Lost in America: Photographing the Last Days of Our Architectural Treasures

“In this arresting collection, historians Cahan and Williams spotlight architectural jewels of America’s yesteryear in photographs taken between 1933 and the present by the government-run Historic American Buildings Survey…While a dignified beauty suffuses these pages, a looming sense of tragedy is inescapable as well: “a number of these structures were fought for… most slipped away unnoticed.” It’s a bittersweet record that gives worthy due to the spaces that shaped a bygone era.”—Publisher’s Weekly (Starred Review)Lost in America documents the life and death of America’s architectural and historic treasures. The book is based on a remarkable archive created by the Historic American Building Survey, a Works Progress Administration project that still documents the nation’s most important buildings.Lost in America focuses on 100 buildings that have been torn down over the past 90 years. Some―like New York’s Penn Station and Chicago’s Stock Exchange―were majestic. Others―like a tiny brid