A Monograph of the Work of McKim, Mead & White (1879-1915)

Wenzel, Paul and Maurice Krakow. A Monograph of the Work of McKim, Mead & White, 1879-1915. 4 vols. New York: Architectural Book Publishing Co., 1915.

Collection: Ayres & Ayres, Architects

Paul Wenzel and Maurice Krakow’s A Monograph of the Work of McKim, Mead & White, 1879-1915 is a four-volume folio including over 400 plates that illustrate works produced by these indelible American designers. Working largely in the Beaux-Arts tradition, the firm completed many iconic buildings along the eastern seaboard ranging from residences and private clubs to institutional buildings at universities and for municipalities and parks. While most of the work documented in these volumes was located in New York City, including Madison Square Gardens, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Railroad Station and the Harvard Club, along with projects at NYU and Columbia; other American and international buildings are well represented including the Agriculture Building and New York State Building at the Chicago World’s Fair, Boston Music Hall and the American Academy in Rome. The monograph’s four folios incorporate black-and-white photography, sections, elevations and basic floor plans to document these projects providing a visual archive of the buildings in context. Many photos also capture building details rendered in terra cotta, travertine and marble, functioning to construct a more comprehensive vision of these spaces.