Director, Architectural Studies; Professor, American & European Architecture
Research Areas: American and European economics, society, and architecture; 18th-20th-centuries
Daniel M. Abramson’s scholarship focuses on issues of architecture, economics, society, and government from the eighteenth through twentieth centuries with a specialization in American and European topics. He is the author of three books: Obsolescence: An Architectural History (University of Chicago Press, 2016); Building the Bank of England: Money, Architecture, Society, 1694–1942 (Yale University Press, 2005); and Skyscraper Rivals: The AIG Building and the Architecture of Wall Street (Princeton Architectural Press, 2001); as well as being co-editor of Governing By Design: Architecture, Economy, and Politics in the Twentieth Century (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012) with the Aggregate Architectural History Collaborative, of which he is also a founding director. Current projects are a second Aggregate volume, Writing Architectural History: Evidence and Narrative in the Twenty-First Century (University of Pittsburgh Press, forthcoming 2021), plus work on postwar American government centers including a recent article in Grey Room 78 (Winter 2020) on Paul Rudolph’s Massachusetts State Service Center and the American welfare state. Before coming to Boston University in 2016, Abramson taught at Tufts University and Connecticut College. He received his B.A. in English and American literature from Princeton University and Ph.D. in art history from Harvard University.
To book an appointment, visit https://danielabramson.youcanbook.me/ or email directly.
Selected Publications:
“Representing the American Welfare State,” Grey Room 78 (Winter 2020)
Obsolescence: An Architectural History (University of Chicago Press, 2016)
Building the Bank of England: Money, Architecture, Society, 1694–1942 (Yale University Press, 2005)
Skyscraper Rivals: The AIG Building and the Architecture of Wall Street (Princeton Architectural Press, 2001)
For a detailed academic bio and CV, please see Professor Abramson’s Department Profile.