Product Description

"Icons of Architecture: the 20th Century" highlights the world's best modern architecture, the people behind the buildings, and the impact they have had on their surroundings. Includes: Sagrada Familia; Glasgow School of Art; Peace Center Hiroshima; Congress Buildings Brasilia; Sydney Opera House; Economist Building; Parliament Buildings Dhaka; Centre Georges Pompidopu; Lloyd's of London; Louvre Pyramid; Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank; Kansai International Airport; Petronas Towers;and KLIA. The buildings profiled here have proved enduring monuments to their architects' visions and the hopes and dreams of their eras. Presented in full-colour, double-page spreads, these buildings represent nearly every continent on the globe and almost every architectural trend of the past century. The double-page spreads provide numerous photographs and plans, a summary of the architect's career, and fascinating anecdotes about building sites, materials, and construction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #342134 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .55" h x 7.90" w x 9.56" l, 1.50 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 189 pages

From Library Journal
This international survey of key architectural monuments brings together 37 contributors' brief essays on more than 70 houses, apartment buildings, office buildings, clubs, factories, museums, concert halls, and other building types. In strict chronological order, there are from five to 14 entries per decade, each allotted one two-page spread that consists of usually high-quality photographs of the building; often a plan, section, or preliminary sketch; and a portrait of the architect beside a concise professional biography. The essays vary from anecdotal to descriptive. This volume updates and even improves on Lucy Peel and others' An Introduction to 20th Century Architecture (Chartwell, 1989) and neatly complements At the End of the Century (LJ 11/1/98), a considerably more theoretical and scholarly exhibition publication. Greater consistency would have made this volume more helpful to students, and as with any survey, there are puzzling omissions and redundancies. Still, this is an essential addition to any public or academic architecture collection.APaul Glassman, New York Sch. of Interior Design Lib., New York
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ballast Quaterly Review, Vol. 16, No. 3, Spring 2001
"Rich and accessible volumes that have both the breath and the detail of an encyclopedic bird’s -eye view of Modernism."

From the Publisher
The buildings examined in this book, well-known today as icons of 20th-century architecture, were considered spectacular in their own times for reasons ranging from stylistic innovation to technological breakthroughs.

New York City's Chrysler Building, Lloyd's of London, and the exciting new Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain - each of these structures, whether treasured or despised, has become a modern-day place of pilgrimage, and the stories behind their rise to iconic status have shed light on how we think about the built environment.

Each building is presented in a double-page spread with brilliant photographs, original drawings, and helpful plans. Texts written by recognized specialists describe each work's design features and historical significance. Exciting and unusual anecdotes make this an especially insightful compilation, while biographies of the architects and recommendations for further reading qualify it as the ideal volume for new and "in-the-know" architecture enthusiasts alike.