Critical Edge, Controversy in Recent American Architecture

The Critical Edge identifies and presents case histories of the 12 most talked about buildings of our times. No other buildings of this era have so aroused the public, so divided the profession, and so stimulated the press as those that are discussed here. The authors have canvassed the widest possible range of literature and commentary on each building-from airline magazines to professional journals-to plot the vicissitudes of their subjects' critical fortunes and popular reputations. All of the important architectural concerns of the 1970s and 1980s are expressed in this book. Discussions of issues range from the initial conception of a building to advanced phases of its use and include questions about planning theory, financing and construction, use, misuse, and disuse, wherever these have been raised. Introductory essays are by Tod A. Marder, Chairman of the Department of Art History at Rutgers University, Robert Bruegmann, Professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and Martin Filler, architectural critic and editor of House and Garden. Marder discusses the relationship between architectural criticism and public opinion. Breugmann analyzes the nature of the controversies surrounding these buildings in light of controversies about earlier buildings, and Filler takes up architectural criticism in the context of the publishing industry by considering the relationships of writer, editors, publishers, advertisers, and readers to their various constituencies. The Critical Edge is copublished with The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum of Rutgers University.