Contextual architecture: Responding to existing style

by Keith Ray

175 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1981

Reviews

[quoms · Rating 3 out of 5]

Divided into four chapters that take you from the smallest projects (interior renovation) to the largest (new buildings in existing neighborhoods), this book attempts to chronicle a moment in American architectural history in which architects were trying to figure out how to build in cities without operating on the urban-renewal-era assumption that everything standing should be torn down. It's an interesting concept, but the projects are a mixed bag, and the authors' treatment of them is even more scattershot: they only seem genuinely passionate about a handful, and it's obvious which ones because those get way more space than the others. The unlucky neglected sections have neither useful how-to details for architects, nor quality color photos to provide visual interest for the enthusiast.

It is nice that someone thought to publish the (presumably very short-lived) adaptation of Stanford's Old Pavilion basketball arena to administrative office use: the results are so bewildering and improbable that if there weren't pictures you'd hardly believe it.