Life of a Mansion tells the story of the building that Cooper Hewitt,
Smithsonian Design Museum calls home. It details how Andrew Carnegie's
grand but functional Fifth Avenue mansion--which was pioneering in its
design, with an electric elevator and modern steel-frame
construction--was constructed. The book features the rooms in which
Carnegie conducted his business and philanthropic endeavors, and where
the family and staff lived and entertained throughout the mid-twentieth
century. It also surveys plans for the 1976 renovation by Hardy Holzman
Pfeiffer (when Cooper Hewitt first opened as a public museum) and the
building's latest extraordinary renovation by Gluckman Mayner
Architects, executive architect Beyer Blinder Belle and world-renowned
Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, which has positioned Cooper Hewitt as a truly
twenty-first-century design museum. Upon completion of three years of
intense work, the new building has been LEED certified, and has gained
an additional 6,000 square feet of gallery space. With an engaging
narrative illustrated by 200 photographs, maps, floor plans and letters,
Life of a Mansion chronicles the 110-year history of the National
Landmark building, as well as the evolution of the museum from its
establishment by the Hewitt Sisters in 1897 to its status
post-renovation in 2014 as the site of the nation's design authority.
