Civic Architecture Across America: Extraordinary Views

This elegant photography book showcases three centuries of architectural design with 360-degree panoramic photographs.
Civic Architecture Across America: Extraordinary Views highlights the work of renowned architectural photographer Thomas R. Schiff and features over 120 of his panoramic photographs of the interior and exterior spaces of civic buildings throughout the country. Schiff’s signature photographs in panorama offer a breathtakingly full 360-degree sweep of civic architecture, allowing the viewer to see what is directly in front in addition to the left, right, and rear.
Each chapter features a short essay by an architectural historian, practicing architect, or museum curator who shares their thoughts on an aspect of civic architectural expression and engagement surrounding public space today. The book unfolds regionally, beginning with a tour of our nation’s capital and its most iconic locations, such as the Lincoln Memorial and the Library of Congress Reading Room, photographed as you have never seen before. Readers then travel to town, city, and state buildings, including Indigenous sites and the edifices they influence today, in each region of the country, where they will meet an expert who shares their perspective on Schiff’s imagery and the architectural uniqueness of these sites, the changes they have undergone, and the considerations that go into building them. This volume includes the Maryland State House, Buffalo City Hall, Federal Plaza in Chicago, Cincinnati City Hall, Faneuil Hall in Boston, the New Hampshire Supreme Court building, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Virginia, the West Virginia Independence Hall, the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse in Phoenix, the Scottsdale City Hall, the Y bridge in Ohio, Pueblo Bonito in New Mexico, and over one hundred more locations.
Published in collaboration with the Cincinnati Museum Center, this large-format book expands upon a new traveling exhibit featuring Schiff’s images of the people’s buildings as part of the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. It includes a foreword from Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio, an introduction by Richard Guy Wilson, and essays by Benjamin Bross, Manuel Cordero, Bradford C. Grant, and Jeff Tilman.