Architecture
Book: The Tennessee Valley...
Architecture
The subtitle of this new book on one of America's largest civil engineering projects is telling: design and persuasion. Founded in 1933, it was considered essential that the Tennessee Valley Authority's central programme - to create electricity-generating dams along the poor, Depression-scourged Tennessee River - was cloaked with excellent architecture that spoke of a bolder, brighter tomorrow.
Heading up the TVA Architect's Office was one Roland Wank, Hungarian born and educated in the heart of modernist Europe. Mr Wank's team ensured the TVA's output was dynamic and forward-looking, and the book contains contemporary photos by Richard Barnes that evoke the Deco grandeur of the dams, the new expanses of open water and the harmonious imagery that accompanied them.
INFORMATION
The Tennessee Valley Authority: Design and Persuasion by Tim Culvahouse, preface by Al Gore, photographs by Richard Barnes (Princeton Architectural Press, £25)
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