Stanley Saitowitz

by Michael Bell (editor)

This new monographs presents the work of San Francisco-based architect Stanley Saitowitz. Comprehensive in scope, it begins with his earliest work in South Africa (see also Saitowitz's A House in the Transvaal) and continues up to his recent projects, including the California Museum of Photography in Riverside, Mill Race Park in Columbus, Indiana (see Design With the Land), and the award-winning design for the New England Holocaust Memorial, to be built next to the Boston City Hall. Saitowitz's dynamic designs -- at once modern and organic -- have been the subject of numerous exhibitions, this is the first time Saitowitz's work has been gathered together in a single volume. As Lars Lerup wittily suggests in his postscript about the double initials of the architect, Saitowitz's work embodies "the legacy of nature -- the swirl, the slither, the curl, the twist, the surge, the eddy, the gyration. Out of the grass into Saitowitz's plans they come to stake their claim in the domain of artifice"

120 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1997

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great work and interesting analysis by both Bell and Lerup.

[Ruth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Heaven save us all from introductory essays that nearly kill the book. If the intro had been longer or had not made me lough out loud because it was so achingly pompous, I would have put this book back on the shelf. The images, though uncurated were interesting, and the string of unconnected blurbs by the architect himself (or possibly I should generously call them stream-of-consciousness meditations) were thoughtful and periodically quite telling about the current nature of the practice of architecture in megacities.

In short, if you are feeling the need for academic pomposity, then jump right into the intro by Michael Bell. If you'd rather look at site plans and "artistic" images of built work, skip two the second/third section of the book -- I would tell you a page number, but in another proof of useless idiocy, there are no page numbers. Possibly this is a move in a new anti-academic era because now another pompous academic commentator cannot site a specific point int he volume because they have no page numbers to reference?

[Anna]

My friend (ex-b from London) worked here the summer we met (blind date - last one!) in San Francisco.