The TWA Terminal (Building Block Series) - Hardcover

Stoller, Ezra

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1568981821 ISBN 13: 9781568981826

Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999

Synopsis

The Building Blocks series presents icons of modern architecture as interpreted by the most significant architectural photographers of our time. The first four volumes feature the work of Ezra Stoller, whose photography has defined the way postwar architecture has been viewed by architects, historians, and the public at large. The buildings inaugurating this series-Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal, Wallace Harrison's United Nations complex, Le Corbusier's Chapel at Ronchamp, and Paul Rudolph's Yale Art and Architecture Building-all have bold sculptural presences ideally suited to Stoller's unique vision. Each cloth-bound book in the series contains at least 80 pages of rich duotone images. Taken just after the completion of each project, these photographs provide a unique historical record of the buildings in use, documenting the people, fashions, and furnishings of the period. Through Stoller's photographs, we see these buildings the way the architects wanted us to know them. In the preface to each volume Stoller tells of his personal relationship with the architect of each project and recounts his experience photographing it. Brief introductions reveal the unique history of each building; also included are newly drawn plans.

About this title

Review

Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal is another of his inspired essays in sweepingly curved building forms, this time celebrating flight. Paradoxically, while the terminal's layout and equipment were technically advanced and carefully thought-out, its form was arbitrarily sculptural rather than structurally rational. The explosive growth of passenger traffic overloaded the capacity of a building whose form defied expansion. Today, the TWA Terminal can be seen as a monument to a simpler, more intimate, and more gracious era of commercial flight. The terminal is just one of the modernist icons that preeminent architectural photographer Ezra Stoller documented in a career that spanned more than half a century. Now retired, Stoller has been reassembling his work for permanent (rather than periodical) publication. The TWA Terminal is one of a series published by Princeton Architectural Press that presents individual buildings in depth in a small-size volume. The photographs are not only stunning, they have particular documentary value in that Stoller shot them when the buildings were new--in this case, 37 years ago.

The series has been designed for relative affordability, and its subjects are well chosen. Each volume includes a very brief preface by Stoller setting out his relationship to the building and a fairly short critical, historical, analytical essay. Buttressed by about a dozen endnotes, the essays occupy a middle ground between informal and scholarly writing. They are followed by 50 to 60 duotone photos and a few plan drawings. This is an expert look at an extraordinary building and well worth readers' serious attention. --John Pastier

About the Author

Ezra Stoller is one of the preeminent architectural photographers in the world and the founder of the renowned Esto architectural photography studio.

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1568981821
• ISBN 13: 9781568981826
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 96