Morphosis: Buildings & Projects Volume V (v. 5) [Hardcover]

Thom Mayne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 17, 2009

One of the few truly visionary architects of large-scale commissions working today, Thom Mayne’s influential firm Morphosis, founded in the early 1970s, has maintained an avant-garde presence among contemporary architecture firms, even as it has garnered high-profile, big-budget commissions from around the world. Since Rizzoli published Volume I of the Morphosis series in 1989, the Los Angeles–based firm has continued to push its intricate modernism into new territories. In the tradition of its four visually groundbreaking predecessors, this fifth volume packs 500 illustrations into a comprehensive tour of Morphosis’s activity. New works covered in Volume V include Cal Trans Headquarters in Los Angeles (2004); the San Francisco Federal Office building (2006); the Wayne L. Morse United States Courthouse in Eugene, Oregon (2006); and the University of Cincinnati Student Recreation Center (2006). Projects in progress, such as the New Academic Building for the Cooper Union in New York (expected completion 2008) and the Phare Tower for La Defense, France (2012), will also be featured.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Thom Mayne is a professor of architecture at UCLA, and one of the founders of the avant-garde institution SCI-Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture) in Los Angeles. In 1995 he won the Pritzker Prize. Jeffrey Kipnis is an architecture and design curator, critic, and professor at Ohio State University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 488 pages
• Publisher: Rizzoli (February 17, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847830721
• ISBN-13: 978-0847830725
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 1.7 x 11.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #692,089 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars He's a dreamer, September 2, 2010

By 

Darren O. "Darren" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Morphosis: Buildings & Projects Volume V (v. 5) (Hardcover)

I work in one of his buildings completed in 2007 in San Francisco. And it's the worst place I've ever worked. Yes, I thought it looked cool from the outside too. But the inside is totally non-functional and his explanations of building design and how it's supposed to transform people's lives is total gunk! More specifically, the building is loud, has tons and tons of wasted, dark space in the stairwell landing areas yet leaves us working in a cramped area. It's either too hot and stuffy, or too cold depending on whether the automatically controlled windows open or not. They're mostly closed. Many colleagues have their own personal heaters at their desks. The natural light is too glaring on one side and too dark on the other, so most of us have extra shades, umbrellas or personal lamps depending on what side we're on. The building scrim designed to protect occupants from the sun, and offer views of the bay area hasn't worked for many months. There were no safe indoor bike racks designed for this supposedly green building. And the gym was a total afterthought placed in a dark, inadequate basement area. And as a seemingly final insult, the building's air intake pipe was apparently placed next to the sewage exhaust pipe, so when the wind blows in a particular direction, our entire office space smells like sewage. From what I can tell, Mr. Mayne is a very good writer and marketer. But he's an egotistical dreamer and unfortunately for us that have to deal with his "creations" on a daily basis, a terrible architect!

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Could been better, September 19, 2010

By 

chris "chris" (houston,texas) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Morphosis: Buildings & Projects Volume V (v. 5) (Hardcover)

I was hoping this book would show other projects like the new 41 Cooper Square building and the Wayne l. Morse Courthouse building but it doesn't. I do like the the velum drawings and the photos that are included.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Tom Wolfe Needs To Update "From Bauhaus To Our House", October 3, 2010

By 

Dan H - See all my reviews

This review is from: Morphosis: Buildings & Projects Volume V (v. 5) (Hardcover)

Like reviewer "Darren O," I too am an unlucky occupant of Thom Mayne's Pritzker Prize winning San Francisco masterpiece. I can testify to the accuracy and truthfulness of everything in Darren O's review. Like the "giants" of modern and post-modern architecture who preceded him, Mr. Mayne's work displays complete contempt for the mere human beings who might come into contact with it. It embodies the authoritarian impulse and will to power that have underlain the modernist movement in architecture from the start. In fact, at the building's dedication ceremony in July 2007, Mr. Mayne was reported to have denounced Americans as fat, lazy, and under-exercised. He explained that his Federal Building had been intentionally designed to punish such people with elevators that don't stop on every floor, forcing all but the disabled to climb flights of stairs; and workplace components are located at vast lateral distances from one another, forcing one to walk great distances to see a colleague. (Most staff simply don't bother at all.) When Mr. Mayne was given a tour of the building's work spaces after the ceremony, he was reported to have started turning off lights and denouncing the workers for failing to use natural light only, as he had intended. (The light that is so overabundant on the south side, so wanting on the north.)

The poor quality of the engineering and of the workmanship and materials of the building also deserve mention. After three and a half years, the elevators are still far from reliable, the glass windows on the front of the building are still prone to cracking, and the polished granite floors are developing enormous cracks that have begun to resemble the nearby San Andreas Fault.

As an antidote to the anti-humanism of such "visionaries" as Mr. Mayne, one couldn't do better than to reread Tom Wolfe's small masterpiece cited in the headline, From Bauhaus to Our House. The only shortcoming of Tom Wolfe's book is that it was written in 1981. So many terrible buildings have been built since then!