Stanley Tigerman
Stanley Tigerman’s Book List
I stopped buying architecture books in 1980, which coincided with my being the architect in residence at the American Academy in Rome where it became clear to me that ideas were the source of a flame that I wished to be near. Since that time my personal library, both at home and at the office, has grown willy-nilly with tomes on religion, philosophy, critical theory, et al. These ten books are the tip of an iceberg that helps to define who I am in the autumn of my life.
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This brilliant probing of the mind underpinning the work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is the only book on that outstanding architect that isn’t sycophantic.
I have read all of Karen Armstrong’s books. My citing of The Case for God is at some level arbitrary. Her other books, such as The Battle for God, are equally invigorating. She’s one of the best living writers in theology, with a passionate point of view.
I read The Fountainhead when I was 13 years old in 1943, put it down and decided to become an architect. One may question Rand’s politics, even the ideology of the self, but her gripping tale of an architect unapologetically motivated my prepubescent psyche.
In The Guide for the Perplexed, Maimonides lays out a way of thinking, particularly about God that I find useful, especially in the case of my continuing search for ineffability in the context of the Western pantheon of ideality.
The Bible is an invaluable resource for most things that I think and write about.
Hayy Ibn Yaqzan was one of the most well-read books in the Middle Ages and moved me fourscore years down the pike.
Ich und Du represents my belief in the importance of another—any other—human being. Buber’s influence on Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida and thereby the rest of us as well is a not very well-concealed secret.
Iris Murdoch uses metaphysics brilliantly as she ambles through the history of morality.
I have read and reread this book several times. Not many books have been written about architecture with a small “a,” but Rykwert does it brilliantly.
For me, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine are the yin-yang of theo-philosophy. My fascination with matter bounces back and forth between faith and interpretation—ergo, I read both theologians continuously.
Announcements
Now is Better by Stefan Sagmeister
Now is Better
By Stefan Sagmeister
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: October 2023
Combining art, design, history, and quantitative analysis, transforms data sets into stunning artworks that underscore his positive view of human progress, inspiring us to think about the future with much-needed hope.
Design Emergency: Building a Better Future by Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Design Emergency: Building a Better Future
By Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: May 2022
Rawsthorn and Antonelli tell the stories of the remarkable designers, architects, engineers, artists, scientists, and activists who are at the forefront of positive change worldwide. Focusing on four themes—Technology, Society, Communication, and Ecology—the authors present a unique portrait of how our great creative minds are developing new design solutions to the major challenges of our time, while helping us to benefit from advances in science and technology.
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Love Letter to a Garden by Debbie Millman
Love Letter to a Garden
By Debbie Millman
Contributions by Roxane Gay
Publisher: Timber Press
Published: April 15, 2025
From the award-winning artist, designer, and the host of the podcast Design Matters, Debbie Millman, this book tells the visual story of falling in love with gardening—and the philosophies that work conjures. Spread throughout are simple recipes using the garden’s ingredients from Millman’s wife, best-selling author Roxane Gay.
Milton Glaser: POP by Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber
Milton Glaser: POP
By Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: March 2023
This collection of work from graphci design legend Milton Glaser’s Pop period features hundreds of examples of the designer’s work that have not been seen since their original publication, demonstrating the graphic revolution that transformed design and popular culture.
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Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange
Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall
By Alexandra Lange
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: June 2022
Chronicles postwar architects’ and merchants’ invention of the shopping mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. Publishers Weekly writes, “Contending that malls answer ‘the basic human need’ of bringing people together, influential design critic Lange advocates for retrofitting abandoned shopping centers into college campuses, senior housing, and ‘ethnocentric marketplaces’ catering to immigrant communities. Lucid and well researched, this is an insightful study of an overlooked and undervalued architectural form.”
Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition) by Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller
Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition)
By Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller
Publisher: Letterform Archives Books
Published: October 2023
This facsimile edition of Die Fläche, recreates every page of the formative design periodical in full color and at original size, accompanied by essays that contextualize the work, highlighting contributions by pathbreaking women, innovative lettering artists, and key practitioners of the new “surface art,” including Rudolf von Larisch, Alfred Roller, and Wiener Werkstätte founders Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann.
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