American Building: The Historical Forces that Shaped It. This item is unavailable.American Building: The Historical Forces that Shaped It

Originally published in 1947, this has emerged as a classic work on the relationships among buildings, their inhabitants, and the environment. This major revision brings it up to date for a new, more environmentally aware generation of architects and designers. James Marston Fitch provides a fundamental theory of buildings. "The ultimate task of architecture," he writes, "is to act in favour of human beings: to interpose itself between people and the natural environment in which they find themselves, in such a way as to remove the gross environmental load from their shoulders". Fitch systematically examines the various aspects of the environment which buildings control for human habitation, air, temperature, light, and sound, even space, time, and gravity. He draws on scientific research to probe deeply into these problems and he sets out the most practical solutions to these and other issues.

James Marston Fitch is Professor Emeritus in the School of Architecture at Columbia University and Director Emeritus of its Graduate Program of Historic Preservation, the first of its kind in the United States, which he founded in 1964. He has served as the first curator of Central Park and was an editor of Architectural Forum and House Beautiful. For the last twenty years, he has been Director of Historical Preservation for the New York City-based
architectural firm Beyer Blinder Belle, widely acknowledged for their restoration of Ellis Island and Grand Central Terminal. He lives in New York City. William Bobenhausen is an architect and Adjunct Professor at the School of Architecture and Environmental Studies at the City College of New York and at the New jersey Institute of Technology. He is the author of Simplified Design of HVAC Systems in the Parker/Ambrose series. He is Director of Sustainable Design with
Steven Winter Associates in Norwalk, CT. He lives in