RRP £19.95 Lowest New Price £91.84

Phaidon Press Ltd Number of pages: 182 Language: English (Original Language) Language: English (Unknown) Language: English (Published)

RRP: £19.95
Stunning memorials to the Industrial Revolution
Review date: 2004-03-10 Rating: 10 out of 10

This collection is worth it for the Crystal Palace alone, the great icon of the Industrial Revolution. The old engravings, photos and exquisite construction details allow you to finally get a sense of this great exposition hall, which was the first of its kind. The text provides a valuable background to Joseph Paxton and the era which saw many innovative changes in materials and construction methods.

But, that's not all, there are two more lost buildings that were instrumental in the development of the modern metal-frame building: the Palais des Machines and the Pennsylvania Station. The first was a daring display of ribbed metal trusses, spanning an enormous distance. Aesthetically, it is a more appealling building than the Crystal Palace as it has the character of the Art Nouveau era with its graceful curves and elegant details. There are many wonderful period photos and evocative renderings of the ornamental details. But again the construction details will grab you as they show you the extent to which this building was impeccably detailed.

The Pennsylvania Station is one of the sad stories in American architectural history. One of the key works of McKim, Mead and White, it was torn down for no reason at all. It is a tour-de-force in Beaux-Artst design, but underneath it was a steel superstructure that brought together the ideas of Paxton and Ferdinand Dutert. It is not as nicely detailed in terms of drawings as are the first two buildings in this collection, but one is still able to sense its former grandeur.