Books + Writings

BOOKS and a selection of other WRITINGS by John Hill
Updated December 10, 2024

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Books:

(Links are to standalone pages on this blog with more information on each book and links to reviews, publishers, and booksellers; you can also find the books on my Amazon author page.)

• Buildings in Print: 100 Influential & Inspiring Illustrated Architecture Books (Prestel, 2021)
• Guide to Chicago's Twenty-First-Century Architecture (University of Illinois Press, 2021)
• NYC Walks: Guide to New Architecture (Prestel, 2019)
• How to Build a Skyscraper (Firefly Books, 2017)
• 100 Years, 100 Landscape Designs (Prestel, 2017)
• 100 Years, 100 Buildings (Prestel, 2016)
• Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture (W. W. Norton, 2011)

Articles in Print Publications (2006-present):

• "Criticism in Verse," on Michael Sorkin's review of The Charlottesville Tapes (OASE 118: Book Reviews – From Words to Buildings, 2024)
• "A Collection of Farmhouse Gables," on the Beachside House by Roger Ferris + Partners (cover story for Swisspearl Architecture Magazine #31, 2023)
• "SOS Brutalism — Save the Concrete Monsters!" (Yale Constructs, spring 2023)
• "Head Hi is a Brooklyn destination for design publications, beverages, and cultural programming" (The Architect's Newspaper, online February 13, 2023)
• "Building Tall — Or Not At All," the main editorial in "Supertall" issue (Area n.182, May/June 2022)
• "Teaching 21st Century Technology," on the Collin College Technical Campus by Perkins + Will (cover story for Swisspearl Architecture Magazine #30, 2022)
• "Microstories: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA" (Domus magazine, September 2021)
• "Signal of Change," on the DC International School by Perkins Eastman DC (cover story for Swisspearl Architecture Magazine #28, 2019)
• "Abstracted and Minimal," on the Red Barn by Roger Ferris + Partners (cover story for Swisspearl Architecture Magazine #27, 2018)
• Book Review of Young-Old: Urban Utopias of an Aging Society (The Architect's Newspaper, 2015)
• "The Case for Landmark 'Bundles'" (PDF link) (CLOG: Landmark, 2015)
• "The Architecture of the Austrian Cultural Forum New York" (in Our Haus: Austrian Cultural Forum New York, the First 10 Years, ACFNY/Verlag Anton Pustet, 2013)
• Le Whitney Museum of American Art: Upside Down! – French translation of my English text (7h09 carnet d'ailleurs, 2013)
• "Photoshop Therapy" (PDF link) (CLOG: Rendering, 2012)
• Book Review of DASH: Delft Architectural Studies on Housing (The Architect's Newspaper, 2011)
• Book Review of New York Dozen: Gen X Architects by Michael J. Crosbie (Yale Constructs, Fall 2011)
• The New Age Steel (Design Today, 2011)
• API-AR 2050 (eVolo, 2010)
• Book Review of Twenty Minutes in Manhattan (The Architect's Newspaper, 2010)
• Plaza Redo, Again (The Architect's Newspaper, 2010)
• Book Review of Urban Design for an Urban Century (The Architect's Newspaper, 2009)
• Book Review of Engineered Transparency (The Architect's Newspaper, 2009)
• Of Ducks and Sheds (Architect Magazine, 2009)
• Book Review of Two NYC Guides (The Architect's Newspaper, 2009)
• Book Review of Designs on the Public (The Architect's Newspaper, 2009)
• Book Review of World's Greatest Architect (The Architect's Newspaper, 2009)
• Soldier Field Loses Landmark Status (Architecture Magazine, 2006)
• The Miniaturization of the Megalopolis (TENbyTEN, 2005)
• A Reality Dose on the Prairie (TENbyTEN, 2005)
• Recycling, Renewal, and Radicchio (TENbyTEN, 2004)

Book reviews and other book-related pieces at World-Architects.com (2012-present):

• Other Ways of Making Books (November 2024)
• 12 Summer Reads (July 2024)
• Four Firsts from Four Firms (Roundup of four monographs, June 2024)
• Browsing the Black Notebooks (Inside Lebbeus Woods: Exquisite Experiments, Early Years; May 2024)
• Six Decades of Antoine Predock's Architecture (Article on Ride monograph, April 2024)
• A Housing Roundup (Article highlighting four recently published books on housing, April 2024)
• (Re)Discovering Portaluppi (Article spurred by my discovery of two books by Milanese architect Piero Portaluppi [1888–1967] in a used bookstore's dollar bin, April 2024)
• More Than Curtains (Review of Art Applied by Inside Outside / Petra Blaisse, March 2024)
• Brooklyn Bridge Park in Photos (Feature on new book by Michael Van Valkenburgh, February 2024)
• The Anatomy of Humanise (on Thomas Heatherwick's Humanise: A Maker's Guide to Building our World, November 2023)
• Exploring the 'As Found' (on As Found: Experiments in Preservation, October 2023)
• Architects, Self-Publishing (on recently self-published books by BNIM and KPF, May 2023)
• Modeling Morphosis (on M³: modeled works [archive] 1972-2022) (April 2023)
• A Book of Lists (Review of Reinier de Graaf's architect, verb, March 2023)
• Total Works of Art (Review of Juha Leiviskä 2000–2022, February 2023)
• Black and White and Mies All Over (Review of Mies van der Rohe: The Collective Housing Collection, January 2023)
• From Switzerland to Wisconsin: The Curious Case of New Glarus (Article on Swissness Applied, November 2022)
• From Clouds to Skyscrapers (Article on Out of the Clouds. Wolf dPrix: Sketches 1967 – 2020, September 2022)
• OMA in 1989: Review of Project Without Form (A book by Holger Schurk, August 2022)
• 15 Summer Reads (July 2022)
• BIG's Pragmatic Utopias in Detail (Review of BIG monograph, June 2022)
• Strange Objects, New Solids and Massive Things (Review of monograph on Archi-Tectonics, May 2022)
• Two Decades of the Open Call (Article on Celebrating Public Architecture: Buildings from the Open Call in Flanders 2000–21, March 2022)
• A Decade of Interventions and Adaptive Reuse (Review of book with essays from IntAR Journal, January 2022)
• Summer Reads (July 2021)
• Sergei Tchoban, 'Striving to create a more livable, lovable environment' (April 2021)
• A Monumental Undertaking (Review of Atlas of Digital Architecture, February 2021)
• And Formgiving Makes Three (Review of BIG monograph, January 2021)
• Tome Times Two (Review of Sir Banister Fletcher's Global History of Architecture, January 2020)

Exhibition reviews published on World-Architects.com (2012-present):

• gmp in the Age of Conversion (Review of UMBAU. Nonstop Transformation at the Goethe-Institut New York, October 2024)
• Exploring the East Village via the Swiss Institute (Review of Energies at the Swiss Institute, September 2024)
• A Grid of Light, Concrete, and ‘Bass’ (Review of Steve McQueen installation at Dia Beacon, May 2024)
• Dreams of Cities in Wood (Review of Tall Timber: The Future of Cities in Wood at The Skyscraper Museum, March 2024)
• Inside the Artist's Studio (on An Atlas of Es Devlin at the Cooper Hewitt, November 2023
• The Portuguese Seven (on Generation Proxima: Emerging Environmental Practices in Portuguese Architecture at the Center for Architecture, October 2023)
• The Book in the Age of Rem Koolhaas (Or Is It the Age of Irma Boom?) (Review of The Book in the Age of ... at Harvard GSD, September 2023)
• 5 Lessons from Lesley Lokko's The Laboratory of the Future (from the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, May 2023)
• 6 Other National Pavilions (from the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, May 2023)
• Mass Support: Flexibility and Resident Agency in Housing (April 2023)
• Modeling New Publics (February 2023)
• The Bechers at The Met (July 2022)
• Models of Independence (February 2022)
• The Tools of Reconstructions (March 2021)
• Countryside by the Numbers (November 2020)
• Eileen Gray at Bard Graduate Center (October 2020)
• The Disquieted Muses – A Remote Review (September 2020)
• How Robots Build a House (September 2019)
• Rome, the Teacher, and 'T' Space (July 2019)
• Housing, Density, and Design (June 2019)
• Perceiving Robert Irwin (September 2018)
• The Aesthetics of a Concrete Utopia (September 2018)
• Best of the (Biennale) National Pavilions (June 2018)
• Wither Architectural Representation? (May 2018)
• Image Building at Parrish Art Museum (March 2018)
• A Past That Never Was; a Future That Never Came to Be (January 2018)
• Making New History in Chicago (September 2017)
• Review: MoMA's Frank Lloyd Wright at 150 (June 2017)
• Caracas's 'Living Ruin' (May 2017)
• Learning from Noguchi's Lead (February 2017)
• Diller Scofidio + Renfro Takes on Pierre Chareau (November 2016)
• Reporting on Reporting from the Front (May 2016)
• Exhibition Review of Roberto Burle Marx: Brazilian Modernist (May 2016)
• Exhibition Review: A Japanese Constellation (March 2016)
• Highlights from Global Citizen (January 2016)
• The State of the Art of Architecture at the Chicago Architecture Biennial (October 2015)
• Thomas Heatherwick's Provocations (July 2015)
• Exhibition Review: HOT TO COLD (February 2015)
• 2014 Venice Biennale: Elements of Architecture, Monditalia, Absorbing Modernity 1914-2014, Collateral Events (June 2014)
• The Landscapes of Le Corbusier (June 2013)
• Biennale Architettura 2012: Part 1, Part 2, Extra (August 2012)

"Studio Visits" on World-Architects.com (2012-present):

• Dattner Architects (New York, October 2022)
• Flores & Prats (Barcelona, July 2022)
• Alloy (Brooklyn, November 2019)
• Schiller Projects (NYC, September 2019)
• Mecanoo (Delft, March 2019)
• Gensler (NYC, January 2017)
• OMA NY (NYC, July 2016)
• Ross Barney Architects (Chicago, May 2015)
• ikon.5 architects (Princeton, March 2015)
• James Corner Field Operations (NYC, November 2014)
• Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (Chicago, October 2014)
• Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (NYC, January 2014)
• WOHA (Singapore, October 2013)
• BIG NYC (NYC, March 2013)
• OMA NY (NYC, February 2013)
• Studio Gang Architects (Chicago, January 2013)
• WEISS/MANFREDI (NYC, July 2012)
• Cannon Design (St. Louis, May 2012)

Interviews and Short Q&As on World-Architects.com (2012-present):

• Redefining Boundaries with Carlo Ratti (Interview about Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective., July 2024)
• Serendipitous in Santa Barbara (Interview with Stephen Van Dyck, partner at LMN Architects, May 2024)
• Building Bridges with Chris Luebkeman (Interview with head of Strategic Foresight Hub in the Office of the President at ETH Zurich, April 2024)
• Building a Better World, from the Inside Out (Interview with Shashi Caan, CEO of IFI, January 2024)
• Amazonia in Venezia (Interview with inaugural divia award winner Marta Maccaglia, July 2023)
• 'Architecture Is a Discussion That Goes on Across Centuries' (Interview with David Hotson, February 2023)
• 'Architecture is a process of translation' (Interview with Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects, May 2022)
• 'The world is changing; we have to update' (Interview with Mecanoo's Francine Houben, February 2022)
• Lou, Then and Now (Interview with Richard Saul Wurman, March 2021)
• In Conversation with Iwan Baan (Interviewed via Zoom as part of the second Architecture & the Media conference, June 2020)
• Designing Well-Being at Osar Architects (Interview with architect Enrique Aucha Gómez, May 2020)
• The Architectural Ethics of TAMassociati (Interview with Simone Sfriso and Raul Pantaleo, April 2020)
• Appraising Starchitecture (Interviews with authors Leslie Sklair and Davide Ponzini, May 2017)
• An Inside View of Hotels (Interview with IDA14's Karsten Schmidt, October 2016)
• Outside Your Comfort Zone: Eva Franch i Gilabert at the Summit (Interview with director of Storefront for Art and Architecture at Vectorworks Design Summit, May 2016)
• Architecture as a Subject for Art (Short Q&As with artists, August 2015)
• A Short Survey of Women in Architecture (Short Q&As with women architects, April 2015)
• On Architectural Models (Short Q&As with architects, November 2014)
• On Architecture in Brazil (Interview with authors of Architectural Guide Brazil, May 2014)
• Lettering Large (Interview with Steven Heller and Mirko Ilić, February 2014)
• Making Architecture Public (Short Q&As with curators, September 2013)
• A Short Survey of Architectural Publishing (Short Q&As with publishers, May 2013)
• Talking WAF (Interview with Paul Finch, April 2013)
• Viewpoints (Short Q&As with photographers, March 2013)
• Storefronts for Architects (Short Q&As with architects, September 2012)
• Curating Contemporary Architecture with Pedro Gadanho (Interview with the MoMA curator, July 2012)
• Transforming the Architecture Studio with C-BIP (Interview with Scott Marble, June 2012)
• Austrian Cultural Forum at 10 (Interview with ACFNY director Andreas Stadler, April 2012)

Other "Insights" and related long features at World-Architects.com (2012-present):

• Building with Megalon (Review of Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis, September 2024)
• A House with a Point of View (Review of Point of Origin: Building a House in Austria, film on house designed by Rem Koolhaas, January 2024)
• Watching Skin of Glass (Film review, November 2023)
• REX's PAC NYC Opens at WTC (Review of REX's Perelman Performing Arts Center, September 2023)
• Touring Brooklyn Tower (Piece on SHoP Architects' Brooklyn Tower, September 2023)
• Streaming Shelter (Review of Shelter streaming platform for architecture films, April 2023)
• My (Radical) Architect (Review of Elettra Fiumi's Radical Landscapes, November 2022)
• 'But It's a Nice Bubble' (Review of The Bubble, documentary film, June 2022)
• From Pier to Island (on Thomas Heatherwick's Little Island) (May 2021)
• The ‘BIMness’ of Vectorworks 2021 (June 2020)
• Architecture & the Media 2020 Recap (June 2020)
• The World Around NYC (January 2020)
• Manual, Digital, or Both? (June 2019)
• Material Matters (April 2019)
• Smart, Sustainable Vectorworks (March 2019)
• 'In Our Time' at The Met (and a detour to Engadin) (February 2019)
• Building Efficiency at Flansburgh Architects (January 2019)
• WAF in Amsterdam (December 2018)
• Learning at the Summit (November 2018)
• A Visit to Glenstone (September 2018)
• Five Facts from Five Seasons (July 2018)
• Parsing The Proposal (May 2018)
• 3 Masterpieces by Balkrishna Doshi (March 2018)
• 18 for '18 (January 2018)
• Winning at WAF (November 2017)
• Designing with Marionette (November 2017)
• How Allied Works Works (October 2017)
• Peter Zumthor, Beneath the Surface (February 2017)
• WTC at 15 (September 2016)
• Alejandro Aravena and the Future of the Pritzker Prize (January 2016)
• The Architecture of Libraries, Presidential and Otherwise (August 2015)
• The State of the Art in (Chicago) Architecture (April 2015)
• Building Supertall (March 2015)
• Learning from Houston's Shotgun Houses (February 2015)
• China's "Un-Weird" Architecture (October 2014)
• Surveying Today's Tech Landscape (September 2014)
• Zoos in the 21st Century (August 2014)
• Architecture Students Designing AND Building (April 2014)
• The Materials of Shigeru Ban (March 2014)
• Tech Campuses - A Side-by-Side Comparison (September 2013)
• Spaces for Learning (August 2013)
• Architects House Themselves (April 2013)
• BIM in 10 Lessons (February 2013)
• Deconstructivist Architecture, 25 Years Later (January 2013)
• The Glass House (October 2012)

Selected articles at Houzz (2011-2013):

• Louis Kahn's Modern Residential Masterpieces Get Coverage at Last (October 2013)
• Tour a Pioneering Beach Town That Fosters Community (October 2013)
• Dutch Architects Balance the Familiar and the Avant-Garde (September 2013)
• Must-Know Modern Homes: Mies van der Rohe's Villa Tugendhat (September 2013)
• 4 Zurich Projects Build on High-Rise Livability (August 2013)
• Championing the Solar House, From the 1930s to Today (August 2013)
• The Classic Gable Takes a New Turn (August 2013)
• Life Without Air Conditioning? These Passively Cooled Homes Say Yes (June 2013)
• Design Icons: Rudolph M. Schindler, Evolving Architect-Artist (June 2013)
• Design Icons: Le Corbusier, Pioneer of Modern Architecture (June 2013)
• Design Icons: Julia Morgan (June 2013)
• 'Houses of Maine' Puts Modernism in Its Place — in Nature (May 2013)
• Must-Know Modern Homes: Edith Farnsworth House (April 2013)
• Must-Know Modern Homes: The Glass House (March 2013)
• Must-Know Modern Homes: Eames House (March 2013)
• Must-Know Modern Homes: Villa Mairea (March 2013)
• Must-Know Modern Homes: Gropius House (February 2013)
• Must-Know Modern Home: Villa Savoye (February 2013)
• Must-Know Modern Homes: The Lovell Beach House (January 2013)
• Must-Know Modern Homes: The Rietveld Schröder House (January 2013)
• Must-Know Modern Homes: The Robie House (December 2012)
• 8 Modern Hamptons Homes Buck Convention (December 2012)
• Book to Know: 'Long Island Modernism 1930-1980' (November 2012)
• Tracing the Deep Roots of Design (August 2012)
• 'Houses + Origins' Reveals an Architect's Process (July 2012)
• Regional Modern: L.A. Coast Homes Soak in the View (November 2011)
• Regional Modern: Stunning Innovations in Los Angeles (October 2011)
• Regional Modern: San Francisco Opens to the View (October 2011)
• Regional Modern: Northern California Architecture (October 2011)
• Regional Modern: Oregon Homes Respond to the Landscape (October 2011)
• Regional Modern Architecture: Seattle Splendor (October 2011)
• Regional Modern: Vibrant Layers of Old and New in NYC (October 2011)
• Regional Modern: Chicago's Take on Contemporary Design (October 2011)
• Regional Modern: Boston (September 2011)
• Regional Modern: Austin, Texas (September 2011)
• Modern or Contemporary: What's the Difference? (May 2011)

Book Reviews at Designers & Books (2011-2013):

• Notable Books of 2011 (9 reviews)
• Notable Books of 2012 (10 reviews)
• Notable Books of 2013 (17 reviews)

Articles in Online Publications (2004-2007, while I was practicing as an architect):

• East River Transformation (The World Edition, 2007)
• A Horned Moses No More? (NYFA Current, 2007)
• To Remember or to Forget? (NYFA Current, 2006)
• Kowloon Walled City (twenty4, 2006)
• Architecture and Blogging (AIA AssociateNews, 2005)
• Changing Place/Changing Times (Invisible Insurrection, 2004)

Academic Papers (Kansas State University, 1991-1996; City College of New York, 2006-2007):

• Jacob Javits Plaza: Reconsidering Intentions (CCNY, 2007)
• Driving is Murder (CCNY, 2006)
• Bernard Tschumi's Parc de la Villette (KSU, 1996)
• Oz Volume 18, What Will This Building Become? (As co-editor, KSU, 1996)