An Interview with Michael J. Lewis

(http://www.commentarymagazine.com)

Michael J. Lewis is a professor of art at Williams College and a contributor to the horizon, the arts blog of COMMENTARY. He is the author of American Art and Architecture, a recently published survey of American art history and examination of our nation's distinct architectural heritage. He published "Frank Furness: Architecture and the Violent Mind," a study of the Victorian style on American architects, in 2001, and received the Alice Davis Hitchcock Award in 1994 for The Politics of the German Gothic Revival: August Rechensperger—a critical study of the German architect.

In our interview, Lewis touches on his fascination with the "American empirical" tradition in the arts, the uninspiring and confused proposed designs for a World Trade Center memorial, the bad effects of U.S. News rankings on college students, and the spectacular contribution of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to American architecture: New York City's Seagram building.

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News & Politics

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