed over the century  the commission also shifted its emphasisfrom Beaux-Arts architecture and planning principles to the modernist pragmatism of midcentury  the urban redevelopment and historicist trends of the late twentieth century  and to the contemporary era characterized by issues of security  sustainability  and information technology. Organized chronologically by the periods of the commissions leadership  this illustrated book includes original essays by William B. Bushong  Arleyn Levee  Zachary Schrag  Pamela Scott  Carroll William Westfall  and Richard Guy Wilson.  Civic Art: A Centennial History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts provides many glimpses of the fractious  inspired  and often messy process that defines democracy in action in Washington  as revealed in the work of the commission since 1910.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45665827192885,"sku":"ByrdShop_0160897025","price":145.96,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780160897023.jpg?v=1782408878","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/civic-art-a-centennial-history-of-the-us-commission-of-fine-arts-9780160897023","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}