Announcements
Louis Kahn: Architecture as Philosophy by John Lobell
Louis Kahn: Architecture as Philosophy
By John Lobell
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: June 2020
Noted Louis I.Kahn expert John Lobell explores how Kahn’s focus on structure, respect for materials, clarity of program, and reverence for details come together to manifest an overall philosophy.
Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn by Harriet Pattison
Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn
By Harriet Pattison
Publisher: Yale University Press
Forthcoming: October 2020
An intimate glimpse into the professional and romantic relationship between Harriet Pattison and the renowned architect Louis Kahn. Harriet Pattison, FASLA, is a distinguished landscape architect. She was Louis Kahn’s romantic partner from 1959 to 1974, and his collaborator on the landscapes of the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, and the F.D.R. Memorial/Four Freedoms Park, New York. She is the mother of their son, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn.
Louis I. Kahn: The Nordic Latitudes
Louis I. Kahn: The Nordic Latitudes
By Per Olaf Fjeld and Emily Randall Fjeld
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
Published: October 4, 2019
A new and personal reading of the architecture, teachings, and legacy of Louis I. Kahn from Per Olaf Fjeld’s perspective as a former student. The book explores Kahn’s life and work, offering a unique take on one of the twentieth century’s most important architects. Kahn’s Nordic and European ties are emphasized in this study that also covers his early childhood in Estonia, his travels, and his relationships with other architects, including the Norwegian architect Arne Korsmo.
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Ballpark: Baseball in the American City by Paul Goldberger
Ballpark: Baseball in the American City
By Paul Goldberger
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Published: May 2019
An illustrated, entirely new look at the history of baseball: told through the stories of the vibrant and ever-changing ballparks where the game was and is staged, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic.
Charleston Fancy by Witold Rybczynski
Charleston Fancy: Little Houses and Big Dreams in the Holy City
By Witold Rybczynski
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: May 2019
Charleston, South Carolina, which boasts America’s first historic district, is known for its palmetto-lined streets and picturesque houses. The Holy City, named for its profusion of churches, exudes an irresistible charm. Award-winning author and cultural critic Witold Rybczynski unfolds a series of stories about a group of youthful architects, builders, and developers based in Charleston: a self-taught home builder, an Air Force pilot, a fledgling architect, and a bluegrass mandolin player.
Teaching Graphic Design History by Steven Heller
Teaching Graphic Design History
By Steven Heller
Publisher: Allworth Press
Published: June 2019
An examination of the concerted efforts, happy accidents, and key influences of the practice throughout the years, Teaching Graphic Design History is an illuminating resource for students, practitioners, and future teachers of the subject.
Recent Articles
Alan Balfour
Educated at Edinburgh and Princeton and a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Alan Balfour is Professor and former Dean of the College of Architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), a position he came to after serving as dean of the School of Architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He was formerly chairman of the Architectural Association in London, and dean of the School of Architecture at Rice University in Houston. Balfour was the year 2000 recipient of the Topaz Medal, the highest recognition given in North America to an educator in architecture.
Balfour's most recent book, Solomon’s Temple: Myth, Conflict, and Faith (Wiley-Blackwell), was published in 2012. It is a study of the constructive and destructive power of religion played out in the myths and realities of one place, Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and a journey through four thousand years of constantly shifting religion and reality in the Middle East. His book Creating a Scottish Parliament, with David McCrone (Finlay Brown, 2005), offers an intimate exploration of the conceptualization of the political structure for a devolved Scotland and the architecture that would symbolize and be the instrument for its advancement.
Though the city is the ostensible subject of Alan Balfour's writing in recent years, his underlying concern has been with exploring the cultural imagination. In 2002 he completed three books on three world cities; in each the city is viewed as the most tangible residue of the complexity of society’s desires. Shanghai was published in 2002 and New York in 2001 (both by Wiley-Academy, London). The first in the series was Berlin published by Academy Editions in 1995, which documents the transformation of Berlin before and after the collapse of the Wall. This and an earlier book, Berlin: The Politics of Order: 1737–1989 (Rizzoli International Publications, 1990), received AIA International Book Awards. Other books include Portsmouth (Studio Vista 1970) and Rockefeller Center: Architecture as Theater (McGraw-Hill, 1978). He also contributed to Recovering Landscape (Princeton Architectural Press, 1999), Cities of Artificial Excavation: The Work of Peter Eisenman (Rizzoli International Publications/CCA, 1994), and The Edge of the Millennium (Cooper-Hewitt, National Museum of Design, Smithsonian Institution/Whitney Library of Design, 1993).
In addition to his role in administration Balfour has continued to teach and this has included master’s design studios at both Harvard Graduate School of Design and MIT.