Why Architecture Matters (Why X Matters Series) [Hardcover]

Mr. Paul Goldberger (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 030014430X | ISBN-13: 978-0300144307 | Publication Date: November 3, 2009 | Edition: First Edition (US) First Printing

Why Architecture Matters is not a work of architectural history or a guide to the styles or an architectural dictionary, though it contains elements of all three. The purpose of Why Architecture Matters is to “come to grips with how things feel to us when we stand before them, with how architecture affects us emotionally as well as intellectually”—with its impact on our lives. “Architecture begins to matter,” writes Paul Goldberger, “when it brings delight and sadness and perplexity and awe along with a roof over our heads.” He shows us how that works in examples ranging from a small Cape Cod cottage to the “vast, flowing” Prairie houses of Frank Lloyd Wright, from the Lincoln Memorial to the highly sculptural Guggenheim Bilbao and the Church of Sant’Ivo in Rome, where “simple geometries . . . create a work of architecture that embraces the deepest complexities of human imagination.”

Based on decades of looking at buildings and thinking about how we experience them, the distinguished critic raises our awareness of fundamental things like proportion, scale, space, texture, materials, shapes, light, and memory. Upon completing this remarkable architectural journey, readers will enjoy a wonderfully rewarding new way of seeing and experiencing every aspect of the built world.

(20100301)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With a broad topic and a deep reach, this collection of work from New Yorker architecture critic Goldberger reflects on the meanings and effects of architecture, both in the abstract and in everyday life. From specific places like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. ("may be one of the few great architectural works anywhere whose approach is marked only by directional signs, not by a glimpse of the thing itself") to discussion of individual architects (Saarinesen, Lloyd Wright, etc.), Goldberger is clear and direct throughout, occasionally addressing readers directly with questions and thought experiments ("For the next few pages ... think only in terms of what a building looks like when you stand before it") that help recreate the architectural thought process. Sometimes focused too narrowly on the author's own experience (breathlessly recounted memories of architectural epiphany can fall flat), Goldberger occasionally risks alienating readers who lack his enthusiasm. For students and fans of architecture, however, this makes an elegant but energetic tour of building design, aesthetics, construction and inspiration that should encourage new ways of viewing one's surroundings. 55 b & w illustrations.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“Paul Goldberger is America''s foremost interpreter of public architecture. . . "—Tracy Kidder

(Tracy Kidder 20091220)

"Why Architecture Matters reminds us that in a democratic capitalist society, the only sure guarantee that we will get good architecture is if we shake off our ignorance and start to take a personal interest in the design of our neighborhoods. Here is a succinct, lyrical and heartfelt book that celebrates the best works of architecture and points the way to being able to build more of it in the world today. There are so many guides to the world of art, so few to the world of architecture. This is among the very best."—Alain de Botton, author of The Architecture of Happiness

(Alain de Botton )

"A beautifully written and generous meditation on the art of building that every aspiring architect should read."--Witold Rybczynski, author of The Perfect House

(Witold Rybczynski )

“Placing on display the most public of all the arts can be astonishing. Paul Goldberger, collecting his thoughts on architecture over 40 years, does this. His book, Why Architecture Matters, could be said to be a portable architectural museum that, by turns, astonishes, intrigues, explains and entrances.”--Architecture Bulletin

(Architecture Bulletin )

“The strength of populist writing like Goldberger’s is that it is accessible and engaging.”--Penny Lewis, Blueprint Magazine

(Penny Lewis Blueprint Magazine )

“Best of all, Goldberger combines forensic analysis of the architectural art with a sense of wonder.”--Jonathan Wright, Scottish Sunday Herald

(Jonathan Wright Scottish Sunday Herald )

"This generously illustrated volume anchors its speculations in brief discussions of buildings that manage this hard-won equilibrium."—Brian Sholis, The Virginia Quarterly Review

(Brian Sholis The Virginia Quarterly Review )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; First Edition (US) First Printing edition (November 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 030014430X
• ISBN-13: 978-0300144307
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #360,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Paul Goldberger


Paul Goldberger is the Architecture Critic for The New Yorker, where since 1997 he has written the magazine's celebrated "Sky Line" column. He also holds the Joseph Urban Chair in Design and Architecture at The New School in New York City. He was formerly Dean of the Parsons school of design, a division of The New School. He began his career at The New York Times, where in 1984 his architecture criticism was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism, the highest award in journalism.

He is the author of several books, most recently "Why Architecture Matters," published by Yale University Press in 2009 and "Building Up and Tearing Down: Reflections on the Age of Architecture," published by Monacelli Press, also in 2009. In 2008 he published Beyond the Dunes: A Portrait of the Hamptons, which he produced in association with the photographer Jake Rajs. His chronicle of the process of rebuilding Ground Zero, entitled UP FROM ZERO: Politics, Architecture, and the Rebuilding of New York was published by Random House in the fall of 2004, and brought out in a new, updated paperback edition in 2005. UP FROM ZERO was named one of The New York Times Notable Books for 2004. Paul Goldberger has also written "The City Observed: New York," "The Skyscraper," "On the Rise: Architecture and Design in a Post-Modern Age," "Above New York," and "The World Trade Center Remembered."

He lectures widely around the country on the subject of architecture, design, historic preservation and cities, and he has taught at both the Yale School of Architecture and the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley in addition to The New School. His writing has received numerous awards in addition to the Pulitzer, including the President's Medal of the Municipal Art Society of New York, the medal of the American Institute of Architects and the Medal of Honor of the New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation, awarded in recognition of what the Foundation called "the nation's most balanced, penetrating and poetic analyses of architecture and design." In May 1996, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani presented him with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission's Preservation Achievement Award in recognition of the impact of his writing on historic preservation in New York. In 1993, he was named a Literary Lion, the New York Public Library's tribute to distinguished writers. In 2007, he was presented with the Ed Bacon Foundation's Award for Professional Excellence, named in honor of Philadelphia's legendary planner.

He has been awarded honorary doctoral degrees by Pratt Institute, the University of Miami, Kenyon College, the College of Creative Studies and the New York School of Interior Design for his work as a critic and cultural commentator on design. He appears frequently on film and television to discuss art, architecture, and cities, and is now at work on a program on the architect Benjamin Latrobe for PBS. He has also served as a special consultant and advisor on architecture and planning matters to several major cultural and educational institutions, including the Morgan Library in New York, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, the New York Public Library and Cornell and Harvard universities. He serves as special advisor to the jury for the Richard A. Driehaus Prize, a $200,000 prize awarded annually for traditional architecture and urbanism. He is a graduate of Yale University, and is a trustee of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio; the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, D.C.; the Forum for Urban Design, and the New York Stem Cell Foundation. He is married to Susan Solomon, and they are the parents of three sons: Adam, a composer for film and television in Los Angeles; Ben, journalist who is now the Chicago Editor of the Huffington Post, and Alex, recently graduated from Yale and now on the staff of the sports department at NBC. He resides in New York City and in East Hampton, New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly readable, January 3, 2010

By 

Phelps Gates (Chapel Hill, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Why Architecture Matters (Why X Matters Series) (Hardcover)

Opening a book on architecture tends to put me a bit on edge, since I've come to expect that the author, whoever he may be, is going to be highly opinionated and is going to make a lot of pronouncements that seem arbitrary and (worse) that differ from my own arbitrary opinions. This book was a pleasant surprise. Goldberger doesn't spend a lot of time pronouncing certain examples of architecture as appealing or appalling. Instead, he gives a good overview of what some of the issues are and how various architects handle them: "challenge" versus "comfort", for example, to take what's perhaps his best chapter. There are good black-and-white illustrations in the text, and my only quibble is that there could have been more of them provided (fortunately, it's not hard to find images on the internet). Highly readable and accessible.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars buy 1, get 1 free, January 16, 2010

By 

Joong Won Lee "Joongwon" (Cambridge, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Why Architecture Matters (Why X Matters Series) (Hardcover)

To our joy, 3 books are recently released by first-rate architectural critics.
One is the posthumous work of Herbert Muschamp and the rest two are works of
Paul Goldberger. Critic of New Yorker, his writings flow with delicious flavor.

Born in NJ, studied at Yale, and practiced in NY, Goldberger's writings grasp what is
best of Architecture with examples mostly from the US.
Books like this typically pays particular attention to examples of great
masters of Europe or cities like Paris, Rome, or London.
Goldberger's writings are valuable, at least to foreign audience,
because subject matter is mostly American.

The book is divided into thematic sections. Each section provides ample illustrations.
What makes the reading enjoyable is the fact that Goldberger's writing does not only stick
to examples of now, but rather, navigates also through past, kindly explaining to the
readers why certain building in the past is as much valuable as, if not more, excellent
buildings of now.

For example, he compares National Gallery West to East, outlining why John Pope's design
(though style-wise it was criticized severely by Modernists at the time of erection)
is better than IM Pei's. Claims like this could be mind-bothering, depending on which school
of thought an audience is in. As a museum, Paul thinks west wing was much more exhibition-friendly
than Pei's. He explains why good buildings outlive criticism of the day and outlast
regardless of their style application.

Explanation on Lincoln Memorial is another example. Stylistically speaking it's a Greek
building, but Goldberger's reading of it turns it not so pseudo historical replica.
He argues Henry Bacon was talented enough to make it a truly brilliant and
as much a modern building as any other Modern masterpiece.

Buildings of Gilded Age receive new edge, Architects 19 century gets
new spotlight, and the arc of styles (or life of a building) are re-viewed
with insight and sharpness. His writings on Yale campus and his child
neighborhood are touching. His clips from movies and novels add freshness.

Goldberger also tries to help the reader to see the building not as an individual object,
but to view it in the context of visible, and sometimes invisible, setting. He helps
us to see sometimes physical and cultural, and sometimes political and financial forces
that shaped the building. Yet the joy of his writing is that it is ultimately geared towards
experiential dimension of a space than theoretical.

The joy of experiencing real world, hence he argues, lies in the "serendipity"
and the "propinquity" of real stuff felt through real contact in cities and buildings.
Hence, even in the cyber space world with virtual realities, the importance of matter
and physical contact remains vital importance for people.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting on many levels, January 23, 2010

By 

Lee Barry (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Why Architecture Matters (Why X Matters Series) (Hardcover)

The book was very useful to me as an artist in terms of the power of context and the abstract meanings that can exist in art and music as well as architecture. Goldberg's writing is smooth as silk and very conversational.