Making a Modern Classic: The Architecture of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Softcover
125 pages, 9 x 11 ¼ in.
55 color + 88 b/w illus.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1997
ISBN 9780876331118

Architecture, art history, and city politics come together in this lively account of the evolution of the building that houses the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The story spans the decades of planning and construction that preceded the 1928 opening of the “wonderful Greek garage” on Fairmount through the reinstallation projects of the 1990s. The text is richly documented by both archival photographs and superb new color photography.

David B. Brownlee is a professor of the history of art at the University of Pennsylvania.