Modernism and American Mid-20th Century Sacred Architecture

“This book engages what may be considered the most innovative, challenging, and experimental period in the history of sacred architecture: mid-20th century America. In the span of a few decades, completely new and hitherto unimaginable examples of sacred buildings and art came into existence! Perusing the excellent case studies featured in the book makes us not only appreciate the amazing architectural, cultural, liturgical, and theological revolution underway but also understand its major forces, characters, stories, successes, and failures. The text is fascinating, accessible, clear, well organized, and nicely illustrated. The contributors are excellent scholars with high reputations. As a result, Dr. Anat Geva’s book is a tour-de-force for any architecture practitioner, scholar, educator, or student interested in modern and contemporary sacred spaces.” - Julio Bermudez, Ph.D. Professor, Director Cultural Studies & Sacred Space Graduate Concentration, The Catholic University of America

“In this significant volume, editor Anat Geva has widened our view of American sacred architecture in the mid-twentieth century with new scholarship that reappraises the promises and limits of modern architecture in our experience of the religious and spiritual. In case studies across 14 chapters, the authors grapple with the application of modernist form, materiality, and art to religious worship, revealing solutions that often bridged modernity and tradition and the local and universal. With new research on Mies van der Rohe, Johnson, Saarinen, Belluschi, Rudolph, and Mendelsohn as well as lesser-known architects, this book challenges us to think anew about how architecture sought to make God immanent to our modern world.” - Margaret M. Grubiak, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Architectural History, Villanova University

“For too long, sacred architecture in modernism has been overlooked and underappreciated. Thanks to Professor Geva’s work, that will no longer be the case. This groundbreaking collection raises major issues for continued discussion and exploration.” - Ben Heimsath, Principal, Heimsath Architects, Austin, Texas

Anat Geva is a registered architect and a Professor of Architecture at Texas A&M University, where she teaches design, sacred architecture, history of building technology, and preservation. She has a long list of publications including a book, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Sacred Architecture: Faith, Form, and Building Technology, published in 2012. She co-founded and co-edited the journal of the National Council of Preservation Education, Preservation Education & Research (PER), and was a co-editor of ARRIS (SESAH’s Journal). She was one of the founders of the Forum on Architecture, Culture, and Spirituality (ACS) and served as a member on their executive committee. She is the past president of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians (SESAH), and past secretary of the National Council for Preservation Education (NCPE).