From the Inside Flap
Moshe Safdie Edited by Wendy Kohn Influenced by the diverse cultures of Canada, Israel and the USA, Moshe Safdie's architecture displays a richly evolving tectonic and spatial sensibility. During 30 years of practice, he has designed public institutions, housing and mixed-use complexes, and developed designs for both existing urban districts and entirely new cities. In this monograph more than 40 of his projects are illustrated with spectacular photography, original design sketches and text. These works include his seminal Habitat project for the Canadian Expo '67, the National Gallery of Canada, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Vancouver's Library Square in Canada; the Yad Vashem Children's Holocaust Memorial, the Restoration of the Jewish Quarter, Mamilla Center and Hebrew Union College in the city of Jerusalem; the Skirball Museum and Cultural Center in Los Angeles; and urban designs for Montreal, Senegal, Singapore and the new city of Modi'in in Israel. Together, they demonstrate the depth of Safdie's work, and an architectural vocabulary full of light and colour. In his essay 'The Language and Medium of Architecture' and in an interview with Wendy Kohn, Moshe Safdie discusses his architecture and influences. Each of the essays, by Michael Sorkin, Paul Goldberger, Witold Rybczynski and Peter G Rowe, covers a different facet of Safdie's architectural Oeuvre.
About the Author
Moshe Safdie has run his own architecture practice since 1964, when he established an office in Montreal to design and supervise the construction of Habitat for the Canadian Expo '67. His main office is currently located in Boston, with branch offices in Jerusalem and Toronto. Safdie has taught at McGill, Yale and Ben Gurion Universities, and was Director of the Urban Design Programme and lan Woodner Professor of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He has written numerous articles and books, most notably Beyond Habitat, Form and Purpose, Jerusalem: The Future of the Past and The City After the Automobile. In addition to receiving many honorary degrees, he has been awarded the Order of Canada, the Governor General's Gold Medal and the 1995 Gold Medal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. In 1990, McGill University in Montreal established the Moshe Safdie Archive, a collection of drawings, models and sketchbooks from over 125 projects, which is open to the public. Wendy Kohn practises architecture and teaches on the East Coast and in California. She has contributed as editor and writer to many publications, edited Moore Ruble Yudell: Campus and Community, and collaborated with Moshe Safdie to write The City After the Automobile. Michael Sorkin is an architect practicing in New York City and author of numerous writings on architecture. He is also Director of the institut f?r St?dtebau Akademie der Bildenkunst, in Vienna. Witold Rybczynski, the Martin and Margy Meyerson Professor of Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania, is the author of the best-selling The Most Beautiful House in the World, Looking Around: A Journey Through Architecture, and most recently, City Life: Urban Expectations in a New World. Peter G Rowe is Dean of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University and Raymond Garbe Professor of Architecture and Urban Design. He has written numerous books, including Design Thinking, Making a Middle Landscape, and Modernity and Housing. Paul Goldberger, the Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic, is chief cultural correspondent for The New York Times.
