"This is a proper architectural history book, with impressive credentials to satisfy the scholar and filled with those line drawings, period prints, and photographs beloved of historians . . . But be not daunted--it's eminently readable . . . Philadelphia Builds is filled with historical asides, injections of whimsy, and flashes of professional humor."--Broad Street Review

"Here, in Michael Lewis's enchanting and illuminating essays, the reader is brought face-to-face with the iterative and collaborative act of architecture in a democracy, a combination of vision, craft, self-creation, constraint, and compromise. Lewis's understanding and insight elevate architectural choices into the realms of art and politics simultaneously, all the better in his affable tone and clipped prose. His gift is to enter inside the process, putting the reader in a frame of mind to wonder, question, and appreciate the object world. In Philadelphia--and in American cities more generally--this means having a passionate friend at your side illuminating the familiar and the beloved, all the same. The extra bonus is the introduction of forgotten architects and buildings to our collective understanding of Philadelphia as a crucible of American architecture."--Nathaniel Popkin, co-author Philadelphia: Finding the Hidden City

"With a sharp historian's eye―and a sharper critic's pen―Michael J. Lewis guides us through Philadelphia's built past, and with a rare intelligence shines new light on its patrons, its builders, and its architects―both famous and forgotten. His affection for his native city is evident throughout."―Witold Rybczynski, author of Charleston Fancy