Pierluigi Serraino - Böcker

A captivating history of 20th-century Modern American architecture, as seen through the eyes of a legendary photographerIt is impossible to overstate the importance of photography's role in shaping the world's perception of architecture. And towering above the ever-growing crowd of image-makers is Ezra Stoller, an architectural photographer of immeasurable consequence in documenting the history of modern architecture – both known and unknown – in the United States and beyond. This book is one of the first to present the breadth of Stoller's largely unseen archive of images, brought to life through exquisite color and duotone black-and-white reproductions.

The treasures of mid-century American architecture have long been celebrated in photography, print, and even film. Less appreciated, though no less worthy of attention, has been the landscape architecture that frequently provides the framing for these masterworks. But much more than a frame, landscape architecture is an art in its own right worthy of the spotlight. The Modern Garden presents the very best of this remarkable period through the lens of its great photographers. Approximately seventy-five mostly residential projects, built during the Mid-Century Modern period across the United States and Canada, are thoroughly documented here and recounted with a consideration of structural integration joining building and site. Landscape architects whose work is featured include Thomas D. Church, Lawrence Halprin, Garrett Eckbo, Paul Laszlo, Robert Royston, Douglas Baylis, Theodore Osmundson, James Rose, Geraldine Knight Scott, among others. Highlights include the dramatic surrounds of Richard Neutra s Perkins House in its lush Pasadena hillside setting, which suggests nothing so much as a modernist Eden, and Frank Lloyd Wright s Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, where environment and building comingle in this extraordinary modernist vision of the future made real. This book is conceived to be both a wishful gesture toward a realignment of building with nature and a must-have title for anyone who has a visceral appreciation for a designed environment understood as an integrated whole. Ultimately, it is the book s aim to underline the fundamental importance of landscape design, intended in the widest possible sense, for the quality of living of all individuals.

John Marx's watercolours, first published in the Architectural Review, are a captivating example of an architect's way of thinking. Subtle and quiet they are nonetheless compelling works in how they tackle a sense of place, of inhabiting space and time all the while resonating with the core of one's inner being. There is an existential quality to these watercolours that is rare to be found in this medium. Something akin to the psychologically piercing observational quality of artists like De Chirico or Hopper.As architects strive to communicate their ideas, it is interesting to explore the world of Marx's watercolours as an example of a humane approach to conveying emotional meaning in relation to our environment. Marx's subject matter read like"built landscape" heightening the role of the manmade yet wholly in balance with the natural world. This is a message and sentiment that is perhaps more important than ever to relay to audiences.

With offices in San Francisco and Sacramento, Dreyfuss + Blackford Architecture has 48 employees and has been in continuous operation since 1950. The firm achieved international recognition early on with the design of several notable game-changing landmark structures, including the recently rehabilitated SMUD Headquarters Building in Sacramento, CA. This project recently received the California Preservation Foundation’s 2020 Preservation Design Award as well as the Trustee’s Award for Excellence. Now in their seventh decade, they continue to be one of the preeminent architectural firms in the region, providing architecture, planning, and interiors services to a broad spectrum of public and private sector clients.Their unwavering commitment to design excellence is reflected in the quality of their built work. They believe great planning is about more than how people use the spaces they create — it’s how they feel inside of them. Positive experience provides the space for engagement and positive communication — resulting in an opportunity for making change in the world through the sharing of knowledge and collective experience. When they combine this understanding with a consistent pattern of outstanding design and efficient construction, the structures can provide lasting aesthetic quality and durability for generations. The firm has been recognised for design at local, state, and national levels with more than 150 awards over its 71-year history.This book celebrates 70 years of outstanding design by Dreyfuss + Blackford Architecture. It starts with historical milestones, shows some examples of process and practice, and concludes with a few consequential recent projects.

The creator of the ubiquitous Knoll “Tulip” chairs and tables, Eero Saarinen (1910–1961) was one of the 20th century’s most prominent space shapers, merging dynamic forms with a modernist sensibility across architecture and design.Among Saarinen’s greatest accomplishments are Washington D.C.’s Dulles International Airport, the very sculptural and fluid TWA terminal at JFK Airport in New York, and the 630 ft. (192 m) high Gateway Arch of St. Louis, Missouri, each of them defining structures of postwar America. Catenary curves were present in many of his structural designs. During his long association with Knoll, Saarinen’s other famous furniture pieces included the “Grasshopper” lounge chair and the “Womb” settee. Married to Aline Bernstein Saarinen, a well-known critic of art and architecture, Saarinen also collaborated with Charles Eames, with whom he designed his first prize-winning chair.With rich illustration tracing his life and career, this introduction follows Saarinen from his studies across his training all the way to his most prestigious projects, and explores how each of his designs brought a new dimension to the modernist landscape.