MASTERS OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE

by Edwin & Joy Hoag ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 18, 1977

Edwin Hoag (American Houses, American Cities) knows much more about architectural history than most non-specialists writing for young people, but he has attempted to do what a specialist wouldn't: to write about buildings without pictures. Two small photo inserts contain the only illustrations (not cited in the text), and the reader is faced with detailed descriptions and analyses of the works of master-architects Wright, Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, and Walter Gropius which only those steeped in the subject can possibly know. And without a sequence of supporting, appropriately captioned illustrations, how is one to construe--apropos of Le Corbusier's 1925 Pavilion de L'Esprit Nouveau--""Gone was the traditional facade, with its two-dimensional arrangement of windows on a wall, and its inner space bottled up in cubicles."" The flamboyant, truculent Wright and the ""crotchety sorehead"" Corbusier tend to fall into the misunderstood-genius category, unconcerned with details like leaky roofs; about the meticulous Mies and team-leader Gropius, the Hoags are more discerning. But there is no lack of introductory surveys of the works of any of the four--comprehensible and illustrated.

Pub Date: Oct. 18, 1977

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Bobbs-Merrill

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1977

Categories: NONFICTION