"A new type of achitecture has emerged in the last decade : the iconic landmark building, which challenges the traditional architectural monument. In the past, public buildings expressed shared meaning through well-known conventions. Today those conventions are superceded by commercial forces and the quest for instant fame. Public architecture is now required to be an amazing piece of surreal sculpture as well as something that appeals to a diverse audience - at once provocative and practical yet without the context that religion and ideaology once provided. Such contrary demands drive the architect toward a new convention : the enigmatic signifier. This curious sign suggests many meanings without naming of them. The most publized version of the genre, Frank Gehry's New Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, 1997, became an instant media event that forces other architects to design event buildings routinely. This 'Bilbao effect' has led to a series of landmark buildings by architects such as Norman Foster, Peter Eisenman, Enric Miralles, Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, Renzo Piano, Will Alsop, and Rem Koolhaas. Some of these buildings are successful creations, while others make us wince." -- book jacket.

The Icon Project argues that the transnational capitalist class mobilizes two forms of iconic architecture--unique icons recognized as works of art, notably designed by global starchitects (such as Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid); and typical icons copying elements of unique icons--to promote the same ideological message: the culture-ideology of consumerism.

Now available in an updated edition and attractive new format, this essential book on modern architecture presents over one hundred of the most significant houses of the past hundred years. The Iconic House features over one hundred of the most important and influential houses designed and built since 1900. With seminal works by Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mies van der Rohe, as well as modern-day greats like Tadao Ando, Rem Koolhaas, and Herzog & de Meuron, this book brings to life a stunning array of architectural masterpieces. Wide-ranging in both geographical scope and artistic style, the houses share an appreciation of local materials and building traditions and a careful understanding of clients’ needs. Each house, however, is the result of a unique approach that makes it groundbreaking for its time. Now, fully updated, the book features iconic houses recently constructed, as well as concise, informative texts, specially commissioned photographs, floor plans, and drawings. The Iconic House remains an ideal overview of contemporary architects and architecture, for design-lovers and professionals alike.

This book takes a bird's eye view of architecture in time, and explores the different ways architects have responded to civilizations, giving them the buildings and cities they deserve.

Dingbat 2.0 is the first critical study of the most ubiquitous and mundane building type in Los Angeles: the dingbat apartment. Often dismissed as ugly and unremarkable, dingbat apartments have qualities that arguably make them innovative, iconoclastic, and distinctly "L.A." For more than half a century the idiosyncratic dingbat has been largely anonymous, occasionally fetishized and often misunderstood. Praised and vilified in equal measure, dingbat apartments were a critical enabler of Los Angeles' rapid postwar urban expansion. While these apartments are known for their variety of midcentury decorated facades, less explored is the way they have contributed to a consistency of urban density achieved by few other twentieth century cities. Dingbat 2.0 integrates essays and discussions by some of today's leading architects, urbanists and cultural critics with photographic series, typological analysis, and speculative designs from around the world to propose alternate futures for Los Angeles housing and to consider how qualities of the inarguably flawed housing type can foreground many crucial issues facing global metropolises today. Dingbat 2.0 gives an often-maligned Los Angeles building type its long overdue moment in the sun, not only advancing a sophisticated typology of dingbats, but also reimagining the potential of the dingbat for the twenty-first century--at a moment when the imperative to create livable and modest affordable housing is more pressing than ever. - Ken Bernstein, Principal City Planner, Los Angeles Department of City Planning and Office of Historic Resources This book is extremely valuable for designers, particularly when one considers that architects generate species of buildings. An in-depth study of this particularly indigenous species to Los Angeles allows architects to not only become familiar with the causes and effects of the dingbat, but also the many possibilities for its future morphologies. - Jimenez Lai, founder and creator of Bureau Spectacular One of the many brilliances of this great book is the telling comparison of Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye--raised on its skinny pilotis to create an entirely ornamental void--and the dingbat--likewise lally column-upped in the air but usefully making room for cars beneath. Ever not quite modern, Corb pontificated about "machines for living" while never quite knowing what to do with their true enabler: the machine for leaving. The indelible dingbat is a sandwich of necessity and desire that bespeaks the throwaway (and getaway) modernity uniquely Made in L.A. -- Michael Sorkin, Architect, Urbanist and Author; Principal, Michael Sorkin Studio

In the most comprehensive investigation of the Los Angeles Public Library’s early history and architectural genesis ever undertaken, Kenneth Breisch chronicles the institution’s first six decades, from its founding as a private library association in 1872 through the completion of the iconic Central Library building in 1933. During this time, the library evolved from an elite organization ensconced in two rooms in downtown LA into one of the largest public library systems in the United States—with architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue’s building, a beloved LA landmark, as its centerpiece. Goodhue developed a new style, fully integrating the building’s sculptural and epigraphic program with its architectural forms to express a complex iconography. Working closely with sculptor Lee Oskar Lawrie and philosopher Hartley Burr Alexander, he created a great civic monument that, combined with the library’s murals, embodies an overarching theme: the light of learning. “A building should read like a book, from its title entrance to its alley colophon,” wrote Alexander—a narrative approach to design that serves as a key to understanding Goodhue’s architectural gem. Breisch draws on a wealth of primary source material to tell the story of one of the most important American buildings of the twentieth century and illuminates the formation of an indispensible modern public institution: the American public library.

From the urban affairs correspondent of the New York Times--the story of a city through twenty-seven structures that define it. As New York is poised to celebrate its four hundredth anniversary, New York Times correspondent Sam Roberts tells the story of the city through bricks, glass, wood, and mortar, revealing why and how it evolved into the nation's biggest and most influential. From the seven hundred thousand or so buildings in New York, Roberts selects twenty-seven that, in the past four centuries, have been the most emblematic of the city's economic, social, and political evolution. He describes not only the buildings and how they came to be, but also their enduring impact on the city and its people and how the consequences of the construction often reverberated around the world. A few structures, such as the Empire State Building, are architectural icons, but Roberts goes beyond the familiar with intriguing stories of the personalities and exploits behind the unrivaled skyscraper's construction. Some stretch the definition of buildings, to include the city's oldest bridge and the landmark Coney Island Boardwalk. Others offer surprises: where the United Nations General Assembly first met; a hidden hub of global internet traffic; a nondescript factory that produced billions of dollars of currency in the poorest neighborhood in the country; and the buildings that triggered the Depression and launched the New Deal. With his deep knowledge of the city and penchant for fascinating facts, Roberts brings to light the brilliant architecture, remarkable history, and bright future of the greatest city in the world.

From ancient palaces and glorious cathedrals, to futuristic homes and striking skyscrapers, architecture continues to play an important role in the development of history and culture. Architecture Inside + Out examines fifty of the world's most impressive buildings and uncovers their structural secrets through detailed illustrations, while clear and accessible text places each building in its context. By researching original plans, notes and drawings, this book reveals the expertise and original intentions behind these magnificent creations, simulating the experience of spending time with the architects themselves.However, a building truly comes alive once it is inhabited, and Architecture Inside + Out also looks beyond the bricks and mortar to explore the principal spaces within. Photographs of striking interiors enable readers to scrutinize the most awe-inspiring aspects of these structures. The reader will discover how ancient wonders, such as the Parthenon and Colosseum, were constructed; learn the colour-coding behind the exposed skeleton of the Centre Pompidou in Paris; understand the vision behind the Brutalist housing complex, Habitat 67, in Canada; and take a tour through the Capitol Building in Washington, the seat of the United States Congress.

Digital Monuments radically explodes "iconic architecture" of the new millennium and its hijacking of the public imagination via the digital image. Hallucinatory constructions such as Rem Koolhaas’s CCTV headquarters in Beijing, Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and Zaha Hadid’s Performing Arts Centre in Abu Dhabi are all introduced to the world by immortal digital imagery that floods the internet—yet comes to haunt the actualised buildings. Like holograms, these "digital monuments," which violently push physics and engineering to their limits, flicker eerily between the real and the unreal—invoking fantasies of omnipotence, immortality and utopian cities. But this experience of iconic architecture as a digital dream on the ground conceals from the urban spectator the social reality of the buildings and the rigidity of their ideology. In 18 micro-essays, Digital Monuments exposes the stereotypes of iconic architecture while depicting the savagery of the industry, from the Greek and Spanish crises triggered by financialised iconic development to mass labour-deaths on construction sites in the UAE.

A chronological survey of 500 great buildings, from Turkish prehistoric cave dwellings to a 21st century Tokyo store. Each building includes a photograph, but the top 50 selections are double spreads. Captions provide specifications and brief history.