Life of a Mansion

$14.95 at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

Life of a Mansion tells the story of the building that Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum calls home. It details how Andrew Carnegie's grand but functional Fifth Avenue mansion--which was pioneering in its design, with an electric elevator and modern steel-frame construction--was constructed. The book features the rooms in which Carnegie conducted his business and philanthropic endeavors, and where the family and staff lived and entertained throughout the mid-twentieth century. It also surveys plans for…