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During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the spaces of Central Park and Fifth Avenue were canonized in literary works, musical productions, and various forms of visual culture. Over this time, they came to embody two of the most recognizable and iconic places in the nation’s cultural and commercial capital, each representing key values associated with the country’s identity: Central Park, a symbol of democracy and Fifth Avenue a symbol of capitalist enterprise. Their significance cannot be satisfactorily understood as merely points on a map, but must instead be examined as spatial realms mediated by social and political considerations and whose meanings shifted as the city and its people evolved. While there has been ample scholarship written on these spaces individually, there has been very little research that brings them into direct dialogue with one other. The central aim of this thesis is to draw them into a dialectic that explores their mutual influence and associations while revealing their role in shaping and casting visions of a modern New York.

A master's thesis examining six model houses designed by architect Richard Neutra between 1923 and 1946.

Three case studies that explore contemporary representations of labor.

In 1960, a passionate committee led by violinist Isaac Stern succeeded in saving Carnegie Hall, a building the New York Herald Tribune described at the time as “a concert hall that everybody loved but nobody liked.” Stern's intervention ensured the famous concert hall’s longevity even though its demolition had appeared inevitable a short time earlier. Carnegie Hall is a unique case study within this history of postwar architectural preservation because it offers an unusual success story. Stern, and his committee of musicians, politicians, and lawyers, prevented demolition of the renowned concert hall prior to passage of the Landmarks Preservation Law and formation of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. They overcame a number of obstacles: simultaneous construction of Lincoln Center’s new Philharmonic Hall, Carnegie Hall’s perceived lack of architectural significance, and an economic incentive to redevelop the site for commercial use.

The nature of this preservation success prompts a number of questions. How was Carnegie Hall’s preservation accomplished in the progress-driven culture of postwar New York City? Why was the Hall’s “mediocre” architecture protected at a moment when more widely admired structures, such as Pennsylvania Station, were destroyed? What characteristics of Carnegie Hall — architectural , social, or historical — gave the building value in the eyes of its preservationists? Through two complimentary case studies, Carnegie Hall and Pennsylvania Station, I will demonstrate that focusing too heavily on aesthetics, at the expense of formulating a feasible economic plan, can prove detrimental to the success of a preservation attempt. An emphasis on economics means that preservation cannot be viewed as solely the work of architects and historians but requires a deeper look at who is leading preservation attempts and the nature of the political structure involved.

The aim of this thesis is to consider some of the epistemological methods for considering art and art histories with respect to two of Judith Baca's Los Angeles murals. Other scholars and artists have used institutional critiques, yet this thesis is unique in that it contextualizes Baca's work within the Chicano Movement and also within art historical discourse. I first do this by analyzing Baca's earliest mural, Mi Abulita, a mural that no longer exists. Before a discussion of The Great Wall of Los Angeles, I offer several comparisons between Baca and Suzanne Lacy, Richard Serra, Asco and others. Finally I analyze The Great Wall of Los Angeles and the river it was made in. This analysis is particularly important to this thesis because it provides a unique perspective on methods of knowledge building and commemorating the past. It also satisfies the aim of the thesis to consider how art histories are told and remembered.

This thesis explores Gregory Ain's planned housing communities spanning the period 1939-1948, connecting their conception to the theoretical legacy of Modernism that began with the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM) in Europe a decade earlier. Expanding on existing scholarship, this thesis attempts to contextualize Ain's One Family Defense House Project (1939), Park Planned Homes (1945-47), and Mar Vista Tract (1946-48) within the social, political, and economic context of the interwar and postwar period. Although the latter two projects are more well-known, I attempt to expand the understanding of their design through new and lesser-known examples by Ain in the area of tract housing and contemporaneous housing examples. These include his manifesto for a project entitled Preliminary Proposal `A' for a low-cost community housing development in Southgate, California and the U.S. govenment's Basic Minimum House (1936). The three projects discussed in this thesis expand the context within which one views the typical tract house, but also the avant-garde approach to Modernism during this era and the years that followed.

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This thesis presents three case studies: a modern mall, NorthPark Center, and two contemporary shopping malls, The Americana at Brand and Crystals at CityCenter. These examples problematize aspects of American culture and consumption.

Each mall is analyzed in the context of its retail history, the intention of the architecture, the art, the references to other buildings, places, or times, and, lastly, how the commercial mall purports to embody positive forms of urbanity in an idealized city center.

I argue that there is a mythic nostalgia for a communal past that never existed but is regardless continually updated and presented as an amalgamation of high art architecture and commercial architecture in the built environment. The examples reveal particular characteristics of American culture from the landscape and beyond the text, the included taxonomy provides visual comparisons of these three malls.

In 2002, during the U.S. invasion of Iraq, American and allied soldiers discovered a split-level townhome in Baghdad belonging to Saddam Hussein. Examination of its contents revealed 1970s style décor with prominently displayed fantasy illustrations by American illustrator, Rowena Morrill. In the Western press, objects like those found in the townhouse, including Hussein’s artwork, personal and private spaces, architecture, and dress, were as proxy evidence for the never-discovered weapons of mass destruction that had been a central justification for the war. I study this alignment of personal tastes in terms of political motives as a manifestation of dictator kitsch, a category of kitsch whose origins I trace in the writings of American critic, Clement Greenberg. By revisiting Greenberg’s seminal essay “Avant Garde and Kitsch,” my dissertation looks at the way dictator kitsch, born amidst political tensions of the 1930s, substitutes cultural battles for political engagement. Beginning with the Western press’s judgements of Hussein’s taste as dictator kitsch, I research the ways this variant of kitsch has been pivotal to the narration of the U.S.-Iraq war and to American political identity generally. My dissertation poses the question: what does a full accounting of dictator kitsch and taste reveal about American political identity during the Invasion of Iraq and other periods of geopolitical discord? This dissertation is based on research conducted across multiple archives including articles from the Associated Press and other periodicals, background on the history of embedded reporting, science fiction/fantasy painting, architectural projects during the British Mandate in Iraq, traditions of totalitarian portraiture, the George W. Bush presidential archives, and the interior design of the Oval Office, among other sources. To study instances of dictator kitsch, represented by non-linear and wide-ranging imagery, I have emphasized understanding the histories in which works are labeled kitsch, placing as much weight on the context of their reception as the objects themselves. Through seeing images as “texts,” my method explores how these representations derive their form and meaning from earlier images, as well as the social and historical conditions that have produced them. My research approaches dictator kitsch as not inherently connected to a particular dictator but rather as a method of recognizing excesses and distinction through taste.