This collection of over 400 biographies of eminent ethnic Americans celebrates a wide array of inspiring individuals and their contributions to U.S. history. The stories of these 400 eminent ethnic Americans are a testimony to the enduring power of the American dream. These men and women, from 90 different ethnic groups, certainly faced unequal access to opportunities. Yet they all became renowned artists, writers, political and religious leaders, scientists, and athletes. Kahlil Gibran, Daniel Inouye, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Thurgood Marshall, Madeleine Albright, and many others are living proof that the land of opportunity sometimes lives up to its name. Alongside these success stories, as historian Elliot R. Barkan notes in his introduction to this volume, there have been many failures and many immigrants who did not stay in the United States. Nevertheless, the stories of these trailblazers, visionaries, and champions portray the breadth of possibilities, from organizing a nascent community to winning the Nobel prize. They also provide irrefutable evidence that no single generation and no single cultural heritage can claim credit for what America is.

"A balance of sophistication and clarity in the writing, authoritative entries, and strong cross-referencing that links archtects and structures to entries on the history and theory of the profession make this an especially useful source on a century of the world's most notable architecture. The contents feature major architects, firms, and professional issues; buildings, styles, and sites; the architecture of cities and countries; critics and historians; construction, materials, and planning topics; schools, movements, and stylistic and theoretical terms. Entries include well-selected bibliographies and illustrations."--"Reference that rocks," American Libraries, May 2005.

Gunnar Birkerts has designed some of America's most innovative and distinctive architecture. A member of the Modern Movement's postwar generation, he has shown that modernism can accommodate lyrical, emotional, dynamic, and regional influences within its abstract construct. His design concepts, which grow from the individual character of site and client, defy stylistic categorization. Over his career he has won more than fifty major awards. The Architecture of Gunnar Birkerts not only presents the architects work, but also explores the influences of his background, design methodology, and philosophy on his buildings. -- from book flap.

The building of the National Library of Latvia is a landmark of the capital city of Riga, a spatial symbol and architectural icon, created by one of the 20th century renowned modernists--the Latvian-born American architect Gunnar Birkerts. It is one of the largest cultural buildings in Northern Europe in the 21st century and acquired a symbolic and meaningful name: The Castle of Light. The pyramidal structure which rises 68 meters high is a place of cognition equipped with state-of-the-art technology where up to 8 million units of national printed materials can be stored.

Generously illustrated with concept development sketches as well as site plans, section drawings, full schematics, and photographs of finished buildings, this engaging volume focuses on "organic synthesis," the creative process that is architect Gunnar Birkerts's methodology and philosophy. Birkerts likens his organic approach to listening to music: the music must be heard as it unfolds; an attempt to perceive it all at once would reduce it to noise. Organic synthesis occurs as all aspects of a project present themselves: the building site, the building program and budget, available materials and technologies, emotional or intuitive content revealed through architect-client interaction.

Latvian-born architect Gunnar Birkerts belongs to the second wave of modernists who arrived in the United States from abroad, a group that includes Kevin Roche and Cesar Pelli among others. This work presents his cultural perspectives as well as his family insights to bear, offering a unique portrait of a life and career. Latvian-born architect Gunnar Birkerts belongs to the second wave of modernists who arrived in the United States from abroad, a group that includes Kevin Roche and Cesar Pelli among others. Educated at the Technische Hochschule in Stuttgart, Birkerts worked first with Eero Saarinen in his now-legendary office in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and later was chief designer for Minoru Yamasaki. At that time both Saarinen and Yamasaki were developing their distinctive architectural signatures and building their international renown. Subsequently Birkerts established his own practice, evolving a design process and a philosophy with its own original profile. His approach does not seek a 'right style for the job' in the manner of Saarinen. From the first, Birkerts' work was tied to a program as well as a particular context - a place - to the extent that it became expressive of the surrounding landscape and accommodating to the existing vernacular. Birkerts' designs, from the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis to the Corning Museum of Glass to the Houston Arts Museum and recently the Latvian National Library, shows him exploring with ever greater resource and inventiveness the expressive possibilities of symbol and metaphor. Form, he believes, expresses function, and does so with its own rich, meaningful vocabulary. Birkerts uses visual metaphors to link program, client, and landscape in a resonant solution. His methodology of using metaphor - meaning - as a first principle, as a generator of design concept, is unusual in the profession, but it is vitally connected to his Latvian heritage and his family background as the son of a folklorist and writer. This heritage is given a new turn here, for the biographical text of the book has been written by his son, Sven Birkerts, who is a noted literary critic and author of the influential book "The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age". He has also written a memoir, "My Sky Blue Trades" which describes at some length his coming of age struggles with his architect father. Now, years later, Sven brings his cultural perspectives as well as his family insights to bear, offering a unique portrait of a life and career. History and description are enlivened throughout by observations and reflections on the career - the destiny - of this master of the expressive concept. The book is richly illustrated and complemented by descriptive assessments of the projects by Martin Schwartz, who is an architect and writer and who teaches at Lawrence Technical University in Southfield, Michigan.