Most books about modern architects and their utopian projects skip straight to the alluring, design-porn photography, as if no one would actually have to live with the architecture. In reality, urban renewal projects by famous architects have a history of being outright failures (whether we should blame the architecture is open to debate).

Today the New York Times drew our attention to an architecture book that takes the opposite angle—what is life like in a modernist urban renewal project, fifty years after it was built? Thanks for the View, Mr. Mies presents a portrait of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Lafayette Park in Detroit from the perspective of the residents who call it home.

WHERE TO BUY
Thanks for the View, Mr. Mies is available for pre-order. List price is $29.95.