The Pritzker Architecture Prize: The First Twenty Years($40.72Value)

Description

The world's most highly regarded architecture award is celebrated in this generously illustrated edition, which celebrates selected buildings and projects by each of the 21 winners. 370 illustrations, 200 in full color. There is no Nobel Prize for architecture, but ever since 1979 the Pritzker Architecture Prize has filled that gap. Though just over 20 years old, it is the best known and most glamorous of five major international architectural awards. The prize takes its name from the Pritzker family of Chicago--hoteliers whose dramatic, atrium-centered properties revolutionized hotel architecture--who fund the prize, which is awarded annually to a living architect for a body of work rather than to or for a single building. Over the years, the high-powered Pritzker jury has been catholic in its tastes, honoring well-established candidates such as Philip Johnson, James Stirling, I.M. Pei, Luis Barragan, Kenzo Tange, Renzo Piano, Fumihiko Maki, and Richard Meier; gifted boat-rockers such as Robert Venturi and Frank Gehry; and some lesser-known practitioners. The end result is a generally lively mix of 21 winners from 12 nations and four continents. This book is a nice introduction to the work of many of the best designers of the last generation or two. It is a handsomely designed large-format volume that contains 370 well-reproduced illustrations, 200 of them in color. It also includes essays by five writers: editor Martha Thorne, Pritzker officials J. Carter Brown and Bill Lacy, architectural historian William Curtis, and critic Colin Amery. And most of its pages contain short portfolios featuring three of each honoree's buildings--just enough to whet one's appetite. If you find a designer of interest here, you may decide to seek out a more comprehensive book on his work. (Yes, all the honorees so far have been men.) --John Pastier The annual Pritzker Architecture Prize, often described as the Nobel prize of architecture, was established by the Hyatt Foundation in 1979. The list of past Pritzker winners reads like an architectural who's who: Philip Johnson, James Stirling, Kenzo Tange, Frank O. Gehry, I.M. Pei, and, most recently, Renzo Piano have all won. This book, published by the Art Institute of Chicago on the occasion of an exhibit surveying the prize's 21-year history, is the only compilation of its kind. The ancillary information (introductory essays, a history of the prize, brief biographies of the architects, bibliographies, etc.) is useful, but the beauty of this volume is in its presentation of the "portfolios" of each winner's work (there are 370 illustrations, 200 in color). These great landmarks of modern architecture have been captured by the highest quality architectural photography, making this volume both informative and inspirational. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.AJay Schafer, Bay Path Coll. Lib., Longmeadow, MA Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. Used Book in Good Condition