Architects on Architects

by Susan Gray

Book Overview

Architects on Architects Susan Gray Here's a profound, stirring study of how the world's greatest architects influenced the work of others and why--told in the architect's own dramatic and awe-filled words. The contributors discuss the career-inspiring achievements of their mentors, designers of some of the most famous structures on earth. They delve into their own design philosophy, and how the genius of others affected their careers, their goals,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 007137583X
• ISBN13: 9780071375832
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.6" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

New York Times / Martin Filler

"...much more edifying is Tadao Ando's epiphany on his first visit to Le Corbusier's Ronchamp chapel: 'Because of the overwhelming spatial experience, which penetrated deep into my soul, I had to escape after staying less than one hour. I was awe-struck by a light unprecedented in my life.'Best among the other appreciations are Carlos Jimenez on Luis Barragan; Ricardo Legorreta on another Mexican, the little-remembered Jose Villagran;and Hugh Hardy on William van Alen, architect of the Chrysler Building. As Hardy writes of that idiosyncratic aluminum-spired skyscraper,'This iconic office building goes for broke, flaunting the exterior skin's independence as a costume pageant of pattern, gleaming profiles and symbolic panache. It's a theatrical gesture that identifies this as a building like no other, and gives New Yorkers proof that they are extraordinary.'"

Architecture + Urbanism / Ken Tadashi Oshima

Introspecting InfluenceWho inspired the Whos Who of Architecture? "Architects on Architects" attempts to address this loaded question in a series of 24 essays by leading architects of the late twentieth century from around the world from Norman Foster to Carlos Jimenez to Tadao Ando. As the essays illustrate, influence is actually not simply a question of "who?" but rather comes from a number of different sources: a single building, an entire career of an architect,or sometimes just an attitude or way of looking. Many of these influential experiences happened during the architects formative years as students or interns and the impact of how these influences changed the direction of a life are revealed for the first time in these later career recollections. For Richard Rogers, his visit to the Maison de Verre as a student in 1955 would not only determine his thesis project, it would stay with him through the next half century as the symbol of "the power of innovation itself." For Tadao Ando, Le Corbusiers words in "Vers une Architecture" stressing that a journey in ones youth has a deep and strong significance throughout a lifetime inspired the young untrained aspiring architect to visit Le Corbusiers church at Ronchamp in 1965.As the essays attest, the importance of an architect can be measured not only by his or her designs, but also by the architects impact on other architects careers. Based on this criteria, Le Corbusier, Paul Rudolph,and Louis Kahn appear in these essays as some of the most influential architects. However, although five of the 24 essays are devoted to Le Corbusier, we see five very different aspects of the master architect: Ando describes impressions of Ronchamp, Michael Graves talks about Le Corbusiers method of drawing, William Lim discusses him in relation to Frank Gehry, Sumet Jumsai describes his personal meeting, and Arata Isozaki describes the context of his death. While Paul Rudolphs reputation suffered greatly during the Postmodern period, we see his lasting impact through his students who studied at Yale ranging from Norman Foster to current dean Robert A. M. Stern.One of the most interesting aspects of this collection is the great variety of topics that the architects chose to write about. Some easily understandable choices include Cesar Pelli writing about his mentor and former employer Eero Saarinen and high-rise building specialist William Pederson writing about Rockefeller Center. However, it might come as a surprise to see Diana Agrest writing about architect-turned-filmmaker Sergei M. Eisenstein or Richard Meier writing about Frank Lloyd Wright rather than Le Corbusier. For the most part, these short essays are poignantly written -- a refreshing change from the typical arrogance and incoherence of many architects writing about their own work. Nevertheless, the essays shed great insight into thearchitects inner thinking and also reveal architecture as a collective profession greater than the work of any

Design Architecture / Kristen Richards

The original essays are beautifully illustrated with photographs and sketches of both the architects' work and that of their subjects. The foreword by Paul Goldberger is candid and refreshing. While some may argue inclusions/omissions of authors/subjects (as there would be with any book of this dimension), there is no denying that writer/photographer Susan Gray ("Writers on Directors") has assembled an astonishing array of contemporary architectural voices who, for the most part, avoid the yawn factor of chest-pounding arche-babble and speak from the heart. I, for one, am not putting my review copy in the 'recycle for Christmas gifts' box.

New York Times Book Review / Martin Filler

Practitioners of a wildly competitive art form, architects are always looking over their shoulders, not just at contemporaries with whom they must compete for jobs but also at the great predecessors against whom they'll be measured by history. The master builders that 24 present-day architects chose to write about for this revealing if somewhat repetitive collection tell as much about the authors as their subjects. Predictably, many of the participants (all men, with the exception of Diana Agrest) gravitated toward the big boys of modernism, and three architects are the focus of almost half the essays, with five on Le Corbusier, four on Paul Rudolph and two on Louis I. Kahn. Sometimes those pairings can seem willfully contradictory. It would have been far more interesting to find out what Richard Meier thinks about Le Corbusier,who has had such an overwhelming influence on his own aesthetic,than for him to draw tenuous analogies between his work and the diametrically different architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. Likewise, there is more than a bit of irony in Michael Graves's praise for Le Corbusier, whom he routinely belittled in lectures earlier in his career. Much more edifying is Tadao Ando's epiphany on his first visit to Le Corbusier's Ronchamp chapel:''Because of the overwhelming spatial experience, which penetrated deep into my soul, I had to escape after staying less than one hour. I was awe-struck by a light unprecedented in my life.'' Best among the other appreciations are Carlos Jimenez on Luis Barragan; Ricardo Legorreta on another Mexican, the little-remembered Jose Villagran;and Hugh Hardy on William van Alen, architect of the Chrysler Building. As Hardy writes of that idiosyncratic aluminum-spired skyscraper, ''This iconic office building goes for broke, flaunting the exterior skin's independence as a costume pageant of pattern, gleaming profiles and symbolic panache. It's a theatrical gesture that identifies this as a building like no other, and gives New Yorkers proof that they are extraordinary.''

Check out this book!

I'm getting ready to go on vacation in the South of France where some of Le Corbusier's work is located and purchased this book in an attempt to learn more about Le Corbusier. First of all, this book is filled with stunning 4-color photographs and illustrations and the text is well written. I highly recommend it for anyone who has a passion for architecture.