{"product_id":"thanks-for-the-view-mr-mies-lafayette-park-detroit-9781935202929","title":"Thanks for the View  Mr. Mies: Lafayette Park  Detroit","description":"\u003cp\u003eLafayette Park  an affordable middle-class residential area in downtown Detroit  is home to the largest collection of buildings designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in the world. Today  it is one of Detroits most racially integrated and economically stable neighborhoods  although it is surrounded by evidence of a city in financial distress. Through interviews with and essays by residents; reproductions of archival material; and new photographs by Karin Jobst  Vasco Roma  and Corine Vermeulen  and previously unpublished photographs by documentary filmmaker Janine Debann  Thanks for the View  Mr. Mies examines the way that Lafayette Park residents confront and interact with this unique modernist environment. Lafayette Park has not received the level of international attention that other similar projects by Mies have. This may be due in part to its location in Detroit  a city whose most positive qualities are often overlooked in the media. This book is a reaction against the way that iconic modernist architecture is often represented. Whereas other writers may focus on the design intentions of the architect  authors Aubert  Cavar and Chandani seek to show the organic and idiosyncratic ways that the people who live in Lafayette Park actually use the architecture and how this experience  in turn  affects their everyday lives. While there are many publications about abandoned buildings in Detroit and about the citys prosperous past  this book is about a remarkable part of the city as it exists today  in the twenty-first century. Thanks for the View  Mr. Mies is a superb field guide to the diverse cross-section of inhabitants  the variety of habitats they have constructed within their brilliant biome  the lush and abundant flora and the ground fauna of Lafayette Park. The variety of environments created by each particular species in their words  actions and images is a joy to behold. And like the best field guides  wonderfully instructive.  Phyllis Lambert  founder  Canadian Centre for Architecture This beautiful and wonderfully ambitious book tells the comprehensive story of a unique place  Ludwig Mies van der Rohes magnificent modernist vision built in the midst of a city undergoing the worst of the urban crisis. The story is told through a collage of archival records  insightful essays and  above all  interviews with the residents and photographs of what they have made of Mies. The collision between Miess purer-than-pure modernism and the realities of Detroit is both comic and tragic  surprising  disturbing and  finally  inspiring.  Robert Fishman  Taubman College of Architecture and Planning  University of Michigan Thanks for the View is a surprising paean to human passion and idiosyncrasy  terms not usually associated with the International Style or the architecture of Mies van der Rohe  which in large part is what makes this book all the more welcome. As charming as it is well researched  Thanks for the View celebrates the mutual effect that Miess Lafayette Park and its longtime residents have had on each other and  by extension  on the city of Detroit.  Joe Scanlan  Visual Arts Program  Princeton University\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45648128180277,"sku":"ByrdShop_1935202928","price":248.26,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781935202929.jpg?v=1781710299","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/thanks-for-the-view-mr-mies-lafayette-park-detroit-9781935202929","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}