The United Nations (Building Block Series) [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Ezra Stoller (Author), E. Stoller (Photographer), J.C. Loeffler (Foreword), Jane C. Loeffler (Author)

Book Description

Series: Building Block Series | Publication Date: August 23, 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

The United Nations needs no introduction, but most people probably don't realize that the building itself is the product of a team of 11 design architects from as many countries (plus several other consultants from even more places), including French superstar Le Corbusier. It was as unprecedented an experiment in large-scale architectural modernism as it was in international governance. And although most readers know its exterior appearance, few are aware of its varied and often dramatic interior public spaces. The UN building 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 United Nations 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, 47 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

Each compact volume in this impeccably curated series is devoted to a single, seminal work by a modern master. -- House Beautiful, July 2000

Ezra Soller, perhaps the most famous photographer of Modern architecture, is know for his ability to capture not only the heroic qualities of buildings but their complex personalities as well. Many of his photographs have been gathered by Princeton Architectural Press in a new series of books called "Building Block," each one the cumulative portrait of a different structure, complete with a foreword from Stoller, who is now retired. The buildings, photographed by Stoller just after they were finished, have become most familiar to us through his early take on them. The central meeting room in Wallace Harrison's United Nations (1952) appears futuristically theatrical to our eyes, as it must have to Stoller's; a black-robed priest stands in contemplation among the textured gray curves and angular windows of Le Corbusier's Chapel at Ronchamp (1954); the sinuous landscape of Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal (1962) glows through a window into the night. Stoller collected defining moments in the lives of these buildings. Today, after many of his subjects have been debased by the surrounding clutter of parking lots and condominium towers, his photographs keep the initial promise of their hopeful, pristine Modernism alive. -- Metropolis

Handsome and well-priced; based on the brilliant photography of Ezra Stoller. -- Interior Design, June 2000

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press; 1 edition (August 23, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156898183X
• ISBN-13: 978-1568981833
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #781,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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