The architectural practice of Michael and Louis Beezer, identical twin brothers, lasted from 1892 until 1932. They practiced in Altoona, Pennsylvania, from 1892 until 1899; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1900 until 1906; and in Seattle, Washington, from 1907 until 1932. During their practice, they produced a wide variety of designs including homes, banks, churches, rectories, schools, and hospitals. Today, seventy-two confirmed designs still exist around the country in Pennsylvania, Washington, Oregon, California, Montana, and Alaska. This creative project documents the Beezer Brothers' surviving buildings through current and historic photographs and a short amount of text with information on the history, style, and features of each building. A history of the firm, supplemented with biographical information, is also included. / Department of Architecture

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2001. / "February 2001." / Includes bibliographical references (p. 237-248). / Combining aesthetic theory with theories of the public sphere, this dissertation examines the brief appearance of a publicly empathetic civic realm in the United States during the 1940s. The argument begins with a reevaluation of the debate over monumentality initiated in modernist architectural circles, which included such figures as Sigfried Giedion, Lewis Mumford, Henry-Russell Hitchcock, and Philip Johnson. Centering on the city, this debate recast monumentality in terms more progressive than commemorative; it posited open-ended architectural and urban strategies that offered a non-restrictive yet sympathetic public resonance. If empathy is understood as the viewer's physical and psychological engagement with an object, then the 'publicly empathetic' collects and communicates the public 's individualized engagements. The term 'publicly empathetic' underscores the distinction between totalitarian consensus, exemplified by the modernism of Mussolini's fascist Italy, and what Alexis de Tocqueville identified in 1835 as America's collective individualism, which persisted in the 1940s under the umbrella of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. Springboarding from Ernst Cassirer and Susanne Langer's philosophies of symbolic form as unconsummated symbol, I argue that the modernism of this period did not define the public but rather expressed architecture's publicness through the recasting of form, programming, and modernism's public mandate. The chapters of this dissertation examine in turn the texts, projects and urbanism of this empathetic modernism. The projects constituting this realm are both public and private in nature; they include Charles Franklin and ... / by Sarah Whiting. / Ph.D.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1960 N37

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1986 P32 / Master of Landscape Architecture

Thesis (B.Arch)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1970. / by Sanford Bond, Robert J. Slattery. / B.Arch

No description available.

American tuberculosis sanitarium architecture developed largely from trends set by European health spas and sanitarium design. The first American tuberculosis sanitariums largely resembled European health spas and resorts and catered to rich clientele. The spread of the White Plague, however, urged American states to develop sanitarium institutions that could provide for all classes. These first sanitariums melded nineteenth century resort architecture with radial prison designs and Kirkbride insane asylums to create large hospital complexes devoted exclusively to tuberculosis treatment and research. By the 1920s and 1930s, the European modernist movement had created modern tuberculosis sanitariums that inspired American sanitarium design. Despite the important role these institutions played in curing consumptives and limiting the spread of the White Plague, the increased use of drug therapy made sanitariums obsolete by the 1970s. Today, many of these sanitariums have been abandoned, demolished, or rehabilitated for new uses. / History of the disease -- The European and American health spa movements -- The development of the European sanitarium movement -- The development of the American sanitarium movement -- The American sanitarium movement : borrowing from European modernist innovation. / Department of Architecture

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, June 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 206-218). / This dissertation discusses the architectural writings of Louisa Tuthill ( 1798-1879), a little known nineteenth-century American author. Tuthill has been acknowledged for her History of Architecture from the Earliest Times (1848), the first history of architecture published in the United States. However, her numerous other books dealing with architecture have been largely ignored. As early as 1830, Tuthill published Ancient Architecture, a concise history of architectural origins for young readers. This volume was followed by three fictional works for juveniles describing the adventures of model Americans--an architect, an artist and a landscape architect. Tuthill also edited The True and the Beautiful, the first American collection of selections from Ruskin's work (reprinted twenty three times). Like her famous contemporaries, Downing and Ruskin, Tuthill associates architectural principles with moral qualities. Her educational books move beyond the sophisticated architectural and social theory of such authorities by presenting aesthetic ideas in popular literary forms for the common reader. While a tradition of male architectural writers addressed eager builders and wealthy patrons, Tuthill wrote for the American public of all classes and ages. In contrast to the tradition of builders' guides and style books, Tuthill contributed histories, advice books, children's stories and edited collections. When the History is placed within the context of Tuthill's other writings r it becomes part of a larger plan for elevating national morals, a plan requiring education in architecture history. / by Sarah Allaback. / Ph.D.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Ocean Engineering, September 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-101). / The United States Navy is facing a need for a novel surface combatant capability. This new system of ships must be deigned to meet the uncertainty associated with constantly changing required mission capabilities, threats, and technological advances. Flexibility in design and management will enable these systems to maximize their performance under changing conditions. Real options involve the 'right but not the obligation' to take a course of action. Real options embody the flexibility that allows projects to be continually reshaped, as uncertainty becomes resolved. This thesis seeks to identify and analyze the real options available for the design and acquisition of naval ships. This thesis also seeks to determine the value of these options and determine the best types and amount of flexibility to design into naval systems in order to maximize the value of the system over time under uncertain conditions. / by Jeffrey Allen Gregor. / S.M.