janfranek

There is a Half a Star plus/minus added to this review. Huxtable's reflections or published memories of change is certainly better than a two or just O.K., and also it is not a great addition to most collections. The reason for this is the huge amount of ground that is so eclectically reviewed over about a half century of writing, but trying to reflect on the whole of the world of architecture for a century with a handful of columns. Yes, a handful by comparison to the number Huxtable and others have written. The limitation to these wordy ad hominem commentaries is that they ignore, dismiss, or otherwise miss many important elements in the development of architecture in the Twentieth Century. The New York City centric writing even belies Huxtable own work, certain minimizes it, as exemplified by the role she played in the Pritzker Prize for Architecture. Areas of the world chosen for review are not always the most representative or even vital. Examining New Harmony, Indiana while ignoring Columbus, Indiana just down/up the road is a case of poor selection of columns. Whether you like California or structures built there, to say nothing of the west coast, this set of reviews all but ignores its existence. Other areas that are mostly ignored include Chicago, Houston, and the Pacific Northwest in general to say nothing of Toronto. Are there great building outside of a handful of Cities? Of course. But you wouldn't know the importance of several areas of the world from the set of writing. Focusing on what is in essence, office and institutional building, the collected writing in this book ignore some of the great public works structures such as dams, bridges, and most great city scapes. A few of the later, city scapes, mentioned are done so either as bad examples, total outrageous and now torn down or demolished works. Great works from the rubble of war is mostly ignored. As a matter of disclosure I have always disagreed with her views to some extent on the nature of the importance and essence of the Bauhaus movement. The arbitrary divisions of the 20th century periods of movements and styles in building is another are where the lines are not always drawn clearly or accurately. Again, these are columns that are being reprinted without editing from the contemporaneous source to be presented as a 'reflection'. The result is not always pretty or complimentary to Huxtable or the genre'. The nature of Huxtable's criticism was well known to me going into this book, but I was rather appalled at the selections that resorted to using attendance as an example for a meaningful negative criteria by which to evaluate an architectural work. Ada Louise Huxtable has written some wonderful prose in her career and in that this book does not disappoint. But she has written much better and said more that would have been far more advantageous and appreciated than many, but not all the selections in this collection. Architecture fans seeking a work that will illuminate about a wide range of modern works will be disappointed. Those seeking eclectic snippets and don't need a cohesive presentation will be more receptive to this work. I suggest reading this book at some point. To do so without preparation or background however will only engender a distorted view of the topic that will make a Gehry structure look normal.

2022-12-14 08:40