CENTER 1: Architecture for the Emerging American City

DECEMBER 1984

As they say, Rome was not built in a day. The making of a city is a slow, lumbering, evolutionary process, as is the attempt to create an urbanism for a developing culture. This, the inaugural issue of Center, is intended to address a very few of the complex, elusive, and often frustrating environmental concerns concerning the American city. In addressing these issues, this journal attempts no profound answers and few decisive conclusions. Its intention is to explore the territory, not to conquer it.  

The first half of the book consists of a series of essays outlining histories, issues and concerns in an explicit way. The second half of the book is devoted to a more implicit treatment of the topic. It contains projects by a wide range of architects who are, in their own work, addressing a well-considered agenda of issues and concerns.

ISBN: 0-8478-5396-9

TABLE OF CONTENTS  

The Hut, The Temple and the Tower: Toward an American Urbanism, by Lawrence W. Speck
The Vernacular City, by J.B. Jackson
Visions of the Future Based on Lessons from the Past, by Denise Scott Brown
The Land, The City, The Human Spirit: Building the Emerging American Landscape, A Review, by Larry Paul Fuller
Symbols of the City

PROJECTS:

Mixed-Use Complexes
Plaza las Fuentes, Moore/Ruble/Yudell
G Street Mole Embarcadero, Rob Wellington Quigley
Austin Civic/Convention Center, Black Atkinson Vernooy

Urban Public Spaces
Paseo del Alamo, Ford, Powell & Carson
Pioneer Courthouse Square, Willard K. Martin
Fountain Place, I.M. Pei/Harry Weese; Dan Kiley, Landscape Architect

Multi-Family Housing
The Riverton, Arrow Associates
The Beach, Antoine Predock
The Tuscany, Lawrence Speck Associates

Single-Family Housing
West Fairacres Village, Daniel Solomon & John Goldman Associated Architects
Westbriar, Needham-McCaffrey Architects
Seaside, Andres Duany & Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk

Shopping Centers
A Proposed Retail District, Arquitectonica
Greenville/Martel Commerical Strip, Good, Haas & Fulton

Buildings in a Context
Herring Hall, Cesar Pelli
The Menil Collection, Renzo Piano

 

EDITOR

Lawrence Speck

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Susan R. Hoover

CONSULTING EDITOR

Larry Paul Fuller

CENTER 1: Architecture for the Emerging American City

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AWARDS & RECOGNITION

1985 American Association of Museums Award of Distinction