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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000000150254 | NA712 C75 1985 f | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
The Critical Edge identifies and presents case histories of the 12 most talked about buildings of our times. No other buildings of this era have so aroused the public, so divided the profession, and so stimulated the press as those that are discussed here. The authors have canvassed the widest possible range of literature and commentary on each building-from airline magazines to professional journals-to plot the vicissitudes of their subjects' critical fortunes and popular reputations.
All of the important architectural concerns of the 1970s and 1980s are expressed in this book. Discussions of issues range from the initial conception of a building to advanced phases of its use and include questions about planning theory, financing and construction, use, misuse, and disuse, wherever these have been raised.
Introductory essays are by Tod A. Marder, Chairman of the Department of Art History at Rutgers University, Robert Bruegmann, Professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and Martin Filler, architectural critic and editor of House and Garden. Marder discusses the relationship between architectural criticism and public opinion. Breugmann analyzes the nature of the controversies surrounding these buildings in light of controversies about earlier buildings, and Filler takes up architectural criticism in the context of the publishing industry by considering the relationships of writer, editors, publishers, advertisers, and readers to their various constituencies.
The Critical Edge is copublished with The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum of Rutgers University.
Reviews 1
Choice Review
This is a very fine and original book reviewing architectural criticism of important American buildings. It apparently arose out of a seminar given by Professor Marder (art history, Rutgers). The book is based on an exhibition of the same name in the Rutgers art museum, which will travel to four other museums in the US. There are three introductory essays by Marder, Robert Bruegmann (University of Illinois, Chicago), and Martin Filler (critic and editor, House and Garden). There are 12 ``topics,'' that is to say, contemporary buildings featured over which there have been controversies, and there are 155 illustrations plus a color plate of each building. There are about 12 pages devoted to each building, and 3 introductory essays cover architectural criticism, probably the only book so dedicated to the study of contemporary critique-and totally devoid of polemics. The documentation is excellent. The 12 buildings average 74 bibliographic notes; often the notes contain four or five references to newspapers, journals, and books. Recommended for upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and general readers.-G.R. Collins, Columbia University
