Kurt Forster (1935–2024)

This book was something of a milestone for me: it was the first high-dollar book ($75, from what I recall) I bought after graduating from architecture school, getting a job, and moving into my own apartment in Chicago. That kind of purchase could have easily happened at Prairie Avenue Bookshop, but living in Lincoln Park it took place at a small neighborhood bookshop that may not exist anymore as well – for sure it was an impulse buy. I can't say I was a huge fan of Gehry then, though I show more did like his Vitra Design Museum when I visited a few years before and I was one of the many people who got excited by his Guggenheim Bilbao. The latter is on the cover of this massive book, and I'm guessing it's one reason such a thorough monograph was made, coming out one year after it's 1997 opening. Lots of architects have monographs, but few deserve "complete works." This one finds Gehry's buildings and projects presented in chronological order (by project starts), with important works given multiple pages and their opposite given as little as half a page; only a few are not documented with some sort of image. The front matter has long essays by Dal Co and Forster (building descriptions are by Hadley Arnold), while the back matter includes a "project register," a biography, and a bibliography. An inexcusable omission is an index – finding a particular project without knowledge of its dates is annoying and cross-referencing, say, Rouse buildings in Columbia, Maryland, is impossible without Post-it notes. Hence the four-star rating for this five-star book. (Review originally written in June 2017.) show less

This 32nd title in Axel Menges's Opus series echoes its format of an essay, drawings, and photographs. The first is by Kurt Forster, who puts Frank Gehry's iconic Guggenheim Museum Bilbao into a larger context, looking at it alongside other catalyzing museums, such as the Pompidou by Piano/Rogers. The drawings are limited to plans and sections, which are helpful but not as much as if 3D models were also included. Last are photographs by Ralph Richter, who manages to saturate the titanium and show more other surfaces with surprising splashes of color, as evident on the cover. A solid, if slim, case study on a building that has received book-length treatments many times over. show less

Technical library - shelved at: D75

Technical library - shelved at: D75