Book excerpt: This book chronicles the evolution of architecture in the St. Louis area between 1948 and 1973, with insightful essays by established architectural scholars on the significant aspects of modern architecture in St. Louis and of the Washington University School of Architecture in the flowering of mid-century American modernism. Archival photographs and drawings illustrate the authors' historical analyses, and statements about the school written by distinguished alumni and faculty, including Fumihiko Maki, a former faculty member, illuminate a rich pocket of little-known American creativity.