Cinematic Starchitecture - The Celebrity Status of Urban Architectural Structures in Film

This book explores how examples of famous architecture have circulated throughout cinema history across diverse genres. It will appeal to Film Studies, Media Studies, and Architecture and Architectural History, Media and Cultural Studies, History, Popular Culture, and Urban Geography.

List of contents

Introduction: what is cinematic starchitecture?
Part 1: Starchitects and Cinema
1. Gaudí: Starchitecture, Iconicity, and Barcelona
2. The Iconicity of Architectural Decay in Detroit: The Posthumous Cinematic Re-mediation of Albert Kahn
3. Traces of a Proto-Starchitect: Erich Mendelsohn's Architecture on Screen
Part 2: Iconic Starchitecture in Cinema
4. Plaza and Fortress: Screening Lincoln Center's Ambiguous Iconicity
5. La La Land's (2016) Griffith Observatory: Through the Nostalgic Lens of Rebel Without a Cause and the Studio-Era Musical
Part 3: Lofty Towers and Vertical Views
6. Tokyo Tower on Screen
7. The Nearest Thing to Heaven: the Empire State Building as romantic icon
8. Millennial Global Starchitecture in the City of London and its Cinematic "Other" in Rocks
Part 4: Cinematic Starchitecture and Genre
9. Hong Kong Starchitecture and Action-Sci Fi Cinema
10. The Icon and the Grid: North by Northwest, the United Nations Building, and the Thriller Genre's Media-Architecture Complex
11. Building Dystopia: Frank Lloyd Wright's Marin County Civic Center in THX 1138 (1971) and Gattaca (1997)
Part 5: Architectural Typologies and Styles in Cinema
12. "Concrete Stardom": Brutalism's Cinematic Iconicity and the Spatial Imaginaries of London
13. Pensive Spectacles: On Museal Gazes in Cinematic Starchitecture
14. Poetic Referentiality: The Ocean Liner as Film Star
Index

About the author

Merrill Schleier is Professor Emeritus of Art and Architectural History and Cinema Studies at the University of the Pacific, USA, specializing in the relationship of urbanism, identity, and cinema.
Paul Newland is Professor of Film and Architecture at Liverpool John Moores University, UK. He has published widely on representations of cities, landscapes, and architecture in literature and film.

Product details

• Authors: Merrill (University of the Pacific Schleier
• Assisted by: Paul Newland (Editor), Merrill Schleier (Editor)
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 03.11.2025
• EAN: 9781032602134
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3260213-4
• No. of pages: 274
• Series: Routledge Advances in Film Studies
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; Social sciences, law, business > Media, communication > General, dictionaries; History, Architecture, Media Studies, Popular Culture, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Human Geography, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Media Studies, HISTORY / Social History, ARCHITECTURE / Buildings / Landmarks & Monuments, Humanities, Social and cultural history, Civil engineering, surveying & building, Human Geography, PERFORMING ARTS / Film / General, Film production: technical & background skills, Film history, theory or criticism, Filmmaking and production: technical and background skills, Civil engineering, surveying and building