A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

On the Duty and Power of Architectural Criticism  edited by Wilfried Wang, published by Park Books and University of Texas at Austin, 2022 ( Amazon  /  Bookshop ) Who Is the City For?: Architecture, Equity, and the Public Realm in Chicago  by Blair Kamin with photographs by Lee Bey, published by University of Chicago Press , 2022 ( Amazon  /  Bookshop ) In her contribution to On the Duty and Power of Architectural Criticism , "Critical Influence: The Influence of the Popular Architecture Critic on Architectural Decision-making," Kristen Harrison starts with a quote by Michael Sorkin: "I don't mean to trivialize either the function or the concept of criticism but — just like architecture — it must also be judged by its effects." I'll address that statement over the course of this post, but first I wanted to point out its origin. Sorkin said those words at the Architectural Association in London in February 2014, on the first day of a two-day symposium,...

Chicago Apartments: A Century and Beyond of Lakefront Luxury Neil Harris, Teri J. Edelstein University of Chicago Press , July 2020 (Second Edition) Hardcover | 8-1/2 x 11 inches | 368 pages | 344 illustrations | English | ISBN: 978-0226610870 | $85.00 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : The Chicago lakefront is one of America’s urban wonders. The ribbon of high-rise luxury apartment buildings along the Lake Michigan shore has few, if any, rivals nationwide for sustained architectural significance. This historic confluence of site, money, style, and development lies at the heart of the updated edition of Neil Harris's Chicago Apartments: A Century and Beyond of Lakefront Luxury . The book features more than one hundred buildings, stretching from south to north and across more than a century, each with its own special combination of design choice, floor plans, and background story. Harris, with the assistance of Teri J. Edelstein, proves to be an affable and knowledgeable tour guide,...

Modern in the Middle: Chicago Houses 1929-1975 Susan S. Benjamin, Michelangelo Sabatino The Monacelli Press , September 2020 Hardcover | 8-1/2 x 11-1/2 inches | 296 pages | English | ISBN: 978-1580935265 | $60.00 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : Famed as the birthplace of that icon of twentieth-century architecture, the skyscraper, Chicago also cultivated a more humble but no less consequential form of modernism–the private residence. Modern in the Middle: Chicago Houses 1929-75 explores the substantial yet overlooked role that Chicago and its suburbs played in the development of the modern single-family house in the twentieth century. In a city often associated with the outsize reputations of Frank Lloyd Wright and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the examples discussed in this generously illustrated book expand and enrich the story of the region’s built environment. Authors Susan Benjamin and Michelangelo Sabatino survey dozens of influential houses by architects whose contributions are ...

The Architecture of Cinematic Spaces by Interiors Mehruss Jon Ahi, Arman Karaoghlanian Intellect, The University of Chicago Press , April 2020 Paperback | 9-1/2 x 9-1/2 inches | 95 pages | 10 illustrations | English | ISBN: 978-1789382051 | $26.50 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : The Architecture of Cinematic Spaces by Interiors is an academic, graphic exploration of architectural spaces in cinema that provides a new perspective on the relationship between architecture and film. Combining critical essays with original architectural floor plan drawings, coauthors Arman Karaoghlanian and Mehruss Jon Ahi discuss production design in key films from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Rope, Le mépris, Playtime, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Home Alone, Panic Room, A Single Man, Her, and Columbus. Each chapter is accompanied by an original floor plan of a key scene, bridging the gap between film criticism and architectural practice. Written by the edi...

Chicago by the Book: 101 Publications That Shaped the City and Its Image The Caxton Club (Editor) University of Chicago Press , November 2018 Hardcover | 8-1/2 x 9-1/2 inches | 336 pages | 101+ illustrations | English | ISBN: 978-0226468501 | $35.00 Publisher Description : Despite its rough-and-tumble image, Chicago has long been identified as a city where books take center stage. In fact, a volume by A. J. Liebling gave the Second City its nickname. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle arose from the midwestern capital’s most infamous industry. The great Chicago Fire led to the founding of the Chicago Public Library. The city has fostered writers such as Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, and Gwendolyn Brooks. Chicago’s literary magazines The Little Review and Poetry introduced the world to Eliot, Hemingway, Joyce, and Pound. The city’s robust commercial printing industry supported a flourishing culture of the book. With this beautifully produced collection, Chicago’s rich literary tradi...

Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt Hassan Fathy University of Chicago Press , 1973/2000 Hardcover (1973), Paperback (2000) | 5-1/2 x 9 inches | 366 pages | 132 illustrations | English | ISBN: 978-0226239163 | $38.00 Publisher Description : Architecture for the Poor describes Hassan Fathy’s plan for building the village of New Gourna, near Luxor, Egypt, without the use of more modern and expensive materials such as steel and concrete. Using mud bricks, the native technique that Fathy learned in Nubia, and such traditional Egyptian architectural designs as enclosed courtyards and vaulted roofing, Fathy worked with the villagers to tailor his designs to their needs. He taught them how to work with the bricks, supervised the erection of the buildings, and encouraged the revival of such ancient crafts as claustra (lattice designs in the mudwork) to adorn the buildings. dDAB Commentary : If the juries for the 2014 and 2016 Pritzker Architecture Prizes, whic...

Last Is More: Mies, IBM, and the Transformation of Chicago by Robert Sharoff, photographs by William Zbaren, published by  Images Publishing , 2014. Hardcover, 160 pages. ( Amazon ) Mies by Detlef Mertins, published by  Phaidon , 2014. Hardcover, 560 pages. ( Amazon ) Mies van der Rohe: A Critical Biography, New and Revised Edition by Franz Schulze and Edward Windhorst, published by  University of Chicago Press , 2013. Hardcover, 512 pages. ( Amazon ) Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) is one of the triumvirate of 20th century architects (the other being Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright) who continue to be the subject of books long after their passing. They are the most influential architects of the modern age, with each afforded the occasional reassessment due to exhibitions, preservation battles and other contemporary happenings (Le Corbusier's recent labeling as a " militant fascist " is an example on the negative spectrum of this). Even ...