At the end of the century : one hundred years of architecture

This comprehensive and up-to-date survey presents a global perspective on 20th century architecture. The significant works, architects, ideas and directions of the era are discussed.

Author Notes

Elizabeth A. T. Smith, chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago since 1999, was formerly curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, where she organized exibitions including "Blueprints for Modern Living: History and legacy of the Case Study Houses," "Urban Revisions: Current Projects for the Public Realm," and "At the End of the Century: One Hundred Years of Architecture." She has also curated exhibitions on the work of artists including Cindy Sherman, Rebecca Horn, Lee Bontecou, Uta Barth, Toba Khedoori, and Catherine Opie.

She was Adjunct Professor in the School of Fine Arts' Public Art Studies Program at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and has published and lectured widely on a variety of topics in contemporary art and architecture.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews 3

Booklist Review

Twentieth-century architecture has been inspired by everything from social concerns and moral, cultural, and spiritual convictions to an infatuation with aesthetics, both traditional and avant-garde, and, on a concrete level, to the rapid and revolutionary evolution of materials technology, which has made possible the most daring and fanciful of structures. At the End of the Century, a handsome volume of international scope and tremendous historical, philosophical, and artistic depth, surveys the plethora of architectural styles and philosophies created over the course of the past hundred years. This substantial catalog, produced by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, as part of a major traveling exhibition, contains more than 300 illustrations, which are linked to thematic essays by seven renowned architecture historians and critics. These contributors discuss civic, commercial, and private buildings, urban architecture and the troubled state of cities, regionalism versus internationalism, and the influence of landmark buildings and master architects. Rifkind's A Field Guide to American Architecture (1980) has been a standard in the field, and she has now created a worthy and valuable sequel, an overview of the past 50 years of American architecture. Just as the title promises, Rifkind is concisely and informatively descriptive, dividing her guide into sections focusing on building types, including houses, civic buildings, art museums, high-rise office buildings, shopping centers, and religious and educational buildings. Five decades is not a long time, but radical changes in technology, aesthetics, and architectural styles and trends inspired a remarkably broad spectrum of tastes and attitudes, and Rifkind's guide helps make sense of it all and sharpens our awareness of how profoundly buildings affect our sensibilities. --Donna Seaman

Choice Review

In the long course of 20th-century architecture, technology has steadily advanced, critics have increasingly embraced a global outlook, and modernist certainties have yielded to divergent viewpoints. The net result is a complex and confusing picture, which this hefty, exhibition-inspired work tackles head on, ambitiously attempting both "expansive survey" and intelligent synthesis. Essays are provided by Smith, Vidler, Colomina, Yatsuka, ,Celik, Cohen, Liernur, prominent theorists of the US, Japan, France, and Argentina. Each explores a unifying theme; e.g., Colomina (Princeton) examines the house "as the most important vehicle for the investigation of architectural ideas in this century," whereas Vidler (UCLA) reviews changing notions of space from the late 19th century through Taylorism and Giedion's Space, Time and Architecture (5th ed., rev. and enl., 1967), all the way to deconstructivism and "queer space." Canonical buildings and architects are featured (as ever, Le Corbusier looms large), but signs abound of fin-de-si`ecle reassessment; with regionalism ascendant, Gropius seems to fascinate these essayists somewhat less than do Juan O'Gorman, Alvar Aalto, and Kenzo Tange. The abundant color photographs, like the text, are highly diverse and engaging, their architectural subjects often familiar but sometimes refreshingly new. General readers; upper-division undergraduates through professionals; two-year technical program students. W. B. Maynard; Delaware College of Art and Design

Library Journal Review

This thick catalog presents seven thematic essays by leading scholars and commentators on 20th-century architecture, covering such topics as Latin America, Japan, urbanism, regionalism, and "The Exhibitionist House." The essays vary in usefulness and value, from Beatriz Colomina's pungent commentaries on modern housing prototypes presented at international exhibitions to Anthony Vidler's highly abstract treatment of the space-time continuum. The authors have taken pains to include as much regionalist material as possible; indeed, the character of modern architecture morphs from internationalism into regionalism under the impact of this fair-sized volume. The result is a more politically correct treatment of modern architecture. The catalog accompanies an exhibition of the same name that will appear at leading museums around the world over the next two years, but the text will limit the book's appeal to serious readers.Peter S. Kaufman, Boston Architectural Ctr. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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