Author Event: Adam Arenson on Millard Sheets

Join Hennessey + Ingalls Bookstore for a book signing with Adam Arenson for his book Banking on Beauty: Millard Sheets and Midcentury Commercial Architecture in California.

Adam Arenson at a Sheets Studio mosaic outside the former Pomona First Federal branch in Claremont. Photo: David Allen c/o Daily Bulletin

Drawing extensively on archival materials, site visits, and oral history interviews, Adam Arenson tells a fascinating story of how the architecture and art were created, the politics of where the branches were built, and why the Sheets Studio switched from portraying universal family scenes to celebrating local history amid the dramatic cultural and political changes of the 1960s. Banking on Beauty builds a convincing case for preserving these outstanding examples of Midcentury Modern architecture, which currently faces an uncertain future.

Adam Arenson is an associate professor of history and director of the Urban Studies program at Manhattan College. He holds degrees from Harvard and Yale, and writes accessible history including on the pages of The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

This event is free and RSVPs on Facebook are encouraged. For more information, click here.