architecture – Afton Press

American Ruins

STG-admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2015 01:47:34 +0000

by Maxwell MacKenzie

Dimensions: 12" x 9", 260 pagesSOFTCOVERISBN: 1-890434-41-8

MAXWELL MACKENZIE has selected 30 beautiful and haunting photographs of out-of-the-way places in Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Idaho for his book American Ruins: Ghosts on the Landscape.One of the most important architectural photographers working today, MacKenzie chronicles a fast-disappearing manifestation of the American Dream—the eloquent remains of barns, houses, and schools erected by immigrant settlers. His crisp black-and-white prints provide a poignant reminder that architecture sometimes becomes most evocative when it slips toward ruin. With an artist's eye, an architect's sensibility, and a native son's passion, MacKenzie has made poetic images of these primitive but elegant structures that transcend both time and place. His photographs speak not only to students of photography and architecture, but to anyone who appreciates the history and simple beauty of America's rural landscapes."Max MacKenzie has earned a reputation as one of the best architectural photographers in the country. A master of elegant light."—Frank Van Riper, Focus Magazine"Hardly anyone lives on a farm anymore—about one in a hundred Americans. Back when more than half did, some of them lived in the houses that MacKenzie presents here. What hopes! What despairs! What wild turns of fortune! The houses are empty, or they're full of abandonment by MacKenzie's artistic reckonings. If they didn't haunt you before, they will now."—Henry Allen, Washington Post, Pulitzer Prize for Criticism

Minnesota’s Capitol

STG-admin — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 21:45:42 +0000

A Centennial Story

by Leigh Roethke

Dimensions: 10" x 8", 120 pages, 100+ color and b/w illustrations, classroom activitiesHARDCOVER w/dustjacketISBN: 1-890434-67-1

For one hundred years the Capitol has been the hub of government and an enduring symbol for an ever-changing Minnesota. Through lively historical narratives, plentiful pictures, and creative activities, learn how the Capitol came to represent the North Star state and how Minnesota made itself at home in a gleaming marble structure on the hill."MINNESOTA'S CAPITOL: A Centennial Story blends contemporary tales with historical events to help students understand the role the Capitol plays in our lives and how it has changed as our state has grown. . . . a must-have for every school in Minnesota." --Dr. Patricia Harvey, Superintendent of Schools, St. Paul (1999-2005)"In 1895 a commission was appointed and some money appropriated to build a [new] capitol. Instead of carrying it down to the minimum, instead of doing what they thought they could afford, they had a vision of what the state of Minnesota was going to be, and that it should have a capitol worthy of the state that was to be. They built this magnificent Capitol building, complete with a wonderful dome and gold horses and Italian marble all over the place. What a vision! What a challenge! What an inspiration!" --Elmer L. Andersen, Governor of Minnesota (1961-1963)

A Place at the Lake

STG-admin — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 21:39:49 +0000

by Paul Clifford Larson

Dimensions: 9.75" x 11.25", 160 pages, 140 IllustrationsHARDCOVER, cloth w/dustjacketISBN: 1-890434-05-1

MINNESOTANS have carried on a romance with their lakes for more than a century, and the affair shows no signs of abating. A Place at the Lake is a pictorial account of the summer houses that have proliferated along Minnesota’s lakeshores—the humble and the high-style, the nest of logs and the summer palace.

"The book reads like a travelogue, enjoyed in a Model T Ford ambling along . . . remote shorelines."—Architecture Minnesota

"A Place at the Lake accomplishes what the best of coffee table books do: it allows the reader, just by skimming the text and responding imaginatively to countless photographs, to enter a world where time stands still, and summer days and childhood never end." —Minnesota Independent Scholars' Forum

AWARDS: Independent Publishers Award for Best Architecture/Interior Design Book!REVIEW: Paula Frosch/Independent Publisher A visual delight which clearly proves that there is more to Minnesota than Lake Wobegone! For over one hundred years the people of the “Land of a Thousand Lakes” have found comfort and relaxation, tranquility and inspiration in a variety of residences along these shores. However, this is not simply a photographic record of summer cottages and rustic lodges, private estates and clubhouses: it offers insight into the social history of the period.The new found accessibility afforded by improved transportation, the popularity created by the images in the widely circulated water colors, the inclusion of the state in the essential American Grand Tour of pre-Civil war years, all combined to bring visitors from around the country and by doing so affected the development of the area. With anecdotes of personalities and historical events, and examinations of the varieties of architecture and imagination (an 1898 summer house with a 30 foot circular living hall; a fanciful pagoda built in 1950!) Larson offers a wonderful combination of local social history, archival treasures and personal enthusiasm.The book is exceedingly well produced, with fine photographic reproductions, a thorough index and a keen sense of time and place.

Ralph Rapson

artbees — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 00:42:29 +0000

A VISUALLY STUNNING architectural biography of Minnesota's most influential architect of the twentieth century. Architect, artist, furniture designer, and educator, Ralph Rapson has played a leading role in the development and practice of modern architecture and design, both nationally and internationally."Ralph Rapson is now a legend in the history of modern architecture." —Cesar Pelli, FAIAREVIEW:Barbara Flanagan/The New York TimesRalph Rapson is best known as the designer of the Gutherie, Minneapolis's landmark of theater design, but because he worked, taught and competed with most of the world's first modernists--Wright, Mies, Corbusier, Saarinen--his elder son and biographer calls him "the Forest Gump of architecture."Ralph Rapson: Sixty Years of Modern Design, by Rip Rapson, Jane King Hession and Bruce N. Wright, documents the architect's vast career and uncanny associations.Rapson believed design should be reflect the moment--furniture, houses, cities--but his take on modernism was never pompous. He perpetuated endless ideas--still fresh--vibrant drawings and youthful pranks. (He had his students hoist famous visitors upside down, including the stocky Buckminister Fuller, and footprint the ceiling with their bare soles.) The book shows how one can be talented, influential and happy, all the while remaining internationally obscure. It also tells, discreetly, how one man can achieve all this single-handedly: with his right forearm amputated at birth, Ralph Rapson drew with his left hand.