"A capsule history of American architecture since 1960." - Wall Street
Journal
Architect, historian, and educator Robert A.M. Stern presents a
personal and candid assessment of contemporary architecture and his
fifty years of practice.
Encompassing autobiography, institutional history, and lively,
behind-the-scenes anecdotes, Between Memory and Invention surveys the
world of architecture from the 1960s to the present, and Stern's
critical role in it. By turns thoughtful, critical, and irreverent, this
is a highly accessible text replete with personal insights and humor.
The author is Robert A.M. Stern, once described by Philip Johnson as
"the brightest young man I have ever met in my entire teaching career,"
and internationally acknowledged as a leader in architecture and
architectural scholarship.
Deeply committed to the concept that architects must "look to the past
to build for the future," Stern is the founding partner of Robert A.M.
Stern Architects, the former Dean and current Hoppin Professor of
Architecture at the Yale School of Architecture, and the author of more
than twenty books and countless essays and commentaries on an
extraordinary range of architectural and cultural topics.
Chronicling his formative years, architectural education, and
half-century of architectural practice, Stern touches on influences that
shaped him - his Brooklyn upbringing, family excursions to look at
buildings, teachers (Paul Rudolph, the legendary Vincent Scully, and
Philip Johnson among them), major projects of the firm (the new town of
Celebration, Florida, restoration of Times Square and 42nd Street,
George W. Bush Presidential Center), and the many clients, fellow
architects, and professional partners that have peopled his
extraordinary career.
Often proposed as "Mr. New York," Stern has a deep commitment to the
city, to recording its past - he is the lead author of the monumental
New York series, the definitive history of architecture and urbanism
from the late nineteenth century to the present - and shaping its
future.
Today elegant RAMSA residential towers are rising throughout Manhattan
to enrich the skyline in the tradition of the luxurious apartment
buildings of the 1920s and 1930s.
The text is supported by a lively mix of images drawn from Stern's
personal archive, including student work and travel slides, images of
architectural precedents and colleagues that have shaped his thinking,
and images related to projects he discusses (drawings, plans, and
finished photography, architectural team, and clients).
