Research Ambitions
My research focuses on the different ways architecture, politics, culture, and power intersect to form the built landscape.
Within this broad field of inquiry, I am currently engaged in three major projects. In Skyscraper: The Politics and Power of Building New York City in the Twentieth Century (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), I explore the role of culture and ideology in shaping the construction of skyscrapers and the way wealth and power have operated to reshape the urban landscape.
My second research project explores the architecture of urban football stadiums. As with my research on skyscrapers, I am interested not only in the technology that allows for the construction of these monumental structures, but the larger social and political agendas yoked to their creation.
My third research explores the intersection of race and space in the discipline and practice of architecture seeking to uncover how divisions of race were materialized in the built environment of the twentieth century, and how the practices of architecture and urban planning variously confronted, assuaged, and elided these divisions.
Books
- Flowers, Benjamin. Skyscraper: The Politics and Power of Building New York City in the Twentieth Century (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009).
*Winner, 2010 Outstanding Academic Title in Architecture, Choice Magazine.
*Nominated for the Spiro Kostof Award (Society of Architectural Historians)
*Nominated for the Kenneth T. Jackson Award for Best Book in North American Urban History (Urban History Association)
*Nominated for the New York City Book Award (New York Society Library)
Book Chapters
Flowers, Benjamin. “Stadium Architecture, Visual Iconography and the Shaping of Urban and Sporting Identities,” in The Visual in Sport, Huggins, Mike and Mike O’Mahoney, eds. (Oxford: Routledge, 2011).
Articles/Essays
Flowers, Benjamin. “Stadia: Architecture and the Visual Iconography of Football,” in The Visual Turn in Sport—A Special Issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport(2011).
Flowers, Benjamin. “Ada Louise Huxtable,” in The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art, Joan Marter, ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
Flowers, Benjamin. “Thom Mayne,” in The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art, Joan Marter, ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
Flowers, Benjamin. “Marxism,” in The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art, Joan Marter, ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
Flowers, Benjamin. “New Brutalism,” in The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art, Joan Marter, ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
Flowers, Benjamin. “Illuminating the Invisible: Race + Space in Architectural Pedagogy,” in The Journal of History and Culture (Summer 2009).
Flowers, Benjamin. “History as Index and Discipline in Design Pedagogy,” in The Value of Design: Proceedings of the 97th ACSA Annual Meeting. Washington, DC: Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, 2009.
Flowers, Benjamin. “Architecture, Ideology, and the Ends Beginnings Serve,” in We Have Never Been Pre-Disciplinary: Proceedings of the 24th National Conference on the Beginning Design Student. Atlanta, GA:NCBDS, 2008.
Flowers, Benjamin. “The Seagram Building and the Bomb: Architecture, Atomic Anxiety, and the Cold War in the United States,” in Fresh Air: Proceedings of the 95th ACSA Annual Meeting. Washington, DC: Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, 2007.
Flowers, Benjamin. “Race, Space, and Architecture in Oakland Cemetery,” in Scapes 6 (Fall 2007).
Flowers, Benjamin. “The Architects’ Collaborative (TAC)” in The Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Architecture. R. Stephen Sennott, ed. (New York: Routledge, 2004).
Flowers, Benjamin. “Corporate Office Park Architecture,” in The Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Architecture. R. Stephen Sennott, ed. (New York: Routledge, 2004).
Flowers, Benjamin. “Urban Renewal,” in The Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Architecture. R. Stephen Sennott, ed. (New York: Routledge, 2004).
Flowers, Benjamin. “Historic Preservation” in The Encyclopedia of American Studies. Kurian, Orvell, Butler, and Mechling, eds. (Danbury, CT: Grolier, 2001).
Flowers, Benjamin. “Urban Architecture,” in The Encyclopedia of American Studies. Kurian, Orvell, Butler, and Mechling, eds. (Danbury, CT: Grolier, 2001).
Flowers, Benjamin. “Frank Lloyd Wright,” in The Encyclopedia of American Studies. Kurian, Orvell, Butler, and Mechling, eds. (Danbury, CT: Grolier, 2001).
