biography
| name: |
Fitch, James Marston
|
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1909– )
|
| biography:
| Architectural preservationist and historian, born in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. Trained as an architect at Tulane, he moved to New York City, where he worked as an architectural editor (1936–53). He embraced Modernism, but developed an interest in the social concerns of architecture. His early support of ‘progressive’ urban renewal gave way in the late 1940s to a commitment to historical preservation. He then taught at Columbia University (1954–77), where in 1964 he founded the nation's first historic preservation programme. His books include American Building: The Environmental Forces that Shape It (1947) and Architecture and the Aesthetics of Plenty (1961). After retiring from Columbia he became (1979) director of historic preservation at the architectural firm of Beyer Blinder Belle in New York City. |
|
|
