BOOK – 01 REVIEW

TITLE – Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Transformation of

New York

AUTHOR- ROBERT MOSES

EDITED BY- Ballon, Hilary., Jackson, Kenneth T.

NO OF PAGES- 128

PUBLISHED BY- W. W. Norton & Company, 2007

BOOK REVIEW AUTHOR INFORMATION

NAME AND DEGREE- Associate Professor, School of Architecture, New Jersey Institute
of Technology ,US
DECLARATION OF CONFLICT INTEREST- He was Associate professor known for his pure
austere structures learning and thinking ability which have been described as timeless and poetic.

BOOK SETTING AND PERSPECTIVE

TYPE OF BOOK- This is the Book of a handsome volume of essays, photographs, and catalogue
entries edited by Columbia Professors Hilary Ballon and Kenneth Jackson and published in
conjunction with a three-part exhibition on Moses held in New York City in 2007.

AIM &PURPOSE- Robert Moses did more to shape the modern landscape of New York than
any other individual in the city’s history.

INTENDED AUDIENCE- Enhancing the individual entries are short essays that provide
historical context and overviews on such issues as policy, legislation, and financing.

APPRAISAL
AUTHOR BACKGROUND AND EXPERTISE- Moses was more destroyer than builder, a
Faustian character whose megalomania single-handedly transformed the South Bronx of
Berman’s childhood into a nightmarish landscape worthy of Piranesi.

BOOK FORMAT AND ORGANIZATION- The book opens with a portfolio of fifty-two color
photographs by Andrew Moore, shot in 2005 and 2006. Moore presents a series of beautiful and
evocative images. Depicting mainly the pools, recreation centers, parks, and apartment
buildings .

CONTENTS: -
COMPLETENESS- Moore focuses on the structures themselves, capturing the details of
expressionist brickwork, fluted concrete columns, and polished travertine, while minimizing the
degree to which they replaced the existing street grid with superblocks.

ACCURACY- the capability of materials with one another leads to the appearance of space .

CURRENT- Their goal is to provide a more nuanced portrait than black-and-white

characterizations of the good Moses and the bad Moses.

CHAPTER LAYOUT- It would have been extremely useful to have maps and tables for each
project type with specific locations and data. A map documenting executed Title I projects in
Manhattan is included.

WHAT IS UNIQUE?
Finally the book addresses the projects that contributed to the New York City the world knows
and understands, many of its attributes made possible by Moses’s singular ability to focus and
find a path where others saw only obstacles. It may be a dubious assertion, but with his myriad
responsibilities and the resources at his disposal it’s hard to imagine anyone else having the
authority, let alone the imagination. It also supports the idea that it takes real genius to push
through major construction initiatives in a functioning democracy.

OVERALL RECOMMENDATION OF BOOK-

For those interested in Moses and his career one wonderful aspect of the book is the catalogue of
projects by types: parks, parkways, bridges, pools, Title 1 housing and other projects, among
them the UN headquarters and Lincoln Center, both in Manhattan being two of the most
exemplary. Detailed descriptions and outlines of the circumstances of each project are provided,
as well as key project team members and consultants. Reading this portion of the book gives
more cause for admiration than disdain and certainly supports the idea that New York needed
someone like Moses to provide the framework for the city to function in the modern world.

ROSHAN KUMAR

1900510810063
 BOOK – 02 REVIEW
TITLE – The Architecture of Harry Weese

AUTHOR- ROBERT BRUGEMAN

CONTRIBUTOR- KATHLEEN MURPHY SKOLNIK

NO OF PAGES- 240

PUBLISHED BY- W. W. Norton & Company, 2007

BOOK REVIEW AUTHOR INFORMATION

NAME AND DEGREE- Associate Professor, School of Architecture, At coloumbia
university
DECLARATION OF CONFLICT INTEREST- Robert Bruegmann is an historian of
architecture, landscape and the built environment. He received his BA from Principia College in
1970 and his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1976. In 1977 he joined the faculty at
the University of Illinois at Chicago where he is currently University Distinguished Professor
Emeritus of Art History, Architecture and Urban Planning. He has also taught at the University
of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia College of the Arts, MIT and Columbia University.
BOOK SETTING AND PERSPECTIVE

TYPE OF BOOK- This is the Book is based on life on weese faced many personal problems and
health problems until his great levels of designing skills and finnaly he left him and unable to
work productively on his own form.

AIM &PURPOSE- Perhaps his real legacy is yet to be understood but in part it is represented
by the many excellent firms planted by his former staff and in many cases nurtured by Weese
himself. One is left with the impression of a warm and engaging man who enjoyed life
enormously and perhaps impacted the people around him and his clients more than his buildings
did.

INTENDED AUDIENCE- This book takes its place within a fast-growing revival of interest in
the work of Weese and a number of his friends and contemporaries with shared assumptions and
sensibilities, notably Eero Saarinen, Edward Larrabee Barnes, I. M. Pei, Ralph Rapson, and Paul
Rudolph.

APPRAISAL
AUTHOR BACKGROUND AND EXPERTISE- reconsideration of architecture in regards to
context, historic meaning, and buildings conveying language, old line formal modernism offering
a revolutionary way of life was for a short time lost. Fortunately times have again changed and
these architects and their work are being rediscovered.

BOOK FORMAT AND ORGANIZATION- The partial catalogue of the Weese firm’s work
included in the book with project descriptions by Kathleen Murphy Slolnik provides photos and
insight into several significant projects. One wishes it were more extensive and detailed and
suggests a more comprehensive monograph on Weese is still needed .

CONTENTS: -
COMPLETENESS- Weese’s buildings were, though, they were only one part of what almost all
his contemporaries recognized as his seemingly inexhaustible creativity. Because Weese
believed that design was essentially problem-solving, he was willing to apply his skills to
everything from a piece of furniture to an entire city.

ACCURACY- Weese produced a large number of significant designs ranging from small but
highly inventive houses to large urban scale commissions like the Washington, D.C., Metro
system.

CURRENT- The city on which he lavished the most attention was his own city, Chicago, where
he seemed to be everywhere at once, praising, criticizing, cheerleading, and pouring out ideas for
creating a humane and livable place for citizens of all walks of life.

CHAPTER LAYOUT first in setting up a successful modern design store with his wife Kitty
and later acting as a developer, often for projects that required vision the market wasn’t ready to
recognize. Weese further dedicated a life to working on ways to enhance and enliven life in his
beloved Chicago.

WHAT IS UNIQUE?
At the end of his life Weese faced personal and health problems that left him unable to work
productively in his firm. The book is candid in its discussion of this tremendously talented man
and both his successes and shortcomings. Perhaps his real legacy is yet to be understood but in
part it is represented by the many excellent firms planted by his former staff and in many cases
nurtured by Weese himself. One is left with the impression of a warm and engaging man who
enjoyed life enormously and perhaps impacted the people around him and his clients more than
his buildings did.

OVERALL RECOMMENDATION OF BOOK-

This book takes its place within a fast-growing revival of interest in the work of Weese and a number of his friends and
contemporaries with shared assumptions and sensibilities, notably Eero Saarinen, Edward Larrabee Barnes, I. M. Pei, Ralph
Rapson, and Paul Rudolph. As important as Weese’s buildings were, though, they were only one
part of what almost all his contemporaries recognized as his seemingly inexhaustible creativity.
Because Weese believed that design was essentially problem-solving, he was willing to apply his
skills to everything from a piece of furniture to an entire city. The city on which he lavished the
most attention was his own city, Chicago, where he seemed to be everywhere at once, praising,
criticizing, cheerleading, and pouring out ideas for creating a humane and livable place for
citizens of all walks of life.

ROSHAN KUMAR

1900510810063