Customer Reviews

James Stewart Polshek: Context and Responsibilty: buildings and projects 1957-1987

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The basic thesis of "Context and Responsibility" is that architects have a responsibility to design buildings that relate well to, and do not clash with, the buildings around them. This, of course, is something that most modern architecture does not do. Jim Polshek has 3 buildings in New York City that prove his point very well: Sulzberger Hall and the Law School at Columbia University, and his spectacular new Rose Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History. If our built environment is more pleasant 50 years from now, this book will deserve some of the credit.

I live in a neigbhborhood with several buildings by this architect, and he indeed practices what he preaches. What he preaches is that modern architecture has become too in love with creating monoliths that do not harmonize with the buildings around them, which he then teaches architects how to do. I wish more people would listen to him.