Margaret McCurry: Constructing Twenty-Five Short Stories - Softcover

McCurry, Margaret

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1580930468 ISBN 13: 9781580930468

Publisher: The Monacelli Press, 2000

Synopsis

American architect Margaret McCurry is known for her extraordinary series of private residences, all featuring a synthesis of modern classicism and the American vernacular. Order and symmetry, refinement and distillation, are characteristics not only of McCurry's design, but of her design process as well. This book, the first volume on her work, presents nineteen of her houses, along with selected other projects, and an absorbing personal narrative of her journey to become a principal in the Chicago architectural practice Tigerman McCurry.

In twenty-five "short stories," which are accompanied by beautiful color photography and carefully delineated plans and other drawings, McCurry tells the tales behind the design and construction of her projects. In her honest assessment of the outcome of each, McCurry convincingly expounds upon her own philosophy of architecture, one in which the art of architecture is paramount.

About this title

About the Author:

Margaret McCurry is a principal in the Chicago firm Tigerman McCurry with her husband, renowned architect and educator Stanley Tigerman. The firm's practice includes cultural, institutional, and residential designs. McCurry's work has been published widely in trade and consumer magazines, and she has taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

From Library Journal:

McCurry, a Chicago architect who served an apprenticeship with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, began her own practice in 1977 before forming a partnership with her husband, Stanley Tigerman, in 1982. The 25 short stories of the title refer to her built and unbuilt projects. This book is quiet, with architecture, photography, and text working together very well. McCurry tells the tales of each building, the goals of the owners, and her solutions regarding function, site, and aesthetics. She never boasts, even when her results seem so perfect. Instead, she gathers her thinking, her strategies, and her designs, writing of the buildings with clarity and precision. Whether they are building a home for a tycoon or donating services to building an inner-city juvenile-counseling center, these architects do outstanding work; they never shock, instead imposing order, grace, historical understanding, and reference points that become points of pride for clients. McCurry!s stories offer unusual doses of insight into and understanding of the architectural process. Recommended, especially for Midwestern collections."David Bryant, New Canaan Lib., CT
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: The Monacelli Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1580930468
• ISBN 13: 9781580930468
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192