Architecture 1979-1985

The Johnson/Burgee partnership has become almost synonymous with the stylish high-rise office building, yet this showcase album offers much diversity despite the fact that most of their projects since 1979 have been office towers. The glistening, diamond-shaped Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif., commissioned by TV evangelist Robert Schuller, lifts worshipers’ spirits. A curved, majestic facade of the Marshall Field department store in Houston catches motorists’ attention. Dade County Cultural Center has a brick-colored Mediterranean plaza consonant with Florida’s Spanish heritage. Superb production values, full-page color photographs and plans enhance this representative tour of the architects’ recent work. The duo’s historical touches are apt; a San Francisco office building synthesizes elements of Victorian town houses and Chicago School skycrapers into something uniquely appropriate to its congested space.
The past decade has seen the emergence of Philip Johnson/John Burgee as the pre-eminent imagemakers of corporate America. From AT&T’s Chippendale headquarters in New York to the Dutch-gabled Republic Bank Center in Houston, the firm has produced a wide range of stylistically varied, boldly ornamented buildings that have produced an equally wide range of reactions from the public and architectural critics alike. This volume focuses on 25 of the firm’s projects, each introduced by a short description and followed by spectacular color photographs. Knight’s introductory essay provides a fascinating overview of the firm’s activities over the past six years. Recommended for all architectural collections. H. Ward Jandl, National Park Svce., Washington,
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.