Vincent Scully - Böcker

As the definitive study of the complex inspirations and cultural influences that were fused in the Shingle Style of wooden suburban and resort buildings of the period 1872 to 1889, Mr. Scully’s book has received much critical acclaim.  He presents the published designs and the written statements of the architects, as well as contemporary criticisms of the buildings to analyze the development of the Shingle Style from Richardson’s early work to Wright’s first house in Oak Park.  An analysis of the Colonial Revival is central to the work, which is now enhanced by the addition of an extensive related chapter on the “Stick Style” of the mid-century.  A new preface has been added and the bibliography and footnotes are brought up to date.  “The last section of the book, on the origins and early development of Frank Lloyd Wright, is one of Scully’s best.  This chapter…shows a mature understanding and a just handling of the academic tradition and of the early work of one of America’s greatest architects.”—The Art Bulletin“Scully’s research is exhaustive, his scholarship impeccable.  His illustrations alone form a gold mine of information on the period.”—Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians

Vincent Scully has shaped not only how we view the evolution of architecture in the twentieth century but also the course of that evolution itself. Combining the modes of historian and critic in unique and compelling ways--with an audience that reaches from students and scholars to professional architects and ardent amateurs--Scully has profoundly influenced the way architecture is thought about and made. This extensively illustrated and elegantly designed volume distills Scully's incalculable contribution. Neil Levine, a former student of Scully's, selects twenty essays that reveal the breadth and depth of Scully's work from the 1950s through the 1990s. The pieces are included for their singular contribution to our understanding of modern architecture as well as their relative unavailability to current readers. Levine offers a perceptive overview of Scully's distinguished career and introduces each essay, skillfully setting the scholarly and cultural scene. The selections address almost all of modern architecture's major themes and together go a long way toward defining what constitutes the contemporary experience of architecture and urbanism.Each is characteristically Scully--provocative, yet precise in detail and observation, written with passionate clarity. They document Scully's seminal views on the relationship between the natural and the built environment and trace his progressively intense concern with the fabric of the street and of our communities. The essays also highlight Scully's engagement with the careers of so many of the twentieth century's most significant architects, from Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Kahn to Robert Venturi. In the tradition of great intellectual biographies, this finely made book chronicles our most influential architectural historian and critic. It is a gift to architecture and its history.

When The Earth, the Temple, and the Gods first appeared in 1962, it was hailed by the critics for it erudition, historical imagination and boldness. Subsequently, this comprehensive study of Greek temples and site-planning has been widely accepted as a landmark of architectural history, for it offers an inspired and arresting insight into nature and function of Greek sacred architecture. Vincent Scully, one of America's most brilliant and articulate scholars, understands the temples as physical embodiment of the gods in landscapes that had for the Greeks divine attributes and sacred connotations. He explores the meanings inherent in the calculated interaction between man-made sculptural forces and the natural landscape, and he relates this interaction to our understanding of Greek culture from the pre-Greek Aegean to the Hellenistic period. Years of research and travel were devoted to The Earth, the Temple, and the Gods. Scores of sites were restudied on the spot, including many lesser-known sanctuaries throughout the Hellenic world. The study includes reconstruction drawings, plans, and maps along with its richly illustrated, detailed discussions of major sites.