Everyone knows what modern architecture looks like, but few understand
how this revolutionary new form of building emerged little more than a
century ago or what its aesthetic, social, even spiritual aspirations
were. Through illuminating studies of the leading men and women who
forever changed our built environment, veteran architecture critic
Martin Filler offers fresh insights into this unprecedented cultural
transformation. From Louis Sullivan, father of the skyscraper, to Frank
Gehry, magician of post-millennial museum, Filler emphasizes how their
force of personality has had a decisive effect on everything from how we
inhabit our homes to how we shape our cities.
Why was the sudden shift in architectural fashion that wrecked the
career of the Scottish designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh not enough to
destroy the indomitable spirit of Frank Lloyd Wright, who rose from
adversity to become America's greatest architect? Why was Philip
Johnson, "dean of American architecture" during the 1980s, so haunted by
the superior talent of this less-fortunate contemporary Louis Kahn that
he could barely utter his name even at the peak of his own success? How
did Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's dictum "Less is more" give way to Robert
Venturi's "Less is a bore"?
Surveying such current urban design sagas as the reconstruction of
Ground Zero and the reunification of Berlin, Filler also trains his
sharp eye on some of the biggest names in architecture today, puncturing
more than one overinflated reputation while identifying the true masters
who are now building for the ages.
