Walter Netsch - A Critical Appreciation and Sourcebook

Northwestern University Library presents the first monograph devoted to the architect Walter Netsch, an early partner in Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and chief designer of prestigious commissions, including the U.S. Air Force Academy and Cadet Chapel. This illustrated book includes a detailed chronology, biography, essays about his work and field theory design aesthetics, statements by Netsch from 1954 to 2006, and a comprehensive, annotated bibliography of more than four hundred primary and secondary sources.

"One of the highlights of the book is a short biography by Russell Clement, head of the art collection at the Netsch-designed Northwestern University Library. It's lucidly written and rich with telling details and anecdotes, like the story of how, in 1947, Netsch (just hired by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill) drove to the SOM-designed town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee 'in his Raymond Loewy-designed yellow Studebaker convertible, to which he had attached a propeller on the front as a joke.'" --Blair Kamin