The TWA Terminal: The Building Block Series [Hardcover]

Ezra Stoller (Author, Photographer)

Book Description

Series: Building Block Series | Publication Date: July 1, 1999

The Building Blocks series presents icons of modern architecture as interpreted by the most significant architectural photographers of our time. The first four volumes feature the work of Ezra Stoller, whose photography has defined the way postwar architecture has been viewed by architects, historians, and the public at large. The buildings inaugurating this series-Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal, Wallace Harrison's United Nations complex, Le Corbusier's Chapel at Ronchamp, and Paul Rudolph's Yale Art and Architecture Building-all have bold sculptural presences ideally suited to Stoller's unique vision. Each cloth-bound book in the series contains at least 80 pages of rich duotone images. Taken just after the completion of each project, these photographs provide a unique historical record of the buildings in use, documenting the people, fashions, and furnishings of the period. Through Stoller's photographs, we see these buildings the way the architects wanted us to know them. In the preface to each volume Stoller tells of his personal relationship with the architect of each project and recounts his experience photographing it. Brief introductions reveal the unique history of each building; also included are newly drawn plans.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal is another of his inspired essays in sweepingly curved building forms, this time celebrating flight. Paradoxically, while the terminal's layout and equipment were technically advanced and carefully thought-out, its form was arbitrarily sculptural rather than structurally rational. The explosive growth of passenger traffic overloaded the capacity of a building whose form defied expansion. Today, the TWA Terminal can be seen as a monument to a simpler, more intimate, and more gracious era of commercial flight. The terminal is just one of the modernist icons that preeminent architectural photographer Ezra Stoller documented in a career that spanned more than half a century. Now retired, Stoller has been reassembling his work for permanent (rather than periodical) publication. The TWA Terminal is one of a series published by Princeton Architectural Press that presents individual buildings in depth in a small-size volume. The photographs are not only stunning, they have particular documentary value in that Stoller shot them when the buildings were new--in this case, 37 years ago.

The series has been designed for relative affordability, and its subjects are well chosen. Each volume includes a very brief preface by Stoller setting out his relationship to the building and a fairly short critical, historical, analytical essay. Buttressed by about a dozen endnotes, the essays occupy a middle ground between informal and scholarly writing. They are followed by 50 to 60 duotone photos and a few plan drawings. This is an expert look at an extraordinary building and well worth readers' serious attention. --John Pastier

Review

"Ezra Stoller is the Annie Leibovitz of modern architecture." House & Garden

Mr. Stoller, who is considered the century's greatest architectural photographer, has long been admired for his ability to subtly highlight an architect's intentions. Here he accentuates the soaring, swooping geometries of the dramatically sculptural building, enhancing its intended evocations of birds, planes and flight.
The images also remind us that although it became a landmark in 1994, time and New Yorkers have not been kind to Saarinen's masterpiece. New York Times

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press; 1 edition (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568981821
• ISBN-13: 978-1568981826
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,857,288 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars fantastic but small, March 27, 2000

By 

andy (jersey city) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The TWA Terminal: The Building Block Series (Hardcover)

i just bought this book and essentially it's great, and i recommend it. if you are familiar with the TWA terminal at JFK airport you'll be shocked at the loss of grandeur time has inflicted upon the interior. the pictures will show you the full beauty of the architecture which has been diluted over the decades by disrepair, clutter, and restructuring. in any case, the photos themselves are a stunning compliment to the marvelous, chic design on display. The images echo the sleek modernist space station in "2001", but with an exacting, crisp interlocking of elements. which brings me to the drawback--the photos are too small by far, and often spread over the center crease--and this is not a book that folds flat open easily. i'm sure there are other books with these pictures, but i don't know what they are. if you research it, bear in mind that this book does contain a preface and article that are quite illuminating, and the compact nature of the book does make it kind of darling.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good quality and price, good value, November 21, 2002

By 

Taylor Haywood (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The TWA Terminal: The Building Block Series (Hardcover)

It's an extraordinary building, and the photography is of a quality worthy of the architecture.
If I could change this book, I would make it larger. Its small page size means you have to look closely to see the images well. I would rather it be big enough to be a coffee table book, and would be willing to pay more. Otherwise, it's an excellent photo-documentary of a brilliant and facinating building. I keep it visable on my desk.