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Tall Building Artistically Reconsidered: The search for a skyscraper style
Ada Louise Huxtable offers here an energetic defense of cities and a brilliant consideration of the skyscraper as art, as business, as the product of politics and speculation.
- GenresArchitecture
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
35 people want to read
About the author
Ada Louise Huxtable
29 books27 followersAda Louise (Landman) Huxtable (b. March 14, 1921, in New York, NY) is an architecture critic and writer on architecture. In 1970 she was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for "distinguished criticism." Her father, Michael Landman, was co-author (with his brother, Rabbi Isaac Landman) of the play "A Man of Honor."
Ada Louise Landman received an A. B. (magna cum laude) from Hunter College, CUNY in 1941. In 1942, she married industrial designer L. Garth Huxtable, and continued graduate study at New York University from 1942-50. She served as Curatorial Assistant for Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York from 1946-50. She was a contributing editor to Progressive Architecture and Art in America from 1950-63 before being named the first architecture critic at The New York Times, a post she held from 1963-82. She has received grants from the Graham Foundation for a number of projects, including the book "Will They Ever Finish Bruckner Boulevard?".
She is currently the architecture critic for The Wall Street Journal.
John Costonis, writing of how public aesthetics is shaped, used her as a prime example of an influential media critic, remarking that "the continuing barrage fired from [her] Sunday column... had New York developers, politicians, and bureaucrats, ducking for years." He reproduces a cartoon in which construction workers, at the base of a building site with a foundation and a few girders lament that "Ada Louise Huxtable already doesn't like it!" (Costonis,1989)
Carter Wiseman writes, "Huxtable's insistence on intellectual rigor and high design standards made her the conscience of the national architectural community." (Wiseman, 2000)
She has written over ten books on architecture, including a 2004 biography of Frank Lloyd Wright for the Penguin Lives series.
Ada Louise Landman received an A. B. (magna cum laude) from Hunter College, CUNY in 1941. In 1942, she married industrial designer L. Garth Huxtable, and continued graduate study at New York University from 1942-50. She served as Curatorial Assistant for Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York from 1946-50. She was a contributing editor to Progressive Architecture and Art in America from 1950-63 before being named the first architecture critic at The New York Times, a post she held from 1963-82. She has received grants from the Graham Foundation for a number of projects, including the book "Will They Ever Finish Bruckner Boulevard?".
She is currently the architecture critic for The Wall Street Journal.
John Costonis, writing of how public aesthetics is shaped, used her as a prime example of an influential media critic, remarking that "the continuing barrage fired from [her] Sunday column... had New York developers, politicians, and bureaucrats, ducking for years." He reproduces a cartoon in which construction workers, at the base of a building site with a foundation and a few girders lament that "Ada Louise Huxtable already doesn't like it!" (Costonis,1989)
Carter Wiseman writes, "Huxtable's insistence on intellectual rigor and high design standards made her the conscience of the national architectural community." (Wiseman, 2000)
She has written over ten books on architecture, including a 2004 biography of Frank Lloyd Wright for the Penguin Lives series.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 8, 2021
crystal clear, forthright, piercing analysis. She saw through a lot of the bullshit surrounding her at that point…
January 28, 2024
Ada Louise Huxtable is a wonderful writer. It's worth reading this short book--a long essay, really--just for the pleasure of her words, and her clear, no-holds-barred evaluations of the building type that changed the face of modern cities.
The introduction and the first part of the main text are excellent. She discusses what she calls the First, Second, Third and Fourth Skyscraper Ages, and as well as evaluating how Modernism is changing.
Starting with the discussion of what she titles New Eclecticism, I found the book less interesting. She evaluates contemporary architects and their work in too much detail. However, when she moves back into an analysis of some redevelopment plans for portions of Manhattan, and the overall trends in skyscraper design and function, and produces once again are compelling reading. She has lots of strong opinions--most of which I agree with--and expresses them robust prose.
It should be noted that this book was published in the early 1980s, shortly after I left NYC. So, her comments mesh neatly with how I recall the city then.
There are apples b+w photos in the book, but they are badly referenced in the text, and their labels often aren't helpful either. I found myself more than once flipping through a couple of pages, and wondering if this was the building she's talking about....or maybe it's the one on the next page.
The introduction and the first part of the main text are excellent. She discusses what she calls the First, Second, Third and Fourth Skyscraper Ages, and as well as evaluating how Modernism is changing.
Starting with the discussion of what she titles New Eclecticism, I found the book less interesting. She evaluates contemporary architects and their work in too much detail. However, when she moves back into an analysis of some redevelopment plans for portions of Manhattan, and the overall trends in skyscraper design and function, and produces once again are compelling reading. She has lots of strong opinions--most of which I agree with--and expresses them robust prose.
It should be noted that this book was published in the early 1980s, shortly after I left NYC. So, her comments mesh neatly with how I recall the city then.
There are apples b+w photos in the book, but they are badly referenced in the text, and their labels often aren't helpful either. I found myself more than once flipping through a couple of pages, and wondering if this was the building she's talking about....or maybe it's the one on the next page.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews