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Rare Ada Louise Huxtable / THE UNREAL AMERICA Architecture and Illusion 1st ed 1997 [Hardcover] Huxtable, Ada Louise
This rare and vintage book is a perfect addition to any bibliophile's collection
Hardcover
First published March 1, 1997
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About the author
Ada Louise Huxtable
29 books26 followersAda Louise (Landman) Huxtable (b. March 14, 1921, in New York, NY) is an architecture critic and writer on architecture. In 1970 she was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for "distinguished criticism." Her father, Michael Landman, was co-author (with his brother, Rabbi Isaac Landman) of the play "A Man of Honor."
Ada Louise Landman received an A. B. (magna cum laude) from Hunter College, CUNY in 1941. In 1942, she married industrial designer L. Garth Huxtable, and continued graduate study at New York University from 1942-50. She served as Curatorial Assistant for Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York from 1946-50. She was a contributing editor to Progressive Architecture and Art in America from 1950-63 before being named the first architecture critic at The New York Times, a post she held from 1963-82. She has received grants from the Graham Foundation for a number of projects, including the book "Will They Ever Finish Bruckner Boulevard?".
She is currently the architecture critic for The Wall Street Journal.
John Costonis, writing of how public aesthetics is shaped, used her as a prime example of an influential media critic, remarking that "the continuing barrage fired from [her] Sunday column... had New York developers, politicians, and bureaucrats, ducking for years." He reproduces a cartoon in which construction workers, at the base of a building site with a foundation and a few girders lament that "Ada Louise Huxtable already doesn't like it!" (Costonis,1989)
Carter Wiseman writes, "Huxtable's insistence on intellectual rigor and high design standards made her the conscience of the national architectural community." (Wiseman, 2000)
She has written over ten books on architecture, including a 2004 biography of Frank Lloyd Wright for the Penguin Lives series.
Ada Louise Landman received an A. B. (magna cum laude) from Hunter College, CUNY in 1941. In 1942, she married industrial designer L. Garth Huxtable, and continued graduate study at New York University from 1942-50. She served as Curatorial Assistant for Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York from 1946-50. She was a contributing editor to Progressive Architecture and Art in America from 1950-63 before being named the first architecture critic at The New York Times, a post she held from 1963-82. She has received grants from the Graham Foundation for a number of projects, including the book "Will They Ever Finish Bruckner Boulevard?".
She is currently the architecture critic for The Wall Street Journal.
John Costonis, writing of how public aesthetics is shaped, used her as a prime example of an influential media critic, remarking that "the continuing barrage fired from [her] Sunday column... had New York developers, politicians, and bureaucrats, ducking for years." He reproduces a cartoon in which construction workers, at the base of a building site with a foundation and a few girders lament that "Ada Louise Huxtable already doesn't like it!" (Costonis,1989)
Carter Wiseman writes, "Huxtable's insistence on intellectual rigor and high design standards made her the conscience of the national architectural community." (Wiseman, 2000)
She has written over ten books on architecture, including a 2004 biography of Frank Lloyd Wright for the Penguin Lives series.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 16, 2022
The first chapter critiques historic preservation for sucking the life out of a place by restoring it like taxidermy to an imagined past, rather than allowing it to continue to evolve and change. Not sure that this was entirely convincing; I think there's value in experiencing stuffed and mounted historic architecture in some circumstances.
The second chapter, against theme parks generally and Disney in particular, was the least persuasive to me. Huxtable says that Americans should stop enjoying frivolous theme parks in favor of authentic cultural experiences. It comes across like someone confused that people would eschew wholesome, inexpensive oatmeal in favor of Froot Loops, which are far too sweet and not at all nutritious. Which is to say, most of the argument misses the point of the thing she's arguing against. She briefly makes her best point against herself: “All the theorizing and hand-wringing about Disney and the theme park phenomenon misses the point. This is so easy, so time-filling, so complete, so prepackaged; nothing to do beyond buying the plane tickets; no strange language or customs or hostile environments; above all, no decisions to make.” Maybe it's reasonable to critique Americans for too often choosing the instant-gratification faux alternative to the real, enriching architectural experience, but rather than criticizing the fake, it might be better to explore why the real isn't connecting with people in the way we would like it to.
I liked the third essay, discussing the blurred line between reality and imitation in America, particularly in art. In an art museum gift shop, for example, the genuine artifact lends its intangible aura to the purchasable reproduction, confusing the two and cheapening the real. The most interesting point came from Umberto Eco: “Rather than liking reality or the real thing too little, he says, Americans love it too much. We are obsessed with reality, with the possession of the object, determined to have it at any cost, in the most immediate and tangible form, unconcerned with authenticity or the loss of historical, cultural, or aesthetic meaning.”
The next essay is about malls; the part that struck a chord for me was about the risk-reducing, profit-maximizing business models created by developers resulting in every mall having the same mix of stores, with no latitude for creativity.
The penultimate chapter discusses contemporaneous trends in architecture, critiquing both the banality of postmodernism and the navel-gazing intellectualism of the 80s. I found the anti-esotericism argument more persuasive than the anti-populism argument, but in any case I thought the call for architecture to embrace a social purpose was persuasive: “When an intellectual performance becomes a denial of, or replacement for, architecture's primary purpose, or makes that purpose singularly difficult to carry out, signals are being sent.… We are being told that it has become more important for architecture to be than to serve, to send messages than to fill needs, to exist as an art object in itself than to be integrated through its art into the rich and complex totality of life and use that makes this the most far-reaching art of all. From there it is not far to the revolutionary claim that architecture can completely reject its intrinsic nature as a social art because of the antisocial nature of the times.” Also appreciated this dig in the conclusion: “There is little that is more seductively appealing to the young than being terminally iconoclastic.”
Finally, Huxtable discusses what recent architecture she does like, including James Stirling, Tadao Ando, Alvaro Siza, Frank Gehry, and Christian de Portzamparc. The unifying thread, in her view, is that these architects draw on “the almost unprecedented stylistic freedom of a liberated, discontinuous, and pluralistic culture,” digesting the fullness of architectural history and putting their own personal spin on the outcome. I'm not sure I always see the through-line, although that may just be that there's no unifying -ism to group them under. Regardless, after a series of critiques showing what not to do, it's nice that the book concludes with positive examples of recent work.
I didn't necessarily agree with everything Huxtable writes in this book, but at least it's cogent enough criticism that you can get your head around it and decide whether or not you agree. A pretty breezy read, given the subject matter.
The second chapter, against theme parks generally and Disney in particular, was the least persuasive to me. Huxtable says that Americans should stop enjoying frivolous theme parks in favor of authentic cultural experiences. It comes across like someone confused that people would eschew wholesome, inexpensive oatmeal in favor of Froot Loops, which are far too sweet and not at all nutritious. Which is to say, most of the argument misses the point of the thing she's arguing against. She briefly makes her best point against herself: “All the theorizing and hand-wringing about Disney and the theme park phenomenon misses the point. This is so easy, so time-filling, so complete, so prepackaged; nothing to do beyond buying the plane tickets; no strange language or customs or hostile environments; above all, no decisions to make.” Maybe it's reasonable to critique Americans for too often choosing the instant-gratification faux alternative to the real, enriching architectural experience, but rather than criticizing the fake, it might be better to explore why the real isn't connecting with people in the way we would like it to.
I liked the third essay, discussing the blurred line between reality and imitation in America, particularly in art. In an art museum gift shop, for example, the genuine artifact lends its intangible aura to the purchasable reproduction, confusing the two and cheapening the real. The most interesting point came from Umberto Eco: “Rather than liking reality or the real thing too little, he says, Americans love it too much. We are obsessed with reality, with the possession of the object, determined to have it at any cost, in the most immediate and tangible form, unconcerned with authenticity or the loss of historical, cultural, or aesthetic meaning.”
The next essay is about malls; the part that struck a chord for me was about the risk-reducing, profit-maximizing business models created by developers resulting in every mall having the same mix of stores, with no latitude for creativity.
The penultimate chapter discusses contemporaneous trends in architecture, critiquing both the banality of postmodernism and the navel-gazing intellectualism of the 80s. I found the anti-esotericism argument more persuasive than the anti-populism argument, but in any case I thought the call for architecture to embrace a social purpose was persuasive: “When an intellectual performance becomes a denial of, or replacement for, architecture's primary purpose, or makes that purpose singularly difficult to carry out, signals are being sent.… We are being told that it has become more important for architecture to be than to serve, to send messages than to fill needs, to exist as an art object in itself than to be integrated through its art into the rich and complex totality of life and use that makes this the most far-reaching art of all. From there it is not far to the revolutionary claim that architecture can completely reject its intrinsic nature as a social art because of the antisocial nature of the times.” Also appreciated this dig in the conclusion: “There is little that is more seductively appealing to the young than being terminally iconoclastic.”
Finally, Huxtable discusses what recent architecture she does like, including James Stirling, Tadao Ando, Alvaro Siza, Frank Gehry, and Christian de Portzamparc. The unifying thread, in her view, is that these architects draw on “the almost unprecedented stylistic freedom of a liberated, discontinuous, and pluralistic culture,” digesting the fullness of architectural history and putting their own personal spin on the outcome. I'm not sure I always see the through-line, although that may just be that there's no unifying -ism to group them under. Regardless, after a series of critiques showing what not to do, it's nice that the book concludes with positive examples of recent work.
I didn't necessarily agree with everything Huxtable writes in this book, but at least it's cogent enough criticism that you can get your head around it and decide whether or not you agree. A pretty breezy read, given the subject matter.
sony-or-android
March 31, 2020Often referenced in the wonderfully fascinating The Strip: Las Vegas and the Architecture of the American Dream.
November 29, 2021
Informative and surprisingly funny. I love Huxtable's dry, world-weary upper-crust sense of humor yet lack of pretense that her interests and emotions aren't also the product of a weirdo sensibility. Should be required reading for anyone who lives and works in a tourist town.
March 28, 2024
This is what Ada Louise Huxtable wrote about the former Penn Station in New York City: "Not that Penn Station is the Parthenon, but it might as well be because we can never again afford a nine-acre structure of superbly detailed travertine, any more than we could build one of solid gold. It is a monument to the lost art of magnificent construction, other values aside." And what she accomplishes in this book is to damn America for the lost art of making places that really matter. Not "invented environments" as she calls them: theme parks, shopping malls, heritage marketplaces, and historic restorations and of course that ubiquitous American invention of sprawl, polluted with trophy houses and McMansions of dubious construction - all out of plastic! For all intents and purposes Huxtable feels that we are a poorer culture, having forsaken realness for user-friendly architectural products driven by the pursuit of profit through marketing, consumerism, celebrity and entertainment. How do you like your Venti?
Want to read
June 6, 2011I skimmed/read the first two chapters. Fascinating premise. And a scathing critique of Disneyland in the second chapter. I kept thinking of the SCA, but they don't make any bones about the fact that they're taking liberties with history... No "authentic reproductions" there!
April 16, 2008
Ada was the doyenne of architectural criticism - and well deserved, too. I miss her.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews