Reveal: Studio Gang Architects [Paperback]

Jeanne Gang (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 23, 2011

Chicago is famous for its role in fostering modern architecture. Now Jeanne Gang, founder of Studio Gang Architects, is giving the epithet "Chicago School" a new meaning. Her recently completed 82-story Aqua residential tower is already an icon of the Chicago skyline and has been universally hailed as a masterwork for the young firm. Reveal presents an in-depth look at the firm's unique work and working process through drawings, diagrams, sketches, and photographs that illuminate the evolution of each of the book's eight featured projects, both public and private, and ranging in size from exhibition to high-rise.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"What happens when a brilliant architect decides to construct a book rather than a building? You get Reveal , an idiosyncratic collection of dazzling images and insightful text that shows the hidden influence behind each of her firms projects." -- Chicago magazine

"A mix of individual projects, models, and points of inspiration and offers a peek inside the process of a very exciting group of architects indeed." --DWELL

"Anything but formulaic... thoroughly compiled, intelligently written, and beautifully presented; I'm hoping Book Two isn't too far off." --Archidose.org

"Beautifully produced and designed... a sneak-peek into the mind of Gang and her team. " --Print

"This year, Chicago's Jeanne Gang was the first architect since 1999 to win a $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship. Her firm's bracing monograph shows why: Standard building presentations are layered with unexpected narrative threads and format twists, such as a fold-out history of a glacial boulder that was jack-hammered to make way for Gang's Aqua, 82 stories of undulating concrete near Lake Michigan." -- San Francisco Chronicle

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press (March 23, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568989938
• ISBN-13: 978-1568989938
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 0.9 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #402,966 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Architect and MacArthur Fellow Jeanne Gang leads Studio Gang Architects, a Chicago-based collective of architects, designers, and thinkers. Spanning a wide variety of building types and sizes, her works are connected by their engagement with pressing contemporary issues and are informed by cross-field investigations in materials, technology, and the natural and social sciences.

Reveal, her first volume on Studio Gang's work, gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at her studio and the creative process that shapes her architecture. Reverse Effect, her second book, is an advocacy piece exploring possibilities for the Chicago River's transformation. Building: Inside Studio Gang Architects, developed in conjunction with her firm's 2012-13 solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, takes a look at a dozen of her firm's most recent projects and the ideas that connect them.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A monograph anything but formulaic April 27, 2011

By John Hill

Format:Paperback

This monograph on Chicago's Studio Gang Architects sets itself apart from traditional architecture monographs in a number of ways: It does not present all of the firm's built work to date, or present all of its projects spanning a particular time frame; it does not document projects with only photos and floor plans; it does not limit the text to project descriptions and the requisite introductory essay -- an introductory essay isn't even to be found. So what does it do? As the title implies, it REVEALS the imagination and working process of Jeanne Gang and team through an archival presentation (including research, sketches, notes, references, and much more) of key projects, six to be precise. It is no surprise that the right-page footer says, "Book One: Reveal," as the missing projects will surely find their way into future monographs.

The book further incorporates numerous outside voices: interviews, contributions from consultants, essays from academics, and so forth. A series of fold out histories accompanying the six projects illustrate how inspiration can reach back centuries or further, hopping over subsequent developments. For example the jigsaw puzzle stone pieces of the Marble Curtain installation -- stone tiles draped from a ceiling at the National Building Museum -- hark back to the interlocking granite base of the 18th century Smeaton's Tower, which is described in one such fold out. But what I appreciate about this and other insertions, something that applies to much of the rest of the book, is that the relationship between it and the Studio Gang installation is not explicit; it might be obvious but it is left to the reader to discover. The rest of the book likewise reveals the projects so that the reader gradually understands the intertwining issues, inspirations, and ideas, with each project presented in a different way. This monograph is anything but formulaic; it is thoroughly compiled, intelligently written, and beautifully presented. Highly recommended.