2024-11-21T16:13:53-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/37211373/the-midwestern-maybeck Places Journal 2012-02-07T05:46:00-05:00 >2012-02-07T16:37:47-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/y3/y3ohxhzspiy95mpi.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>A dandy bedecked in flashy all-white outfits and a pince-nez, chain-smoking custom-made cigarettes that he ordered from a New York manufacturer in lots of 10,000... an early devotee of the motorcar, president of the local Automobile Club, and a notably fast and reckless driver... He paid his rent in gold coins, before moving to an opulently furnished, Oriental-themed downtown Kansas City apartment/studio building of his own design.</p></em><br /><br /><p> Why is Louis Curtiss so much less celebrated than Bernard Maybeck?</p> <p> On Places, Keith Eggener examines the career of the Kansas City architect, "designer of some of the earliest buildings in the world to employ caisson foundations, rolled steel columns and glass curtain-walls," who nonetheless remains a relatively obscure figure, well outside the canon of architectural history.</p>