Som Journal: Recent Projects

by Cecil Balmond, Jenny Holzer (Artist), Walter Netsch (Contributor)

Since 1936, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has set the standard for corporate design practice, producing some of the most iconic buildings of the century and shaping cities throughout the world. The SOM Journal , a new, small-format publication, takes stock of the firm's most recent work in progress and brings SOM's current design research to light. Contributors include the artist Jenny Holzer, Ove/Arup & Partners engineer Cecil Balmond, the architectural critic and historian Kenneth Frampton and architect Kesse Reiser of Reiser + Umemoto. The amply illustrated volume, designed by renowned Dutch graphic designers Studio COMA, offers a critical look at five current projects and includes an interview with retired SOM partner Walter Netsch, designer of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 2002

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the concept (I believe originating from Roger Duffy) I’m adding an extra star. For a firm such as SOM to expose their projects to outside criticism seems like a great idea – if not merely a marketing ploy to finally get architects to purchase SOM books. Well I bought one (slightly used – extremely cheap) and was partially disappointed. Basically it goes like this: Wilfried Wang introduces the concept and then the transcript follows the jurors (Reiser, Balmond, Frampton, Holzer, in addition to Wang) as they sift through numerous SOM project presentation boards in order to select five or six projects that hold the opportunity for meaningful criticism/dialog. This is somewhat interesting as they go through their individual checklists over the course of three rounds, finally choosing six. Then one flips the page to find all six projects as presumably presented to the jurors with a brief description and set of images that seem less than comprehensive…yet NO FURTHER CRITICISM! That’s it! They weeded down the selection to, I was led to believe (and as the Goodread’s book description itself says), “frame a critical look at five current projects.” Ultimately, however, no dice! You read the SOM spiel about each and then on to the interview with Walter Netsch (this, I did feel was a nice addition to the “Journal.”)

So did this live up to expectation? No. Will I ever buy any of the subsequent issues? Well they have a nice ultra-minimal (almost illegible) cover that, like those endless Renzo Piano monographs, look nice on a shelf so…yes – if I find cheap copies.