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Richard Meier's Getty Center complex in Los Angeles, thirteen years in the making, is the subject of this autobiographical account of what has been frequently called "the architectural commission of the century." Meier has the perfect authorial voice, admirably straddling the personal and the professional with aplomb and understated flair. He opens with a straightforward account of his youthful interest in art and architecture, his basement studio in his parents' suburban new Jersey home, his education at Cornell, and his post-graduation European tour, where he unsuccessfully hounded Le Corbusier for an unpaid apprenticeship and failed to track down Alvar Aalto, another hero. His first "published" house was one commissioned by his parents; his first "freestanding work" was an $11,000 pre-fab Long Island home that was later sold to Anne Bancroft and Mel Brooks. "Now I often wonder how it is that my architecture came to acquire what for many people is its singular style: this image of a perennially gleaming white building flooded with light," he writes. The rest of the book, which is punctuated by black-and-white documentary photographs, is Meier's well-crafted, detailed account of the Getty commission, including subtle descriptions of the politics involved in all aspects of its design, siting, landscaping, and daily use. It's all here: the immensity of siting the multi-building complex in the mountains overlooking the Pacific, the hundreds of architects who came to work on the project, and the craftsmen and contractors and construction crews who made it a user-friendly reality as well as a stunning modernist masterwork. Meier calmly takes the reader through the maze of issues and construction phases. Few architecture books could be more educational, or more gracefully written. --Peggy Moorman
--Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
From Library Journal
Great buildings often have lives of their own, and it is fortunate when the architect responsible for their creation tells their story. The Getty Center?set to open this month?is a billion-dollar complex n a campus-like environment overlooking Los Angeles. Meier, Getty's prize-winning architect, tells of his struggles in creating a manageable design when faced with residents opposed to the center, the challenges posed by the seismically active area, and a surprisingly penny-pinching J. Paul Getty Trust. After a brief autobiographical sketch that includes summaries of his other major projects, including the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, Meier launches into his creation of the Getty Center. His restrained style subtly betrays the braggadocio seemingly required of all great architects. As a document of the construction of one of the great public structures of the late 20th century, this account is indispensable. Recommended for larger architecture collections. [For an account of the contents of the museum, see John Walsh and Deborah Gribbon's The J. Paul Getty Museum and Its Collections, reviewed on p. 102.?Ed.]?Martin R. Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, D.C.
-?Martin R. Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
-?Martin R. Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
