Customer Reviews

Structures of Our Time: 31 Buildings That Changed Modern Life

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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."

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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.

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.