Synopses & Reviews
She has designed banks and hotels, college master plans and retail spaces, galleries, residences, and studios for leading artists. In more than twenty-five years of practice, Deborah Berke has produced an extraordinary body of work that is grounded in the conviction that architecture is not an end in itself, but a setting that is enhanced by its use.
This book is the first to explore Berkes remarkable career as an architect, designer, teacher, and writer who has forged a strong and evolving aesthetic. As examined in a series of engaging essays, Berkes architecture blends tectonic coherence, a keen sensitivity to the intrinsic qualities of materials, and meticulous attention to detail. While all of her work possesses these distinctive attributes, each project is subtly rooted in its context and ennobles the uses specific to that space.
Through newly commissioned photographs, twenty-one of Berkes thought-provoking projects appear here, including the Irwin Union Bank, Yale School of Art, 21c Museum Hotel, and Marianne Boesky Gallery. Also featured are Berkes reflections on her growing interest in the here and now”an approach to architecture intended to counteract the banal placelessness of much of our environment by designing buildings that are intensely bound to and grounded in their sites.
Review
"This novel interpretation sheds a clear light on Aaltos relationship with Finlands society and culture, not merely by better defining the architects often overlooked context, but by recreating the intellectual milieus in which he developed. Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen introduces a very fresh discussion of Aaltos writings and designs in the framework of Finlands modern history."Jean-Louis Cohen, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University -- Jacquelyn N. Coutr - Renaissance Quarterly
Review
“Yale has produced a volume … thats so spectacular-looking, it may even exceed the publishing houses usual high production standards. . . . A stunning book.”--Robert Leiter,
The Jewish Exponent -- Temi-Tope C. Odumodu - Print Quarterly
Synopsis
An overview of the career and principal works of one of the twentieth centurys most important architects
Synopsis
The preeminent Finnish architect Alvar Aalto (18981976) developed in the postwar years an architectural language all his own, characterized by curved walls, singlepitched roofs, and inventive combinations of wood and brick. He was also engaged in design at all scales, from the planning of cities, including Helsinki, to the design of furniture and glassware. This book provides a brief but comprehensive look at Aaltos life, works, theory, and relevance for the twenty-first century.The first section of the book offers an account of Aaltos life, including his friendships with such twentieth-century masters as Gropius, Le Corbusier, and Frank Lloyd Wright. The second section looks closely at six of Aaltos most important buildings, among them Baker House in Boston and the concert hall in Helsinki. In the final sections of the book, Nicholas Ray examines several general themes relating to Aaltos work and philosophy. Ray also offers an original and provocative view of Aaltos theory, arguing that the architects position consistently opposed that of his contemporaries and indeed of most architects to this day.
Synopsis
Perhaps no other great modern architect has been linked to a native country as closely as Alvar Aalto (18981976). Critics have argued that the essence of Finland flows, as if naturally, into his quasi-organic forms, ranging from such buildings as the Baker House in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to iconic 20th-century designs, including his Savoy vase and bent-plywood stacking stools.
What did Aalto himself say about the importance of nationalism and geography in his work and in architecture generally? With an unprecedented focus on the architects own writings, library, and critical reception, Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen proposes a dramatically different interpretation of Aaltos oeuvre, revealing it as a deeply thoughtful response to his intellectual and cultural milieuespecially to Finlands dynamic political circumstances following independence from Russia in 1917.
Pelkonen also considers the geographic and geopolitical narratives found in his writings. These include ideas about national style and national cultural revival, and about how architecture can foster cosmopolitanism, internationalism, and regionalism. Expanding the canonical reading of Aalto, this work promises to influence future inquiries on Aalto for generations to come.
Synopsis
The sleek lines and gleaming facades of the architecture of the late 1940s and 1950s reflect a culture fascinated by the promise of the Jet Age. Buildings like Eero Saarinens TWA Terminal at JFK Airport and Philip Johnsons Four Seasons Restaurant retain a thrilling allure, seeming to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. In this work, distinguished architectural historian Alice Friedman draws on a vast range of sources to argue that the aesthetics of mid-century modern architecture reflect an increasing fascination with glamour,” a term widely used in those years to characterize objects, people, and experiences as luxurious, expressive, and even magical.
Featuring assessments of architectural examples ranging from Mies van der Rohes monolithic Seagram Building to Elvis Presleys sprawling Graceland estate, as well as vintage photographs, advertisements, and posters, this book argues that new audiences and client groups with tastes rooted in popular entertainment made their presence felt in the cultural marketplace during the postwar period. The author suggests that American and European architecture and design increasingly reflected the values of a burgeoning consumer society, including a fundamental confidence in the power of material objects to transform the identity and status of those who owned them.
Synopsis
Pritzker Prize-winner Kevin Roche (b. 1922) is one of the most critically acclaimed architects of the postwar era, distinguished for the pioneering urban structures he designed in the 1960s and 1970s, including the Oakland Museum of California and the Ford Foundation Headquarters in New York. In a career that has spanned more than half a century, Roche has pioneered new territories in design methodology, building technology, and environmentalism.
A student of Mies van der Rohes and a principal design associate of Eero Saarinens in the 1950s, Roche is the leading member of the third generation of modern architects. One of his most important contributions has been to perceive architecture as part of the larger man-made environment, which entailed understanding transportation, infrastructure, and landscape as architectural problems; considering public spaces, including gardens, as integral to architecture; and designing some of the earliest energy-efficient buildings. This book offers a comprehensive look at the extraordinary range of Roches built work, from his corporate commissions for more than thirty-eight headquarters for such companies as Aetna, Conoco, General Foods, John Deere, Merck, and Union Carbide, to his master plans of major universities and museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Central Park Zoo. The book extends to Roche's most recent projects, including recently completed headquarters for Banco Santander in Spain, Bouygues in Paris, and a national convention center in Dublin.
Drawing on previously inaccessible archival materials and unpublished interviews to present the full range of Roches career and to place his innovative work within the history of modern architecture, this book shows why Roches insistence that architecture is a part of a larger context, both man-made and natural, is more timely than ever.
Synopsis
The internationally renowned Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) created several landmarks of modern design in the United States. The first, the Finland Pavilion at the New York World's Fair in 1939, introduced his pioneering style to the country and established his reputation among his American peers. Subsequent designs produced in the United States marked major turning points in his evolving position as an architect. His commissioned project for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Baker House dormitory (completed 1949) features an undulating facade of red brick, a material that references the building's Boston surroundings. Aalto's fan-shaped plan for the Mount Angel Abbey Library (completed 1970) in St. Benedict, Oregon, his consummate exploration of the library type, capitalizes on the local terrain and the use of natural light.and#160;
Aalto's designs had a lasting impact on American modernism, but his experiences in America also profoundly influenced his own stylistic development. Aalto and America is a detailed survey of this beneficial relationship, with contributions by fifteen international experts who explore these key designs in relation to larger themes in international politics, architectural culture, housing research, and modern criticism and design.
About the Author
Tracy Myers is curator at the Heinz Architectural Center of the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. Amy Hempel is a fiction writer whose publications include Tumble Home (1997) and The Dog of the Marriage (2005).