From New York's Rockefeller Center to Philip Johnson's Glass House, from Louis Kahn's Salk Institute to Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum - these are the buildings that have defined American architecture and changed how we think about buildings and space. These 31 great works - all recipients of the AIA's 25-Year Award, granted to only those buildings that have stood the test of time - are not only exemplars of good design but also play significant roles in their communities. What would Fifth Avenue in New York be without Rockefeller Center? Who does not immediately think of the Gateway Arch as emblem of St. Louis? This book examines each of these buildings in depth - how its inhabitants feel about the interior space, how they function as public cultural artifacts, how their designers conceived of their projects and how they see them now, how it takes great clients to produce great architecture. What makes a great building, and why does its signifcance endure? Architecture at its best influences society, culture, and life, and it touches and changes everyone who confronts it. This book shows us how and why. we are considering a CD with supplementary texts and illustrations; this material may go on the website due to time constraints
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
Certain structures stand out in the American landscape--Rockefeller Center, Gateway Arch, and Dulles International Airport among them. Breathtakingly original, they capture our imaginations, and change the way we think and live. These buildings are among the recipients of the American Institute of Architects' 25-Year Award, granted annually to a structure whose impact has stood the test of a quarter century of time. Structures of Our Time celebrates these and all the great buildings awarded AIA's distinguished prize since 1969. Going beyond appreciation, this book is a search for meaning, exploring each building's conception, design process, and impact on community, users, architecture, and the culture itself. With participation from the architects, engineers, designers and the people who help make architecture happen, engaging new and classic photographs, fascinating images of the many sources world-wide that have made these structures possible, and commentary from critics, clients, and inhabitants, this beautifully realized book is a tribute to the pinnacle of American architecture, and a must-have for anyone interested in enduring design.
"Great buildings create ripples both in society and in the profession of architecture, and it is fitting that the winners of the AIA 25-Year Award are used to shed light on architecture's power to touch us all," Kevin Fry wrote of the museum exhibit he organized commemorating the 30th anniversary of the American Institute of Architects' 25-Year Award.
Structures of Our Time celebrates the power of architecture to touch us all with unprecedented in-depth portraits of the 31 winners of AIA's prestigious annual prize, which acknowledges a structure whose significance has stood the test of a quarter century of time.
From Fifth Avenue--shaping Rockefeller Center, the first AIA honoree in 1969, to Richard Meier's Darien, Connecticut, Smith House, created in 1965 to 1967 and winner of the year 2000 prize, this book investigates the structures that mark and define our era.
In the company of their architects and admirers, users and bystanders, clients and critics, Structures of Our Time probes innovations and influence. Each portrait of a prizewinner reveals new aspects of the meaning of structures -- from the feelings and perceptions of inhabitants to reverberations through community and culture, to architects' memories of projects' conceptions, to how the creators regard their works today.
In Structures of Our Time, you'll explore the ways architecture gives identity, shape, and pleasure to communities. You'll witness the birth of important new forms and innovations: the garden city; the corporate campus; environmental design; the glass box; the house redefined; the sublime intersection of beauty and technology.
Through this scrutiny, this book raises the central questions of architecture: What makes a building great? How do structures affect the lives around them? Beyond the physical, what in architecture endures?
Featuring work by immortals such as Frank Lloyd Wright; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Louis Kahn; Ludwig Mies van der Rohe; Eero Saarinen; and Charles and Ray Eames, Structures of Our Time takes you behind the drawing boards where historic breakthroughs first appeared. With each turn of the page, you enter more deeply into the minds of the greatest architectural thinkers of our time, exploring creations whose reach encompassed art and penetrated culture.
With beautiful graphic design, original drawings and renderings never before publicly available, and superb production values supervised by Architectural Record, this book on the most influential of buildings is certain to exert its own influence. To open this book is to make discovery after discovery. To own it is to have a lifetime of insight and inspiration always at hand.
About the Author
The American Architectural Foundation (Washington, D.C.), headquartered at the Octagon Museum adjacent to American Institute of Architects headquarters, is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to cultivating the public's understanding of architecture and human experience. It initiates education and outreach efforts to foster public participation in the design process, encourage public stewardship of America's architectural heritage, and promote alliances between architects and the communities in which they practice. Roger Shepherd (New York, NY) is a multifaceted artist and designer whose projects include low-income housing, book design, videos, murals, garden design, and web design. He holds the Henry & Louise Loeb Endowed Chair of Fine Arts at Parsons School of Design, where he teaches in the architecture department and directs the B.F.A. and M.F.A. programs in painting and sculpture. A long-time aficionado of Architectural Record, he writes the monthly "What in the World?" online feature for the magazine's website.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Plagiarism: copied other prof's work,
By Mel Overall "noonknight" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Structures of Our Time: 31 Buildings That Changed Modern Life (Hardcover)
[...]
This month, it was reported that a faculty member of the New School University's Parsons School of Design, Roger Shepherd, resigned after it emerged that he lifted passages from a book by a professor of architecture history at the University of Washington, Meredith Clausen, in Mr. Shepherd's 2002 book, "Structures of Our Time: 31 Buildings That Changed Modern Life." [...] Mr. Shepherd called the incident "a tragedy, probably the worst thing I've ever done." In a statement sent to members of the New School University's staff and faculty, Mr. Goldberger and Arjun Appadurai, the provost, said the resignation was a "sad occasion." They praised Mr. Shepherd's 30 years of work at Parsons, where he once served as chairman of the fine-arts department. The administrators said that the resignation was effective immediately and that they were working to find faculty members to cover Mr. Shepherd's classes for the fall.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Uneven survey of noted recent architecture,
By
This review is from: Structures of Our Time: 31 Buildings That Changed Modern Life (Hardcover)
Since 1969, the American Institute of Architects has given a 25-Year award to a building that is 25-35 years old, and is judged to have stood the test of time. This book contains the first 31 buildings to receive the award, and is a good survey on recent architecture.
The idea is very good, but the execution is a little uneven, especially in the photographs that are available. In some cases, this is no doubt due to technical difficulties, but I am disappointed, for example, that there are so few street level shots of skyscrapers. This is, after all, the most common view of the building. Many pages have sidebars, but I began to grow weary of the tiny print in some of the captions. I question some of the awards. The glass houses of the Eames, etc., may have gotten the award because they are so intriguing. They were intended, however, to point new directions in domestic architecture, and in this sense they seem to be failures. I would not want a glass house, even if I lived on a wooded, secluded lot, and only anticipated invited visitors dropping by. Living, as most people do, in a much more densely populated area, the buildings are as irrelevant as castles. Price Tower seems like a particularly inappropriate choice for good design. Although the exterior is very attractive, it is described as having "oddly undersized office spaces," deluxe apartments "hardly suited for family life," and "awkward configurations." Since these descriptions are from a friendly source, perhaps the opinions of those who dislike the building are best left to the imagination. It seems rather to detract from than to add to Wright's reputation. Still, an interesting survey of contemporary buildings, and a good starting point for study.
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