The Architecture of Gunnar Birkerts

Gunnar Birkerts has designed some of America's most innovative and distinctive architecture. A member of the Modern Movement's postwar generation, he has shown that modernism can accommodate lyrical, emotional, dynamic, and regional influences within its abstract construct. His design concepts, which grow from the individual character of site and client, defy stylistic categorization. Over his career he has won more than fifty major awards. 

The Architecture of Gunnar Birkerts not only presents the architect's work, but also explores the influences of his background, design methodology, and philosophy on his buildings. 

Over 400 drawings and photographs, 112 in color, show projects that represent Birkerts' highly individual solutions to design problems. Among these are buildings, including underground structures, whose interiors are defined by natural light and whose materials and structures are expressive, appropriate, and technically daring.

Accompanying descriptions reveal Birkerts' inspirations for built works that include the University Reformed Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan; the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis; the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York and the University of Iowa College of Law in Iowa City. Works in progress such as the Ohio State University Law School in Columbus and the Novoli Multi-Use Center in Florence, Italy, suggest his directions for the next decade.

Kay Kaiser's introduction traces the currents in Birkerts' work: his Latvian background, his postwar education in Stuttgart, where traditional and modern architectural approaches collided; his spiritual connection to Alvar Aalto and his years in the offices of Eero Saarinen and Minoru Yamasaki; the insights of psychology and myth and the emotional content they impart to his architecture.

In all, The Architecture of Gunnar Birkerts is an elegant, comprehensive, and illuminating work on an outstanding contemporary architect.