The Presence of Mies (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Even apart from its contents, consisting of a dozen fresh takes on Mies, man, myth, and maestro, this paperback is worth having. Thanks to its graphic designer Nigel Smith of Bruce Mau Design, it's an elegant composition of black, white, and shades of gray." -- Adele Freedman, Toronto Globe and Mail

Product Description

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, one of this century's most important and influential architects, has alternately been revered and reviled. The Presence of Mies is an interdisciplinary collection of essays that take a fresh look at the work of this controversial architect. By bringing together a group of authors from a variety of disciplines, unexpected perspectives have been brought to bear on Mies, opening up new ways of thinking about his work and new possibilities for extending its influence into contemporary architecture and cultural theory. The essays discuss Mies's buildings, writings, and teaching in relation to technology, image culture, philosophy, art, and education.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press (January 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568980132
• ISBN-13: 978-1568980133
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,152,943 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Re-Modernizing Mies, October 17, 2001

By	"ateliermp" (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This book is emblemmatic of the recent re-presentation of Mies. It is not the normative reading of his work and significance. Having fallen from grace in the 1980s, Mies was resurrected in the 90s by neo-modernist architects and architectural historians. The recent twin Mies exhibitions in New York (at MoMA and the Whitney) are byproducts of the rebirth of Mies. The essays of this book will make grand claims to position Mies van der Rohe as a misunderstood genius identified with a few seminal buildings and denigrated by association with all the pathetic copies of his work perpetrated around the world by drone architects of the International Style. Gratefully, the resurrection of Mies includes a cold, hard look at his notion of "site" and of "landscape" - however impoverished the sense of the latter might be in his usual glass-box-on-podium formula. The rationalist Mies was an invention of the purveyors of the International Style, Philip Johnson first among culprits, but also of Mies himself. His carefully crafted public persona buried many aspects of his personality and his work that are only now coming to light. It is only now that Mies is able to be seen as a putative poet of form with a troubled, albeit checkered history of surfing trends in the 1910s and 1920s (while in Berlin) till he found his place in formulating the architectural language and image of modern corporate America.

5.0 out of 5 stars Reliable information, very good service, June 21, 2009

By	Tania Calovi Pereira (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There was useful and reliable information on the book conditions and the delivery was fast.

2 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the best of the best, December 30, 1999

By	Dutré Mark (Brugge, Belgium) - See all my reviews

I really want to buy this book! So, it's very easy: it has to be available again at amazon.com