Did you know?

Who designed the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., setting the model for capitols throughout the United States?

ANSWER: Charles Bullfinch (1763-1884) of Massachusetts.

Unit 14

Eero Saarinen

(1910-1961) A Finnish-American architect who also was noted for his furniture design, particularly chairs. His concrete-domed structures were innovative and influential. His projects included The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1953-1956), Dulles International Airport (1958-1962), and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis (1959-1964), the last two were finished posthumously.

words in context: Eero Saarinen studied and worked with his father, architect Eliel (Gottlieb) Saarinen. Together, the two designed the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood, Massachusetts. The younger Saarinen also designed the swooping Trans World Airlines Terminal in New York City.

Frank Gehry

(1929- ) A Canadian architect, who has vaulted to the top of every list of major architects since the turn or the twenty-first century with his design of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. A titanium structure composed of sleek, curving, sensuous, and fanciful shapes; the Bilbao captures and reflects the light from every angle. Using unconventional materials, he breaks the mold of architecture as we have known it.

words in context: Frank Gehry has been called more a sculptor than an architect, though his astonishing structures are considered technically masterful. In addition to the Bilbao, his work includes the Gehry House in Santa Monica, California (1978), and the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (1997).

Robert Venturi

(1925- ) An architectural theorist, Venturi is a postmodernist (a leader in a style that emerged in then 1970s, characterized by references to and evocative of past styles, especially of the classical tradition). Venturi's work is often colorful and witty. In his books, Complexities and Contradictions in Modern Architecture (1966) and Learning from Las Vegas (1972), he advocates an unorthodox, eclectic, and humorous new vocabulary of architecture, illustrating the validity and high spirits of advertising, roadside signs, and strip malls.

words in context: A&P parking lots have vitality and are a part of American culture, says Robert Venturi, whose colorful high-rises in Florida attest to his appreciation of "the kitsch of high capitalism."

Robert A. M. Stern

(1939- ) Another postmodernist whose work favors architecture preceding the Bauhaus and International Style. His large, private homes with porches and many windows in East Hampton, New York, and other locations incorporate traditional styles along with light and open spaces.

words in context: Celebration, Florida, shows the handiwork of Robert A. M. Stern. This small community, created by the Walt Disney Company and coplanned by Stern, looks back to Main Street America — a tranquil, homey, pristine world that is an experiment in planned living.

After studying the architects above, use their names in the sentences below:

1. designed the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the Trans World Airlines terminal in New York City.

2. The work of harkens back to small-town America and planned communities. (His work could have been the model for the film, The Truman Show.)

3. wrote the book advocating that Americans look at their current architectural environment and find vital, vibrant, and amusing patterns in the kitsch around them.

4. The architect who is breaking the mold of architecture in the twenty-first century with his unconventional materials and sculptural forms is .

Test Yourself: Write the letter next to the number to match man and work.

1. Eero Saarinen a. look to him for a pristine, gated community

2. Robert Venturi b. architect of the astonishing Bilbao

3. Robert A.M. Stern c. his work reflects popular culture, wit, and color

4. Frank Gehry d. swooping arches and concrete domes