Architecture: 19th and 20th Centuries

Rating:
Summary: A dated survey of Modern Architecture
Review: Unfortunately, this book doesn't hold up very well over time. Hitchcock's study of Modern Architecture is spotty and not very well organized. The most interesting chapters are those on 19th century architecture, which Hitchcock seems most comfortable with. However, the later chapters leave much to be desired. His understanding of Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural system is very weak. It is little more than a walk through some of his more famous buildings. He has a better understanding of the European modernists, but here too he presents them in a superficial way that leaves more questions than it does provide answers.

Hitchcock and Philip Johnson have been credited for bringing the European Modern Movement to America with their exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in 1932. They dubbed it "The International Style," a name which has stuck but doesn't do justice to the many currents that ran through Modern Architecture at the time. Hitchcock tried to develop these ideas further in "Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries." He provides a wide array of sources, but very little that binds these ideas together. One can find much better overviews of Modern Architecture by Kenneth Frampton and William J.R. Curtis.

Rating:
Summary: A dated survey of Modern Architecture
Review: Unfortunately, this book doesn't hold up very well over time. Hitchcock's study of Modern Architecture is spotty and not very well organized. The most interesting chapters are those on 19th century architecture, which Hitchcock seems most comfortable with. However, the later chapters leave much to be desired. His understanding of Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural system is very weak. It is little more than a walk through some of his more famous buildings. He has a better understanding of the European modernists, but here too he presents them in a superficial way that leaves more questions than it does provide answers.

Hitchcock and Philip Johnson have been credited for bringing the European Modern Movement to America with their exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in 1932. They dubbed it "The International Style," a name which has stuck but doesn't do justice to the many currents that ran through Modern Architecture at the time. Hitchcock tried to develop these ideas further in "Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries." He provides a wide array of sources, but very little that binds these ideas together. One can find much better overviews of Modern Architecture by Kenneth Frampton and William J.R. Curtis.